149. Crash Crawly's, Coquitlam

My company hosted a kids' Christmas party at the amazing Crash Crawly's.  I never did figure out if Charlotte had a good time or not!  She played on the climbing structure - with her hands over her ears the whole time.  She rode the miniature train - with her hands over her ears the whole time.  The only time she took her hands away from her ears was when she needed them to emphasize a point with Santa.  She talked his ear off and made sure he knew exactly what she would like to see under the Christmas tree.  The indoor playground is located at 1-1300 Woolridge Street, Coquitlam and is point no. 149 on the map at the bottom of home page.

145. Lower Lougheed Park, Coquitlam

I first discovered this tiny neighbourhood park long before Charlotte was born; I was looking for a place to hide a geocache and found this tiny little green triangle on a map.  The cache didn't run all that long before it was muggled and there is no cache in the park at the moment.  Perhaps I should re-hide something smaller and trickier - the old one was a large cache hidden under a bridge.  We were in the area today and so we stopped off so that Charlotte could see the park too.  She played for a bit and took Owlie for a ride on the back of her airplane.  There were no other kids there and it's a noisy place as it's right next to the highway, so we didn't stay for very long.  The playground is located at N 49.14.355 W 122.53.215 and is point no. 145 on the map at the bottom of home page.

144. Queenston Park, Coquitlam

How can it be that I didn't take any photographs here at this amazing new playground?  We have been trying to meet up here since the summer with our friends Andy and Khanh and their kids Avery and Kayden, but something has always come.  Finally, today was the day!  It was a nice mild day and the playground was full of kids.  There was so much for the kids to do - little things for little Kayden and bigger things for Charlotte and Avery - and enough that they will continue to be challenged as they grow.  It's a lot like the playground at Garden City with its "foam" steps set into a "foam" hill.  The slide is huge and was a little much for Avery for now, though Charlotte loved it.  They also played on the net that stretched from the top of the hill to the bottom - they really had a blast!  We'll have to go back here again soon, for sure.  The playground is located at N 49.17.869 W 122.45.233 and is point no. 144 on the map at the bottom of home page.

128. Bell Park, Coquitlam

We were driving along Lougheed Highway today when I needed something from my bag that I couldn't reach.  I needed to stop, so I pulled off the highway and Charlotte immediately spotted this playground and asked if we could stop.  We were in no hurry, so we did!  Shortly after we arrived, another dog raced over to join us - for the first time ever, Theo had met a canine namesake!  "Two Theos!" said Charlotte, delightedly.  After the other Theo had gone on his way, we were joined by a boy named Tristan and his mum.  Tristan shared his toys with Charlotte and she showed him how to do tipple-tails.  He was quite enthralled by Theo, which made Charlotte proud; she loves to let everyone know that Theo is her dog when he's attracting attention!  There is a cache called "Booty Crack" just a few metres away from the playground, but we had found it a long time ago - when Blackford Girl was just a baby and too small for playgrounds!  The playground is located at N 49.15.125 W 122.54.300 and is point no. 128 on the map at the bottom of home page.

98. Como Lake Park, Coquitlam

On another beautiful, sunny afternoon, we headed to Como Lake Park.  The playground equipment here wasn't terribly exciting, but it was in a beautiful location, right on the shore of this small lake in Coquitlam.  We went for a little walk out to the nearby dock, where people had fishing lines set up.  I don't know what they were fishing for though!  A woman who was fishing had allowed her son to play at the playground; he had a go on the swings at the same time as Charlotte.  When I gave her her usual two-minute time-to-go warning, he piped up with "how about three?!?"  So I laughed and gave her three minutes - it's not like these minutes are very precise anyway!  Each time I counted down, he tried to negotiate an extra minute of playtime - it was pretty cute.  There is a geocache nearby, but Charlotte wasn't into it today and we had lots of things to do with Christmas coming up!  The playground is located at N 49.15.631 W 122.51.409 and is point no. 98 on the map at the bottom of home page.

