161. Viewlynn Park, North Vancouver

I was on the lookout for a new playground not too far from Nana and Grandad's house when I read about Viewlynn Park.  We pass within a couple of blocks of it every time we visit Nana and Grandad, but we've never been there as it's not on the route.  I guess I knew of it because I had found a cache there before - but that was long before Charlotte was born and I paid attention to playgrounds and their relative merits!

The street was jammed with the parked cars of families enjoying a beautiful day at the playground and water park.  We parked quite a way down the street - but then our trip to the playground was delayed by a chocolate milk disaster in the car.  A chocolate milk waterfall - onto the passenger seat and everything on the passenger seat.  It took a while...

We finally made it to the park and Charlotte ran off to play.  She climbed and had fun, but wouldn't go to the water park for some reason.  She hadn't even wanted to put her swimsuit on.  Before long, she was upset about a kid who kept talking (like they do!) and another who was playing with her, but wouldn't share her bubbles.  Things were not that great...

Charlotte was quite enamored with Bubble Girl, who was considerably older than her.  She followed her around - and followed her out of the park.  Not far, just past the fence, but Charlotte knows the rules.  It was a good opportunity for a TALK.

The playground is located at N 49.19.898 W 123.02.075 and is point no. 161 on the map at the bottom of home page.

160. Mary Avenue Park, Burnaby

We have no photos from this playground, but that's okay as it wasn't a particularly memorable one anyway.  And if it was memorable, it was for the wrong reasons.  When we first arrived, we were the only ones there, but eventually a couple of brothers showed up.  They weren't interested in playing with Charlotte at all, despite her overtures.  The playground is right next door to a school and at 3 p.m., the bell rang and the kids came pouring out.  Many of them stayed to play, but they were all much older than Charlotte and all knew each other, so no one was interested in playing with her.  In fact, one kid went out of his way to tell her she was too small to play with them and another got in trouble with her dad for pushing past her on the playground.  We decided to chalk it up to experience and went home to make popsicles instead!  The playground is located at N 49.13.009 / 122.56.127 and is point no. 160 on the map at the bottom of home page.

159. Memorial Park, Summerland

We are in the Okanagan!  We camped last night at Trout Creek Crossing, in the mountains above Summerland.  This morning, it was raining at our campsite, so we came back into town, hoping it wouldn't be raining at a lower elevation.  We found this playground and Charlotte played while I cooked our oatmeal over my camp stove at a nearby picnic table.  Just as we were finishing breakfast, Tanna and her grandma were dropped off at the park and before we knew it, Charlotte and Tanna were playing happily together.  We were there for a couple of hours while the kids played and played - soccer, crocodiles, you name it.  We adults just sat back and let 'em go at it.  Finally, everyone had to be on their way and the kids posed for a photo and Charlotte gave Tanna one of her goodie bag mazes, left over from her birthday party.  Tanna's grandma said that she'd never made such a good friend at the park before and asked if we'd like to meet again for a playdate.  How disappointing that we live so far away!  The playground is located at N 49.36.000 W 119.40.842 and is point no. 159 on the map at the bottom of home page.

158. Ernie Winch Park, Burnaby

We came out to this park on an overcast evening to find a geocache starting with "E" - it was called "Ernie Winch Park Cache", appropriately enough.  After making the find, we headed over to the playground; it wasn't a lot of fun at first as there weren't many kids there and those that were there were being very closely helicoptered.  However, Charlotte soon found Apollo and Ateem to play with and they had a great time on the school bus, turning it into an ice cream truck and whatever else captured their imagination.  They thought it was great that they were aged three, four and five - it was then convenient for Owlie to be six, Riley to be seven and me to be eight!  All went well until I brought the camera out and allowed them each to have a turn taking pictures.  There was much drama and heartache over how much time each had been allowed to spend with the camera and things went downhill from there.  They made up for a time, but three very strong personalities couldn't help but clash again!  We headed out, Charlotte in tears over some transgression committed by one of the other girls.  I thought it was good for her to meet some kids who wouldn't let her boss them around!  The playground is located at N 49.12.880 W 122.56.732 and is point no. 158 on the map at the bottom of home page.

157. Moody Park, New Westminster

Technically, we have already blogged Moody Park; it's our closest decent-sized playground, after all.  However, it's completely different from what it was last time we were here and deserves a new post!  Over the winter, the old equipment was removed and a new playground was put in place.  It opened just a short while ago, and as I drove by, I thought it looked quite boring.  It didn't seem to have any challenging equipment and gone were the high (read dangerous) ladders from the old playground.  Still, we had to give it a try and I was happy to change my drive-by opinion.

The playground is "natural" - no metal equipment painted in primary colours here.  There is a lot of wood, sand, rock and water to play on and in and judging by the number of kids playing late into the summer evening, the place is a big hit with a lot of people.  Charlotte had a great time on the slide, which is faster and more exciting than most slides these days.  She came flying off the end more than once, only to land in the sand with no harm done.  She balanced on the wooden climbing structure, she pumped water from the kid-sized pump, waded in the pool and then played in the sand - with predictable results!  We spent almost two hours there and Charlotte was filthy, soaked and happy by the time we had to call it a night.  She has been there several times with her pre-school too and loves it every time.  I think we're pretty lucky to have this awesome playground within walking distance of Blackford Island!  The playground is located at N 49.12.683 W 122.55.475 and is point no. 157 on the map at the bottom of home page.

