47. Steveston Community Centre, Richmond

This afternoon, nana and Charlotte came out to Steveston; I met them there and we had a delicious (really, really delicious!) dinner at the Crab King before walking over to the playground outside the community centre.  I had no idea what an amazing playground we were in for!  So many playgrounds are so similar to each other, mixing and matching components, that it was a nice surprise to find something quite different.  It had a few pieces of the usual stuff, but the wooden boat was completely unique.  Even the steering wheel was a real marine steering wheel, complete with rust!

The playground was huge too, and teeming with kids.  Charlotte had a great time climbing up onto the boat and taking the helter skelter back down again.  That is until another boy, probably a couple of years older than her, took a shine to her and began following her around everywhere she went.  At first, it was cute - he was down the slide right behind her, then following her up the steps again, always right on top of her.  When she climbed the hill for what turned out to be the last time and found him still on top of her, she got really upset and started coming back down the steps again.  He was so close to her that he was stepping on her as she went down the steps on her bum and I had to step in to get him to back off.  She started crying in frustration and I told him that we were going to play by ourselves for a little while.  Luckily we were able to ditch him and go off to play by ourselves for a bit before we headed back to the car.  I had a little chat with her in the car on the way home about how it's okay to tell someone to back off if they're too close.  Really?  Am I really having this conversation with her when she's only two-years-old?  And why aren't this boys parents having a word with him about backing off when someone doesn't want all your attention?  This was another case of me getting the creeps about a situation that is wrong now and would be even more so fast-forward a few years.  Still, the park itself was amazing - definitely one to keep in mind for future visits!  We picked up the geocache when we first arrived, "End of the Line".  The playground is located at N 49.07.548 W 123.10.786:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1