76. Lyndhurst Park, Burnaby

Charlotte and I went to claim my free Grand Slam at the nearby Denny's – I won't let my birthday go by without a delicious Denny's breakfast, even if I have to have it for dinner! We found a Harry Potter-themed cache hidden in a tree near the playground, “Floo Powder – Thanks for the Magic”, and then we headed over to play. It was already starting to get dark, I had a nasty cold and I still had to pack lunch for daycare tomorrow for the first time in a month – so we didn't stay for long. Still, Charlotte had a good time repeatedly climbing the ladder and sliding down the slide – all by herself, she would have you know. We had some tears when it was time to go, maybe because we only stayed such a short time.  It's been ages since she had a meltdown over leaving the playground. We don't have any pictures of this outing as I had left my camera in my jeans pocket – which I had changed out of following a sandy, muddy, wet outing to Barnston Island earlier today. The playground is point #76 on the map at the bottom of home page.

38. Ash Park, Vancouver

I have been saving Ash Park for a while – it is perfectly situated for a post-playground trip to Denny's and who better to join us on such an adventure than our friends Paula and Gabi! We met in the afternoon after work and daycare and the girls, Doggie and Owlie all had a great time tearing around the playground. Charlotte fell off some bouncy stepping stones and needed to be rescued, but other than that a good time was had by all! The girls were into the merry-go-round, the same type of cumbersome, safe-as-houses merry-go-round we had encountered recently in Chilliwack. “Faster!” shouted Charlotte. “It doesn't go any faster!” shouted mum.

We set off for Denny's afterwards. As the crow flies, it's just a couple of hundred metres away – there was no point getting in the car. Paula drove though, but she has good reason to do so as she is not too far away from her due date with her second. Gabi came with Charlotte and I and insisted on pushing the stroller. It was slow going as she bumped into the grass verge on either side of the sidewalk and absolutely refused my help in straightening out again. We walked the block to Marine Drive and there was our destination in front of us – across six lanes of rush hour traffic. So near and yet so far – there was no safe way of crossing with a stroller and two small kids in tow. We walked to the nearest crosswalk, the stroller zig-zagging all the way. We managed to cross, and then we zig-zagged all the way back again, bumping into bushes this time, much to Charlotte's annoyance. Gabi will be very good at pushing the stroller by the time she's a big sister though! There is no geocache in this park - Charlotte and I may have to rectify that.  The park is located at N 49.12.653 W 123.07.205:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1