156. Jim Lorimer Park, Burnaby

Once a week, I either walk or take the bus past this playground on Gilmore Avenue in Burnaby, not too far from where I work.  I've always told myself that I would have to bring Charlotte here and add it to our playground blog - and today was the day that we did it!  It happened quite by accident; we were heading elsewhere, driving down the next main street over when we saw a train coming down the tracks towards us, way up in the distance.  As we are never ones to miss out on watching a train go by, we turned off the street we were on to see if we could find a spot from which to watch the train.  Well, I don't know if it was some kind of Famous Five-style spook train or if my eyes had been playing tricks on me, but no train appeared.  We did find ourselves across from this playground though, so we slapped on the sunscreen and headed over to play.

There were no other kids to play with unfortunately - perhaps because it was so hot, but then again, I've never seen more than one or two kids playing here.  A teenager came and hung out at the top, engrossed in her phone while we were playing.  But we had a good time; I got to take care of the ice cream shop, which made me happy as I got to hang out in the shade.  We spent a good half hour playing, before we headed out, needing a cold drink and some air conditioning.  It's a pretty decent playground that's got some stuff that's challenging for Charlotte - it's just too bad there's no one to play with!  Unfortunately, I didn't have any memory left in my camera, so I've had to use a stock photo for this post.  The playground is located at N 49.15.759 W 123.00.831 and is point no. 156 on the map at the bottom of home page.

155. SInclair Park, New Westminster

One of our closest unfound geocaches to home happens to be located a few metres from a playground - so we had more than one reason to head to Sinclair Park on this overcast day.  Charlotte played with Owlie and I helped them both down the fireman's pole and made a daisy chain for Charlotte to wear on her head.  We met a muggle who was exercising her dogs; she was going to move on at first, but we assured her that we were dog people.  Tyson may have looked scary to some people, but not to us!  We had a go on the swings and finally we saw our opportunity to look for the cache.  We came up short at first, but after taking the time to read the logs, we were able to come back later to make the find, which was simply called "Sinclair Park".  The playground is located at N 49.13.287 W 122.55.088 and is point no. 155 on the map at the bottom of home page.

154. Deer Lake Park, Burnaby

We were on our way home from nana and grandad's when we made an impromptu decision to stop off at Deer Lake Park.  The rhodos were in full bloom and we had a great walk through the gardens.  Charlotte had me read the plaque on every single bench we passed (kinda morbid!) and she asked everyone she met if they knew that she was FOUR - with four fingers prominently pointed in their direction.  We came across this climbing frame and Charlotte did a great job of climbing on it.  She fell off a couple of times before she finally managed to make it to new heights - but then she found herself stuck.  I had to guide her down as she was in a bit of a state and she made it safely to terra firma in the end.  It was nice to see her challenged by it as so many of the playgrounds have been scaled back.  I'll have to take her there again and see if she can get up higher next time - and more to the point, see if she can get back down again!  The playground is located at N49.14.416 W 122.58.277 and is point no. 154 on the map at the bottom of home page.

153. Westminster Pier Park - East Playground

Charlotte and I ditched pre-school and work early today - and set off on an adventure!  We took the bus down to the Quay and walked east along the boardwalk, as far as we could go.  We were in search of a geocache at the far end of the boardwalk ("There's a $^@#3 in my Boot!"), which we didn't find, but we had fun getting there.  Along the way, we stopped off at the west playground, which we have visited before, then here, at the east playground.  This one is much smaller than the west playground and designed for younger kids.  There were a couple of kids playing here, but they were being told not to climb (!) so they weren't a whole lot of fun to play with and we soon continued on our way to the giant W made out of shipping containers.  After our failed attempt at finding the cache, we took the glass elevator back up to street level and caught the bus home again for dinner.  Charlotte walked and walked - I don't think she ever walked quite so far in her life!  The playground is point no. 153 on the map at the bottom of home page.

152. Harwood Park, Burnaby

I park near this playground every day, so it's only fitting that I should one day bring Charlotte here to play!  There's not much going on here during the week, but on this Saturday morning, the place was packed with kids playing soccer on the nearby pitches and their younger brothers and sisters were all over at the playground.  All the parents were spinning the merry-go-round for the kids - who never tired of it and required a fresh supply of parents on a regular basis to keep the merry-go-round going!  The playground is located at N 49.15.147 W 122.59.187 and is point no. 152 on the map at the bottom of home page.

151. Kilmer Park, North Vancouver

We haven't visited many new playgrounds lately.  Winter is definitely here and our hearts are heavy after saying goodbye to our beloved Theo last month.  Still, three-year-olds need to get out and run and play, no matter how cold it may be and no matter how sad their parents may be feeling.  Today, we visited a playground not far from nana and grandad's house.  It was a stone cold day, but Charlotte still had fun, selling ice cream and playing on the slide.  She had even more fun off the playground, running up and down a nearby hill and sneaking through a "secret" gate in the fence.  Me, I was freezing, but Charlotte doesn't seem to feel the cold when she's busy having fun.  The playground is located at N 49.20.788 W 123.01.499 and is point no. 151 on the map at the bottom of home page.