119. Arborlynn Park, North Vancouver

This playground has been on our list for a long time - it has a geocache in it that starts with "A.  Now that we have almost completed the 122 Degree Challenge, we are looking for a new challenge to work on and right now, that's "The A Challenge".  Grandad just got back from Boston, so Charlotte went all tough in her "Boston Strong" t-shirt and played on her own while I grabbed the cache.  A family of four rode up on their bikes and Charlotte tried to play with the kids, but none of them (including the adults) seemed to know how to respond to "Do you want to play with me?" and they all just seemed uncomfortable.  I'm proud of my girl for being as outgoing as she is and I hope she never stops trying to get the other kids to play with her.  The playground is located at N49.19.259 W 123.02.035 and is point no. 119 on the map at the bottom of home page.

118. F.W. Howay Elementary School, New Westminster

One hot day, we were out and about after a swim at the relatively nearby Canada Games Pool when we happened by this elementary school playground.  It was a bit big for Charlotte, but she had a good time practicing her balancing.  Some big kids came along and they were busy playing "Hot Lava" and they didn't much care about Charlotte.  But they also didn't mind when she played with their soccer ball for a bit until they were ready to dash away on their next adventure.  It was quite nice to see them playing, making up their game and solving their own problems without an adult in sight!  Gives me hope after all...  We will have to come back soon as there is a geocache nearby that we haven't found yet - "In Loving Memory" - one of our closest unfound caches at the moment.  The playground is located at N 49.13.540 W 122.54.629 and is point no. 118 on the map at the bottom of home page.

117. Mt. Lehman Elementary School, Abbotsford

Continuing on with our hunt for caches that would help us qualify for the 122 Degree Challenge, we came across this elementary school playground where we stopped for a picnic lunch.  The small playground was just right for Charlotte and we also had a game of hopscotch!  Some other kids came by to play too and we chatted with them for a while.  The playground is located at N 49.07.074 W 122.23.007 and is point no. 117 on the map at the bottom of home page.

116. Bradner Community Park, Abbotsford

Somehow I have the impression that this playground is haunted!  We came across it while working on our 122 Degree Challenge.  It has clearly seen better days - the wooden structure is in some disrepair and grass and weeds are starting to take over at the base.  It was actually quite shocking since we are so used to sanitized playgrounds in tip-top condition.  We played here for a while, chased each other around the grassy field and found the two nearby geocaches, "Geo-Poker Run 2013 Cache 33" and "Geo-Poker Run 2013 Cache 34", before I finally convinced Charlotte that we could probably find a nicer playground somewhere else.  The playground is located at N49.05.832 W 122.25.608 and is point no. 116 on the map at the bottom of home page.

115. Train Station Playground, Stanley Park, Vancouver

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Charlotte's third birthday!  It was Pete's day off and I took the afternoon off too so that we could take Charlotte to the aquarium.  After we left, we stopped by the playground to play for just a little while before we were off for a birthday dinner at White Spot.  This is a nice little playground, so we'll have to come back after another aquarium visit and check it out further!  The playground is located at N 49.18.109 W 123.07.953 point no. 115 on the map at the bottom of home page.

114. Maple Grove Park

The days are getting longer and warmer and after-daycare playground season is about to get underway!  This time we went to Maple Grove Park and Charlotte especially liked crawling through the tunnel and poking her head out of one of the three holes like a mole in a "Whack-a-Mole" game.  She played for a while, then I asked her to come with me to find the park's geocache "Excel in the Park" - but she was having none of it.  Next time, the rule is that we find the geocache first and then we get to play!  The playground is located at N49.13.423 W123.09.561 and is point no. 114 on the map at the bottom of home page.

113. Eastburn Park, Burnaby

A geocache called "Eastburn Park" had made its way to the top of my "closest unfound cache to home" list, so I was anxious to go by and make the find.  Today was a bit chilly, but it was a nice day for the playground that was just a few metres away from where the cache was hidden.  The cache was soon in hand and then we were free to play!  There were no other kids around today, but Charlotte and I had fun anyway.  She would climb the stairs, I would help her across the zip line, she would climb some more and take the big slide down to the ground again before running off to do it all over again.  They even had an old-school seesaw and Charlotte had fun running back and forth across it - holding my hand of course!  The playground is located at N 49.13.307 W 122.55.738 and is point no. 113 on the map at the bottom of home page.

112. Richmond Nature Park, Richmond

Our second new playground in a row is birthday party-related!  This time we headed to the Richmond Nature Park to celebrate Alex's fifth birthday.  The playground itself is a rope pyramid that's a bit much for Charlotte for now, but she did play on it a bit with the other kids.  Mostly she cared more about the giant log nearby that was just perfect for climbing on - lots of kids seemed to prefer it over the structure that was actually designed for climbing!  When everyone had arrived, we headed along the boardwalk on an Easter egg hunt, with all of the kids finding a treasure.

We ended in the "grassy meadow", where we had a pizza picnic and the kids romped and played.  I turned on the GPS from underneath the picnic shelter and found myself just three metres away from "Green Meenie"!  At that moment, some other geocachers arrived and we all hunted for the cache together.  We actually came back to the park a few days later after work and daycare to climb on the log some more and to find one of the other caches in the park, "Time Machine 2".  There are still lots of caches to find in the park, including some of the Richmond GeoQuest caches, so we will be back again for sure!  The playground is located at N 49.10.247 W 123.05.640 and is point no. 112 on the map at the bottom of home page.