105. Tumwater Falls Park, Tumwater, Washington

We stopped off on our way home from Oregon to find a geocache that started with "Z" for a challenge I'm working on.  The cache had been muggled, but it almost didn't matter because we re-discovered this beautiful park.  Pete and I realized we had been here before in 2010, when we had found another geocache here.  We explored the area around the waterfalls and maybe one day we will have chance to explore the trails that run beside the Deschutes River.



As we walked back to the car, we stopped off at the little playground.  It wasn't a typical swings-and-slides playground, but it had two boats to climb and play on.  There were a few other kids there too and one of the girls gave Charlotte a little bottle of bubbles, which thrilled her to bits, of course.  The playground is located at N 47.00.832 W 122.54.294 and is point no. 105 on the map at the bottom of home page.

104. Cannon Beach Playground, Cannon Beach, Oregon

We have all been so sick lately that playground visits have been in short supply.  We have re-visited one or two favourites lately, but mostly we have been languishing at home, trying to shake our sniffles and coughs while watching "Paw Patrol".  This week though, we are on vacation in Cannon Beach and though the sniffles have followed us down to Oregon, the weather was beautiful and just perfect for a visit to the local playground in between our beach explorations.  The playground was just a couple of blocks from our motel and it was a decent playground with a high climbing mountain - which Charlotte scaled with no problem whatsoever!  It's amazing how quickly she can go from needing help with something to being completely independent.  After we had finished working up an appetite at the playground, we set off to find the nearby geocache, "Cannonfloria plasticus" and then for lunch at the Lumberyard.  After that, it was back to the motel for more sniffle-nursing, at least for me!  The playground is located at N 45.53.942 W 123.57.579 and is point no. 104 on the map at the bottom of home page.

72. Alberta Park, Portland, Oregon

We were on the second day of our vacation, waiting for nearby Podnah's to open for lunch.  Pete was excited to have some barbecue, Charlotte was excited to play and I was excited to find the nearby geocache, "Another Name for Depression is Van Buren".  No, I don't understand the title either!  There were lots of kids at the playground, though most of them were older than Charlotte.  One woman had nine kids with her - nine!  Charlotte is into swinging on anything she can find these days, so that was her main amusement.  She loved the merry-go-round too - a really old school one that it would be possible to fall off!  She played with a couple of other kids and the adults all took it in turns doing the spinning.  When I was off-duty, I was practicing my juggling - haven't done that for a while and I'm a little out of practice!

We continued on our way shortly after Podnah's opened - Pete loved his lunch and I made the best of it with my trout - all of the trout, except for the eyes.  Just the sockets!  Charlotte played with my GPS and deleted the waypoint, but it's point #72 on the map at the bottom of home page.