Welcome to our blog!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Redmond Rock Garden {Redmond Attraction}

This Redmond attraction gets it's own post not necessarily because it was fabulous, but because there were hardly ANY reviews online let alone ones that I felt really were honest. There was one that I found a few pictures on and I was grateful for those as we probably wouldn't have gone with just the name 'Rock Garden'. (So I'll be posting this post to one of the sites that recommends this Redmond Attraction for families).

I have to start with some positives. The kids loved it. They (and I) were really impressed with all the rock structures, building and bridges. They loved the animals and the space to run around and play (although the sign said no running except in the picnic area).



Ultimately though, as awesome as the structures were, I was dissapointed with the rest of the park. Partly this could be because it's the slow season and winter, but honestly by the looks of things...other than what nature does to fix things up, I doubt it's much different in the summer. It was trashy. There were buildings on the property falling apart. There was trash, broken stuff laying around and the picnic tables were covered in bird poop. That one I don't completely blame them for as they do keep peacocks around and being winter they probably couldn't just bust out the hose and spray them off. The bathrooms, however clean, didn't work well. One toilet didn't flush and the sink had no water running to it. Jayden had already put soap on his hands and so we had to go in search of water.



There is a museum on the property but we didn't even go in. I stopped at the door to ask where the bathroom was...and just by the state of it I didn't have any desire to go back and check it out.





Overall I was sad to see it this way. I wouldn't recommend NOT going as the 'ROCK' part of it was really cool, I just am sad that the care takers don't have more pride to clean it up a bit. That doesn't cost money, just pride and a little bit of work. I'm sure they work hard to run it to the degree they do, but I wasn't super pleased.

Lastly everything online said that there was no cost, just recommended donations. I was willing to pay that, but didn't think it would be a drop box requiring cash. I only had a credit card. And their sign did NOT say donations. It made it sound like those were the costs and you better be honest and pay it. So of course making me feel guilty I didn't have cash. So if you plan on donating money to the garden make sure you have cash! The sign was the one thing around that didn't seem like it was falling apart.



 



 

 





 

No comments: