14. DeLair Park, Abbotsford

The first day of Daylight Savings was also the first spring-like day of the year.  How could we not go out and have an adventure?!?  We headed east to Abbotsford to collect a few caches for our "122 Degrees Challenge"; I completed the requirements today and Blackford Girl got a few caches under her belt too!  And when we were finished caching, we went in search of a playground...  We were heading to a different park originally, knowing it held a geocache, but not knowing if it actually had playground equipment.  As we drove, we came across DeLair Park, spotted the playground and decided to stop.



Of course the swings were up first!  But Charlotte really had fun on the slides here - and Owlie did too.  His trips down the slide outnumbered Charlotte's by a considerable margin, but she seemed to like it that way.  She enjoyed making her way across the bouncy bridge too.  There were quite a few kids in the park, which made a nice change from what we're used to - sometimes I feel like we're the only people who use these playgrounds!  Some big kids were climbing trees and climbing the rock wall - it looked pretty challenging to me!

But we had a little misadventure too.  I took Charlotte back to the car for a diaper change and as I got back, I noticed a guy a short way off with his camera lens pointed right at us.  I thought it was very strange, but thought he was taking a picture of the whole park.  I had my hands quite full with Charlotte, but when I next glanced up, he had moved towards the front of the car and once again, his camera lens was trained right on us.  By now, I was feeling pretty uncomfortable and I hurried to get Charlotte dressed.  Every time I glanced up, the camera lens was directly upon me.  It was completely disconcerting.  Once Charlotte was dressed, I confronted the photographer and asked him what he was doing.  He said he was taking pictures of my dog for a photography project.  I asked him if he had any idea how creepy it was for him to be taking my picture while I was changing my daughter and he apologized - though in a way that seemed to suggest that he didn't quite get it.  I told him he should ask permission next time and I didn't appreciate what he was doing.  I wish I had asked to see his pictures; I can't imagine that he had anything of great quality from the distance he was at - and Theo may be very photogenic, but he was doing nothing more than hanging out by my side, waiting to be allowed back into the car once I was finished changing Charlotte.  The only good thing was that I knew he hadn't been able to photograph Charlotte while I was changing her - he would have had the police on him if he had.  Even as it was, I broke my promise to Charlotte to take her back to the swings after her diaper change - I was just too creeped out to continue.


Apart from that, the park was quite nice, though there was a steady hum of traffic noise at all times as Highway 1 is not too far away.  There is a geocache hidden right at the park; we must have been within several metres of it, but we didn't have it in the GPS!  "Hey Boo Boo" it's called - in deference to the many pic-a-nic tables from which a hungry bear might be tempted to steal a pic-a-nic basket.  We will be sure to go look for it next time!  The covered shelter that is right next to the playground can be reserved by calling 604 859 3134.  The park is located at N49.02.276 W 122.14.213:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI