Awhile back a dear friend of mine and I signed our girls up for a preschool dance class at Optimist Park through the City of Raleigh. It ended up being the perfect Monday morning activity, which led into extended play time and lunch at the playground. It was the first activity (other than regular preschool) where the girls were on their own, so it was fun to have a buddy to learn some new skills with (we still talk about plies over here)!
Optimist Park is located in North Raleigh in a subdivision off Six Forks Rd at 5900 Whittier Dr. It’s an older park with a community center, playground, seasonal and year-round pools, tennis courts, baseball fields, and greenway access for Mine Creek Trail, Snelling Branch Trail and Shelley Lake.
Dance class was held in the community center in a room that did not have easy access for parents to view their kids “dancing”. So, to sneak peeks we’d have to poke our heads in and try not to disturb their learning. Once dance class ended we headed over to the playground for some more play time and a picnic.
Again, Optimist is an older park so the playground has a more classic look with brown and orange painted metal. The playground area is covered in a sandy surface and has a large jungle gym for the 5-12 age group that our 3 year olds and even 15 month old enjoyed. There are several slides, a tunnel, and a few climbing ladders. In the same area are
the springy cars and 4-person teeter totter. The playground sits adjacent to a creek that has a short fence, which no one really explored even the 15 month old, but do take caution. Benches are scattered throughout and the picnic tables and swing set are nearby. This area is pretty shady, even with the few leaves on the trees. If you follow the paved trail, you’ll come to eight lighted tennis courts that are adjacent to the student parking lot at Sanderson High.
While Optimist Park might not be a destination spot, it sure made for a great post-dance class play time and picnic spot!
Years ago Ashley and I ran the Snelling Branch Trail from Optimist Park and I never posted about it! To get to the greenway access, you’ll want to start in the smaller parking lot off Northclift Dr that is behind the Sanderson High baseball field. Follow the signs and run behind the baseball field and you’ll come to North Hills Dr, which you’ll cross over. Continue a little further and you’ll come to the Shelley Lake Trail where you can turn left to go south and see Shelley Lake very quickly or turn right to go north and discover the Mine Creek Trails or northern end of Shelley Lake loop. We turned right and then made another right onto Mine Creek Trail where we crossed over North Hills Dr again, went under a tunnel for Lynn Rd, and eventually turned around near the intersection of Longstreet and Bent Creek Dr. There’s a flowing creek along the way and we even passed a random playground. According to the City of Raleigh website there’s a current project to extend East Fork Mine Creek Trail to Honeycutt Park. That’ll be a good reason to get back here soon for more current pictures!
Thumbs up: quiet/not crowded, great picnic spots, fun beginner dance class, convenience of having park features close in proximity, greenway access
Thumbs down: older facilities, lack of true dance studio for watching kiddos
Photos from the Greenway exploration in Feb 2012:
This past winter has been one of the longest I’ve seen since moving to Raleigh over 11 years ago so when the temps hovered above 45 degrees in January we headed to North Cary Park with a friend and her girls for a short run and playground time. North Cary Park is located at 1100 Norwell Blvd in Cary off of Cary Pkwy. It’s a very large park situated along the northern end of 
Ashley’s favorite play structure at this park was the play chicken coop designed for ages under 2. She loved throwing mulch down the egg shoot for her friend to catch at the bottom. This play area is covered and great for early walkers as kids can access it by a small ramp or short steps.
When we reached the end of Abbotts Creek Trail we turned left north onto the Neuse River Trail for a bit before turning around. While on the Upper Neuse River Trail we passed the 2 3/4 mile mark and were impressed with the information guides about the floodplains and benches along the way. Our out and back run was a total of 3.2 miles and I look forward to getting back up here again to explore the southern half of Abbotts Creek Trail, which I think leads to the 
When I decided to run the City of Oaks 10k this past November, I used my toddler-free Tuesdays and Thursdays (thanks to preschool) to do my longer runs at Lake Lynn Trail. During these times I only had Claire with me, which meant I could run longer with the single BOB stroller. Pushing a double BOB stroller is exhausting!
We are always on the lookout for something fun and different to do outside the house especially in the early evenings after nap time. When we attended the Neuse River trail expansion grand opening some folks from the Walnut Creek Wetland Center were there explaining their programs. I remember them saying their center was open late each weekday, so we finally found some time with our good friends to get out and explore the center.
The playground at Baileywick Park was closed this past winter so we finally made a visit in late May. Baileywick Park is located in Northwest Raleigh at 
After devouring some delicious pizza from my favorite local food truck, 
About a month ago we attended the 
