Sunday in the Great Park

Sunday after lunch with my parents, I decided to check out the Orange County Great Park. At one time the entire space was an Air Force Base, and after much hassle, the county decided to use the space for a park.

My visit didn't begin well. The main entrance was blocked by police who instructed me to turn around and head almost a mile to another entrance. It wasn't too difficult to find, but once inside the confines of the park, I couldn't locate a sign to tell me which road to take. The only thing I could do was head in the direction of the big orange balloon and pray for the best. I passed many fenced off places with either construction equipment resting idly or derelict hangars and military housing but no people or anything resembling park space. After slowly following the curving road, I stopped at one of the few directional signs I did see and turned left into the parking lot for the big orange balloon.

The parking lot was practically empty. Spaces for perhaps 50 cars but only ten or so evenly spaced on what was probably once a landing strip -- I took one of the many free ones near all the activities. And by "activities", I mean a tiny park area with a set of fake rocks for kids to crawl on and through, a sad little merry-go-round spinning silently near the parked cars, a small visitors center and a large round mound with the orange balloon at its center. I walked around, snapping a few pictures here and there -- mostly of the balloon because there was almost nothing else around. And I don't need any pictures of empty picnic tables. Walking up to the fences surrounding the small picnicking area, the former based stretched a long way into the distance with Saddleback framing the empty hangars in the distance. All that space, and the Great Park only used about 1/8th of it.

Such a shame, but I'm sure, given more time, the Great Park will live up to its name. But Sunday, I drove away a little disappointed.