107. Kilmer Park, Blaine, Washington

Our geocaching day came to an end relatively early as Mr. ClueFinders had a long drive back to Seattle ahead of him.  So when Charlotte asked me if we could go to the playground after we dropped our friend back at his car, I saw no reason why we shouldn't, though the sun was starting to set.  We met a boy named Kason and his dad at the playground; we chatted with them for a bit before they had to go, attempting to hop a fence and cross private property on their way back to grandma's house!  Charlotte had fun playing on the rocking frog and playing with a ball that she had found.  We played until we were too cold and hungry to play any more, and then we headed off to find our dinner.  The playground is located at N 48.59.998 W 122.44.519 and is point no. 107 on the map at the bottom of home page.

101. 59th Street Public Park, Seattle, Washington

What a way to finish off our year in playgrounds!  I had found this great playground right next to the zoo and was so excited to take Charlotte there to play before we went in to see the animals.  But last night, Charlotte had been looking like she was coming down with a cold and by the time we got to the playground, she was not feeling herself at all.  She didn't want to do anything without me holding her hand and then she just found a spot to sit and slump in a corner like a sullen teenager.  She wouldn't even let me take her photo.  She didn't perk up much even for the zoo animals, though she did do some building in the Zoomazium, which is where the photo is from.  I couldn't let my 101st post go by without some kind of photo!  She quietly ate her picnic lunch and then I asked her if she would like to see the giraffes - those were her favourites and she was looking forward to seeing them.  Well, she was asleep by the time we got there; I picked her up to show them to her and she woke up just long enough to give them a wave before she fell back to sleep.  So much for the playground, so much for the zoo, but we did manage to find one geocache within the zoo, "Caution: Children at Play".  The playground is located at N 47.40.282 W 122.21.14 - which also happens to be the posted coordinates of a puzzle cache that I couldn't solve!  The playground is no. 101 on the map at the bottom of home page.

And so we did it!  We've had a great time visiting 101 playgrounds, but there are so many more to go, even within walking distance of our house.  I think we'll keep up our blog - but maybe we'll slow down the pace a bit and maybe even visit a few repeat playgrounds that are worthy of a return visit!  Thanks for reading along with us.

66. Edgewater Park, Mt. Vernon, Washington

It’s that time of year again – time to head down to Seattle for the annual Groundspeak block party! I took Friday off work so that we could take our time getting down there and we stopped about half-way in Mt. Vernon so that Charlotte could stretch her legs and have a play. There was a cache in the trees just a few metres away called “Fish On!”; we looked for it, but couldn’t immediately find it, so we moved on to the playground. Charlotte was anxious to get climbing and besides, there was a bit of a dodgy guy hanging out nearby.  We eventually spoke to him a little; he just got in from Alaska a week prior and it sounded a lot like he didn't have anywhere else to go.

 

Charlotte was on her own at the playground at first, but then another family showed up.  Charlote ran to say hi to the kids, but they were steadfast in their refusal to have anything whatsoever to do with her.  Eventually another family arrived and clearly they had agreed to meet there.  The kids played together, but still no one even made eye contact with Charlotte, despite her efforts to talk to them.  The parents all looked through her like she didn't exist.  The whole situation became more and more bizarre as I noticed that there was no noise whatsoever coming from the playground - the kids all played in absolute silence.  It was completely surreal and made me want to say something to the parents who had so instilled the "stranger danger" attitude in their kids that they couldn't even play with a two-year-old at the park.  But what could I possibly have said to make any difference?  Time to continue on to Seattle - and as we got back into the car, we waved to our new friend from Alaska - the dodgy guy who turned out to be the friendliest guy at the park.  The playground is located at N 48.25.232   W 122.20.518 and is point no. 66 on the map at the bottom of home page.