21. Columbia Park, Vancouver

Columbia Park!  There are not many decent-sized parks in Vancouver that I haven't visited on one geocaching mission or another, but this is one that had never even made it onto my radar - until this afternoon.  Once again, we came for the cache and stayed for the playground.  "Cruisin' in Columbia Park" was well-hidden in a stand of two or three small trees - shall we say that a little climbing was required?  Once we had the cache under our belts, we were ready to hit the playground and I do think that this is Charlotte's favourite playground so far!  She was off - no need to hold mum's hand anymore.  She climbed some steps, climbed down to a lower platform, climbed up again, made her way through the tunnel, down to another platform and finally across the arched bridge.  The she made her way back down to the ground and ran off to repeat.  And repeat, and repeat, and repeat.  One of the climbs was a little tricky for her, but she put some effort into it and made it up by herself.  I resisted the urge to congratulate her on her accomplishment, but just watched her smile to herself and say "Did it!" to no one in particular.  It was so nice to see her taking pleasure from her own accomplishment, doing it for herself and not for me or anyone else.  Of course, I felt like a negligent parent amongst all the others who were within arm's reach at all times, telling their kids where to go and how to play and, quite literally, chiding them for running too fast.  In a playground.  Seriously.

The park even had a type of swing that I had never seen before; it was a step up towards a big girl swing, being a regular bucket swing but without the front part to hold 'em in.  Charlotte had fun in it, but she did hang on extra tight as I pushed her into the air!  And I didn't swing her anywhere near as high as I normally would have - I don't think she was ready for that, but more to the point, neither was I!

I don't know that this park would necessarily strike anyone else as being that much more amazing than any other.  It looks like any other playground, after all.  But for Charlotte, it was a perfect fit at this stage - just challenging enough without being too much for her.  The park is located at N 49.13.934 W 123.06.772: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI