132. Terra Nova, Richmond

Finally it's time to check out the amazing million-dollar playground at Terra Nova!  I have been saving this one for a long time, wanting to make a day of it rather than just a quick post-daycare trip.  Today we met up with our friends from two families: Gaby with Matias and Anna and Eva with Alex and Nika.  And what an amazing playground we found!

The main structure is about three storeys high and has all kinds of opportunities for climbing and sliding.  It was a bit too much for Charlotte, but the older kids had a great time.  There are lots of things to climb on and everything is made of wood and rope – no pre-fab playground equipment here!  After our picnic, we went to explore yet another part of the playground that I hadn't even realized existed at first and that's where Charlotte really had some fun.  There was a huge slide, much like the amazing slide at Garden City and the kids had a blast sliding down there as a "train".  And then there was the zip line!  I don't know how many times Charlotte went on that thing, but because it was a bit big for her, she really needed help staying on and so I had to run up and down along with her.

We were there for over four hours altogether and the kids all had a great time.  Definitely one of the best playgrounds we have ever visited, rivalled only by John Storvik in Anacortes and City Park in Lynden.  The playground is located at N 49.10.431 W 123.11.897 and is point no. 132 on the map at the bottom of home page.

126. Tomekichi Homma Elementary School, Richmond

Today we were out and about in Richmond, looking for some more of the Richmond GeoQuest series.  After finding the one at the Britannia Shipyards, we went across to the playground that Charlotte's eagle eyes had spotted when we arrived.  Charlotte managed to make friends with a little girl named Anna, despite the fact that she was never allowed to be more than two feet away from one of her parents at any time.  After Anna left, Charlotte got off to a bad start with an older boy named Paul, who told her that she couldn't climb up on the same structure as him.  Charlotte was really upset and came to me for a snuggle.  I told her that she could go wherever she wanted on the playground and before very long, things were patched up with Paul and they were playing again.  When Paul left, Charlotte joined me on the bench and took over reading my book.  The playground is located at N 49.07.367 W 123.10.157 and is point no. 126 on the map at the bottom of home page.

79. Redwood Park, Surrey

We went out to visit tío Gerardo, tía Gaby, Matías y Anna this weekend – we had asked them to take us to one or two of their favourite playgrounds in their area. We started off at Redwood Park – because it had the most geocaches in it and Matias was pretty excited to go find one! Charlotte had just woken up when we arrived at the park and was in need of some lunch, so we got off to a bit of a slow start, but once she got onto the merry-go-round, there was no stopping her! The kids all rode while the adults pushed, but we soon got pretty tired – or more to the point, we got dizzy!  Afterwards, we set off to find “Redwood Reading Room”, which was a nice big ammo can with lots of things in it, including some books. Matias was thrilled to have found it! Our plans to check out a second playground today fell through due to tired kids and iffy weather, but that just means that we will go back and play with our friends again one day soon! The playground is located at N 49.02.148 W 122.43.563 and is point #79 on the map at the bottom of home page.