97. Dawes Hill Park, Coquitlam

We have been very lucky with the weekend weather lately! Today was another beautiful day and not too cold, considering that we are closing in on the end of the year. We chose Dawes Hill Park today because it's not too far from the Superstore, where we went grocery shopping afterwards. I missed the park at first and drove right past it, noticing what I thought to be an adult riding high on one of the swings. When we got ourselves turned around and sorted out, he was still there. He was younger than I had realized, but much older than most kids who play on the swings! He kept going the whole time that Charlotte was playing; he was worried about Theo because he didn't want to kick him by accident, but otherwise, he just kept on swinging. When Charlotte went over for a turn on the swings, we started talking to him. He told me he was fifteen and lived nearby – and he just likes swinging. He told me he had been there for five hours and he may well have been! I asked him if he was going for a world record and his face lit up – he seemed to think that was a very good idea! I don't know if making small talk with me was too much for him, but he said he was going home, jumped off the swing, and left. I felt badly – I hope we didn't chase him away. Charlotte had some more fun on the playground, tackling the climbing mountain and the ladders with aplomb. There is a geocache nearby called “Bugs on the Hill” that has been around since 2005. I had originally found it in 2006, so didn't have it in my GPS for Charlotte to find. There is a great view of the bridge deck of the new Port Mann from here – it's a pretty nice park. The playground is located at N 49.14.175 W 122.50.002 and is point no. 97 on the map at the bottom of home page.

89. Mundy Park, Coquitlam

This playground was much more Charlotte-sized!  It was also in the sun, which made me a little happier - not that it offered much warmth at all.  Charlotte had a great time on the twisty slides and we also checked out a wooden swing made by a woodworking class from a nearby high school.  There are lots of geocaches in this park, but the closest ones were either disabled or we had already found them.  Mundy Madness, my very first geocache ever is in this park.  It's still active and has been in place for over ten years now!  The park is located at N 49.15.208 W 122.50.103 and is point no. 89 on the map at the bottom of home page.

88. R.C. MacDonald Elementary School, Coquitlam

On Remembrance Day morning, Charlotte and I headed out to find ourselves a nice playground.  I thought there was a park up here, but we didn't come across it, unless the playground in the elementary school is what I had been thinking of all along.  It was about as cold as it gets in Vancouver and Charlotte was not in the best of moods over it - or maybe that was me.  The playground was nice in that it was hidden away in a  little grove of trees, but that kept away any warmth that the sun might have brought us.  The playground was designed for bigger kids and Charlotte just wasn't into it.  "It's too big!" she said - and so we went in search of a more Charlotte-friendly playground.  This was a bit of a dud, but at least we got another playground for our blog - time is ticking down!  There was a geocache about 100 metres away, but we were too cold to bother going to look for it.  The playground is located at N 49.14.684 W 122.49.322 and is point no. 88 on the map at the bottom of home page.

78. Burns Park, Coquitlam

The weather this weekend was supposed to be terrible, so when the sun came out late this morning, Charlotte and I seized the opportunity to go out to play. We chose this playground because it's not too far from the Superstore, which we can save for when it starts to rain again! Everything at the playground was wet, but the damp weather was keeping other people away and Theo was able to roam while Charlotte played. She took on the “climbing mountain” repeatedly – up and down, with her shoes squeaking on the wet plastic with every step she took! We played on the balance steps and then we just sat on a dry patch of wood beneath a tree to watch the crows and squirrels playing on the grass. Charlotte was thrilled that if we were quiet, they would come closer to us and before we left, she left a little nut in a place where the squirrels would find it. The playground is located at N 49.14.539 W 122.52.561 and is point #78 on the map at the bottom of home page.

60. Guilby Park, Coquitlam

After a long, hot day exploring Burnaby Lake, we wanted to finish off the day with a quick visit to a playground. We sure picked the right park for a quick visit - this playground was decidedly underwhelming! All it had were swings - one set for the big kids and another for the little ones. We played for a little while, but there were wasps buzzing around everywhere - they even seemed to be building a nest right inside one of the swings. This playground was one to rack up the numbers, but it didn't do much more than that!  Perhaps we should hide a geocache here to liven it up a bit...  I took the co-ordinates, but Charlotte was playing with my GPS and re-located the playground into the South China Sea. Still, it's point no. 60 on the map at the bottom of home page.

