It’s that time of year again – time
to head down to Seattle for the annual Groundspeak block party! I
took Friday off work so that we could take our time getting down
there and we stopped about half-way in Mt. Vernon so that Charlotte
could stretch her legs and have a play. There was a cache in the trees just a few metres away
called “Fish On!”; we looked for it, but couldn’t immediately
find it, so we moved on to the playground. Charlotte was anxious to get
climbing and besides, there was a bit of a dodgy guy hanging out nearby. We eventually spoke to him a little; he just got in from Alaska a week prior and it sounded a lot like he didn't have anywhere else to go.
Charlotte was on her own at the playground at first, but then another family showed up. Charlote ran to say hi to the kids, but they were steadfast in their refusal to have anything whatsoever to do with her. Eventually another family arrived and clearly they had agreed to meet there. The kids played together, but still no one even made eye contact with Charlotte, despite her efforts to talk to them. The parents all looked through her like she didn't exist. The whole situation became more and more bizarre as I noticed that there was no noise whatsoever coming from the playground - the kids all played in absolute silence. It was completely surreal and made me want to say something to the parents who had so instilled the "stranger danger" attitude in their kids that they couldn't even play with a two-year-old at the park. But what could I possibly have said to make any difference? Time to continue on to Seattle - and as we got back into the car, we waved to our new friend from Alaska - the dodgy guy who turned out to be the friendliest guy at the park. The playground is located at N 48.25.232
W 122.20.518 and is point no. 66 on the map at the bottom of home page.
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