11. Tait Neighbourhood School Park

We paid another visit to a Richmond park after daycare today - it's nice for Charlotte to get some fresh air after being inside all day.  As we got closer to the park, I began to realize that the playground is geared towards bigger kids - in fact, there was a sign that indicated that it was for kids aged 5-12!  The swings were all for big kids and so I wasn't sure that we would find anything Charlotte-friendly.  But we did!

She needed a little help to climb the steep steps up to the top of the slide, but I was right behind her.  A double slide!  Charlotte had me sit on the right side while she took the left - every single time.  We held hands, wiggled forward, and whee!  My white skirt was good for nothing but the laundry afterwards, but we both had a ton of fun going down the slide together.  We did it over and over again until we were both cold and ready for home.  Charlotte found a nice stick to take home for Theo and this playground is now on our list of ones to return to when she's older - or the next time we want to experience the fun of the awesome double slide!

Given that this is an elementary school, there are no geocaches nearby.  The park is located at N 49 11.781 W123.06.729:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI

10. Queen of Oak Bay, Nanaimo

Well, it must be said that the playground on board the Queen of Oak Bay has the exact same equipment in it as the playground on the Queen of Cowichan.  The same yellow and blue slide, the same red ferry and the same blue car...  But it's much bigger than the playground on board the Cow, so it's a much nicer place to hang out.  There were lots of kids in the Kids' Zone on our way home from Nanaimo, including a little girl named Charlotte who was just two weeks younger than our Charlotte.  They're everywhere!  Char-Char, as she is called by her family, was into our Charlotte's magna-doodle and our Charlotte was into Char-Char's Olivia book.  It was a win-win.  Once again, I'll just use the coordinates of the terminal from which we departed to mark this playground on the map - Departure Bay is located at N 49.11.589 W 123.57.301:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI

9. The Village Green, Tofino

What a great time we had at the playground in Tofino!  This park has something for kids of all ages and it's sure to keep Charlotte coming back on each of our annual trips to Tofino for years to come.  It has swings for big kids and small, climbing structures that range from simple to three "storeys" high for the big kids, spinners, monkey bars and an even a zipline!  There are lots of benches and picnic tables too, so it's a nice place to spend some time.  There is even a skateboard park and for some reason, dozens of shoes hang from the wires by their shoelaces, tossed up there by who-knows-who and who-knows-how.

Apparently there is a farmer's market there on Saturdays - unfortunately that was the day we were leaving Tofino, so we didn't get to check it out.  But of course, we did check out the geocache in the park, "Bring the Kids".  I had found this cache three years ago when I had no kids to bring - this time Charlotte was along to make the find for herself!  This just may be my favourite park so far because it has so much to do.  The park is located at N 49.09.152 W 125.54.331: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI

8. Queen of Cowichan, Horseshoe Bay

Today's playground is a little different from all the others we've visited so far this year!  It's indoors, it floats, its coordinates are constantly changing and there are no geocaches nearby to get before or after playing.  Today we were aboard the Queen of Cowichan, setting sail for Nanaimo, on our way to our annual week's vacation in Tofino.  The "Kids Zone" has a slide and a couple of fun things to "drive" and it's a great way to keep the kids entertained on the hour-and-a-half crossing.  There are usually a few other kids there too.

I didn't realize it at the time, but it was exactly a year to the day since the last time we took the ferry over to Nanaimo.  Charlotte favoured the red ferry today, but preferred the blue car last year - her tastes have changed and her hair has grown in the space of a year!

I still want to put the location on the map, so I've chosen the coordinates from which we sailed this morning, Horseshoe Bay.  These are N 49.22.587 W 123.16.295: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI

7. Nacht Park, Coquitlam

What a lovely little neighbourhood park we discovered today in Coquitlam!  I was envious of the people in the house next door - how amazing it would be have this little playground in your back yard.  It had a little slide that Charlotte was brave enough to try - but only once as she landed with a bit more of a bump than she would have liked - and a big slide, which she also tried to climb, but which is definitely going to have to wait until she's a bit older.  The house next door had bird feeders up and we were serenaded by chickadees the entire time we were there.  No one else was in the park, so Theo was free to roam and he enjoyed himself as much as we did.

The only disappointment was that we missed out on a geocache just a couple of hundred metres away!  I just didn't realize that there was a cache there to look for.  There is also another cache even closer to the playground that I had found before - but that was almost three years ago and I doubted I would be able to find it again without the coordinates.  So we will have to be back for "Skylanders Rock" for both of us and the letter "Y" in the "Tongue Twister" series for Charlotte.  The 26 caches in this series are all located near playgrounds, so we should definitely check those out!

We had some bad luck as we were leaving - we were waiting to get onto the Mary Hill Bypass when we were struck from behind by another car.  Fortunately the impact was minimal and none of us were hurt at all, but it doesn't take much to mangle a bumper and so we got a pretty big dent out of it.  At least we're all okay and ready to play another day!  The playground is located at N 49.14.876 W 122.47.168:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI

6. Larry Berg Flight Path Park, Richmond

Larry Berg Flight Path Park has undergone a major overhaul in the last few months.  It's not a playground in the usual sense of the word, but we're counting it as one anyway because the brand new globe that rises up in the centre of the park is, according to YVR's blog, meant to be climbed on!

I had promised Charlotte a ride on the swings today, but when we got to our original destination, Grauer Park, it turned out not to have any swings for little kids, so we continued on.  Perhaps that's why Charlotte was so upset when we got to this park - she had been promised swings and they were not part of the deal.  She cried the whole time we were there, which wasn't long given the circumstances.  Though of course we made time to do a little geocaching...

I had found a geocache in the park a long time ago, but it was obviously gone as it used to be in the area that had been completely renovated.  I was happy to realize that there was a new cache to be found - and find it we did.  It was called "On Top of the World!" - and was indeed at a pretty high altitude for Richmond!

It was too bad that Charlotte was so distraught while we were there - even the sight of the planes flying so close overhead as they came in for their landings wasn't enough to cheer her up.  Looks like we will have to save this one for another day - she might appreciate the map a little more when she's a bit older!

The park can be found at N 49.11.054  W 123.08.925:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&authuser=0&hl=en