Carousel Park — Attraction in Elmer

My 4 year old has been taking lessons for the last 6 or so weeks. The lessons are fine, her current trainer is excellent. But the communication and paperwork part of it has been beyond painful. When I first wanted to sign her up, it took 3 voicemails with no return calls; 2 emails; and finally an in person visit to get it done. Then it took 2 visits and emails to confirm the days and times of lessons. Then we had 3-4 (honestly - I lost count) different trainers (each that promised to communicate with the next, but never did so we started over again each time). The one we have now is the one we have had for several lessons and is the best. One lesson was shortened due to an injured trainer and I received an email that a makeup class would be held. I put it on my calendar. Then last week the trainer had a family emergency. I was emailed that a makeup lesson would be scheduled. Then today, the main office told me that there are no makeup lessons on record. The excuse for the poor record keeping, missing information, inability to communicate: "The person who was in charge did a terrible job and is no longer here." If this was a FREE program - fine. But I am paying money, taking time out of my workday, and entrusting my child's safety to these people that have excuse after excuse (if and when they bother to respond!) and fingers pointing in every direction but their own, for their dysfunction and...

Hubby and I are always looking for new places to hike and explore with our golden retriever Riley so when I saw a friend post photos on Facebook of this park we decided on an impromptu road trip. The park is huge, over 200 acres to explore with something for everyone. There are stables where they do pony rides and other activities along with other animals to see like peacocks, goats and llamas and entrance is free. The area where the stables are is set up like an old wild west town with building fronts like a Saloon, School House, General Store, etc. and lots of different trails that kids and adults will both love, especially the trail that leads to the turtle pond and little waterfall. These stables house the New Castle County Mounted Patrol and you can see and interact with all the horses, my favorites were the clydesdales. On the other side of the center is the Dog Park where they have a huge open field and pond for dogs to play and swim off leash. We met so many nice people when we were there last Saturday afternoon and all the dogs were well mannered and even though this area is not fenced in it is a good bit off from the road area so as long as your dog isn't an escape artist you should be good. Looking forward to going back and also checking out some other parks...

I grew up in the neighborhood that attaches to the park and have always loved it. Today I returned after not being home for years and decided to kill some time fishing at the pond. I had a good time, caught some very small largemouths. Only big complaint was that the geese were out of control. The pond was almost completely filled at one point. When they took off the whole thing was riddled with feathers and every bit of shoreline covered with their droppings (you could smell it all just standing there) further more, there were at least 3 different occasions where people came down with bread to feed them, one couple fees them a whole load NEXT TO THE PLEASE DONT FEED THE ANIMALS SIGN! They are like seagulls at the beach hanging around for the handouts.

Anyways, they should put some stuff in place to reduce the goose traffic and it would be a cleaner and less loud pond.

Like I said, the park is a great place and lots of walking places and dog areas. I still enjoyed my...