Our idea of exploring nature was pulling beetles out of holes in utility poles and playing with them. There just wasn’t a lot of green space on the streets of Cranston, Rhode Island, where I started my life in a triple-decker. My brothers and I found nature in the nooks and crannies, and we had fun doing it.

On a recent visit to Salem Willows Park in Salem, Massachusetts, I had a little déjà vu in that regard. There is green space there, and the park is undergoing a restoration that will include installing native coastal plants and more shade trees. However, this is an urban park.

It’s also a park that has food galore, takeout I could eat while prowling the grounds in search of flora and fauna. On both counts, the Willows did not disappoint.

I started with a chop suey sandwich from Salem Lowe Chinese take-out, which has been a fixture in the park for many decades, and I scoped out the mini-golf course. I found tuliptrees sprouting from under a brick wall and a boulder. When was the last time you saw a tuliptree? So named because the leaves and flowers are tulip shaped, it is native to Massachusetts. In fact, there’s a massive specimen in Waltham that dates back to 1900 and is on the state’s Legacy Tree listing.

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The golf course is also home to many species of lichen, which in various shades of light-green and grey fan out across the hardscape. Lichens might seem like just some weird crust on a rock, but they’re complex organisms formed by symbiotic relationships between fungi and algae. Each species has a unique texture and color, and because they absorb pollutants, lichens can be analyzed by scientists to determine air quality.

More:PHOTOS: Eating your way through Salem Willows

Next, I hit Cappy's and grabbed a fried dough smothered in powered sugar, the perfect accompaniment to birding on and around the main green across from the restaurants. In a little patch of dirt, I watched a couple sparrows taking a dust bath to remove excess oil and parasites from their feathers. It seemed to me they were taking turns miming, “Hey, stop kicking dirt in my eyes.”

Robins searched the grass for worms, beetles, and other bugs, and then there were the herring gulls, the gulls you find at every park hanging around near the picnic tables. When they weren’t doing that, the gulls were jousting for perches atop the utility poles.

Sporting powdered sugar on the front of my T-shirt, I moved on to E.W. Hobbs popcorn and a tour of the park's wildflowers. I have a soft spot for these hardy little plants we usually refer to as weeds. Seizing a foothold wherever they can, like in cracks in the pavement, between bricks in planned flower beds and along informal trails, they add lovely splashes of color.

Dandelions, which somehow over the last century became public enemy number one in our gardens, sprout up between the exposed roots of a tree, adding bright yellow to a brown-gray palette. The pinkish-purple blossoms of red clover stand out against the green grass, and patches of white clover create a soft mat to walk on.

If I wasn't completely stuffed at this point, I would have grabbed Peppy's pizza to take down to the beach. It's just as well that I didn't, because after I poked the wrack at the high tide line looking for boat shells and little crustaceans, I climbed over the rocks to see what was happening in the tidepools. I would've ended up wearing the pizza sauce, too.

Now, let's talk about the mega-fauna. Of course, squirrels and raccoons frequent Salem Willows Park, but you know what else lives there? A fantastical sea serpent, giant roosters, a camel, flying horses and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. They're all in summer residence at the merry-go-round, which dates to 1900.

For obvious reasons, you shouldn't take food on any of the rides, including the merry-go-round, but afterwards hop over to Holy Cow for ice cream.

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By the way, did you know the National Carousel Association works to restore antique merry-go-rounds and keep all the carousels in the country in operation? Could the Salem Willows merry-go-round get on their radar? The animals that have made young and old smile over the last century deserve a little TLC. 

—Wendall Waters' favorite amusement park rides are the merry-go-round and the dodgems, which much to her chagrin are now called bumper cars.