55. Mackin Park, Coquitlam

Another scorcher! Charlotte and I did our grocery shopping in the morning before it got too hot, then headed to nearby Mackin Park to check out the playground. It's a big park and we often drive past it on the south side - from there, there's nothing to see but playing fields and I never knew until recently that the park also has a playground - and a spray park too. There was no one there when we got there, so I got the water going - but Charlotte was not impressed. I ran around amongst the sprinklers, but Charlotte couldn't be persuaded to come and play. Then a strong one suddenly turned on with me right in front of it and Charlotte was amused, but even less inclined to join in!

 

The playground was just adjacent to the spray park though, so we went down there to play for a bit instead. Charlotte had a new ambulance that she had just bought at the grocery store and she played with that while I once again did my best to find some nice cool shade. This heat wave is not okay with me! The cache in the park is disabled at the moment, though there are three others just outside the park. I have two of them already, but Charlotte just has the one at the Dairy Queen - we'll be back for the others! The cache is located at N 49.14.257 W 122.51.789 and is point 55 on the map at the bottom of home page.

48. Coutts Way Tot Lot, Coquitlam

We discovered this tiny, unnamed tot lot because of a geocache; we would never have found it otherwise because it doesn't even have a name or even appear as a park on a map. Even the City of Coquitlam doesn't list it as one of its playgrounds.  I had to have a title for this blog post, so I just named the park after the street that leads to it.  It's a simple little playground, as all the tot lots are, but it's a little gem, with fabulous views of Colony Farms down below and New Westminster and beyond off to the west. The real estate must be worth a fortune; hopefully the site won't be turned into someone's house someday!  We found the geocache first of all, TinyRocker; it was in rough shape with several creepy-crawly creatures living in and on it!  Charlotte had a good play in the warm sun and Theo roamed about until finally Charlotte wanted lunch and we headed for home.  The park is located at N 49.13.981 W 122.47.433:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1

 

44. Cape Horn Tot Lot, Coquitlam

What a rainy day!  We went out to Alouette Lake in Maple Ridge this morning after Theo's vet appointment, and though we had a break in the weather to throw a few stones in the water, it was pouring as we arrived and pouring again as we left, so we didn't hit up any playgrounds out there, even though we passed a very nice looking one that we'll have to go back to on a nicer day.  But as we got back closer to home, we had another break in the weather and we used it to pick up a cache at the Cape Horn Tot Lot.  Coquitlam has lots of these little "tot lots" - just small playgrounds with equipment for the littlest kids.  We should hit these up before Charlotte outgrows them...  We grabbed the cache first, "Cape Horn", a little green bison tube that we were able to find quickly.  Charlotte wasn't interested in the cache this time though - she was off down the steps to the playground.  Unfortunately, everything was soaking wet and Charlotte wasn't much into it.  She did a little climbing and then the rain started up again.  We hurried home to have some supper and head to the swimming pool; it was that kind of day.  The park is located at N 49.14.138 W 122.49.587: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1

7. Nacht Park, Coquitlam

What a lovely little neighbourhood park we discovered today in Coquitlam!  I was envious of the people in the house next door - how amazing it would be have this little playground in your back yard.  It had a little slide that Charlotte was brave enough to try - but only once as she landed with a bit more of a bump than she would have liked - and a big slide, which she also tried to climb, but which is definitely going to have to wait until she's a bit older.  The house next door had bird feeders up and we were serenaded by chickadees the entire time we were there.  No one else was in the park, so Theo was free to roam and he enjoyed himself as much as we did.

The only disappointment was that we missed out on a geocache just a couple of hundred metres away!  I just didn't realize that there was a cache there to look for.  There is also another cache even closer to the playground that I had found before - but that was almost three years ago and I doubted I would be able to find it again without the coordinates.  So we will have to be back for "Skylanders Rock" for both of us and the letter "Y" in the "Tongue Twister" series for Charlotte.  The 26 caches in this series are all located near playgrounds, so we should definitely check those out!

We had some bad luck as we were leaving - we were waiting to get onto the Mary Hill Bypass when we were struck from behind by another car.  Fortunately the impact was minimal and none of us were hurt at all, but it doesn't take much to mangle a bumper and so we got a pretty big dent out of it.  At least we're all okay and ready to play another day!  The playground is located at N 49.14.876 W 122.47.168:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI