151. Kilmer Park, North Vancouver

We haven't visited many new playgrounds lately.  Winter is definitely here and our hearts are heavy after saying goodbye to our beloved Theo last month.  Still, three-year-olds need to get out and run and play, no matter how cold it may be and no matter how sad their parents may be feeling.  Today, we visited a playground not far from nana and grandad's house.  It was a stone cold day, but Charlotte still had fun, selling ice cream and playing on the slide.  She had even more fun off the playground, running up and down a nearby hill and sneaking through a "secret" gate in the fence.  Me, I was freezing, but Charlotte doesn't seem to feel the cold when she's busy having fun.  The playground is located at N 49.20.788 W 123.01.499 and is point no. 151 on the map at the bottom of home page.

148. Wesburn Park, Burnaby

Wesburn Park has become a special place for me this winter.  It proved to be the last playground adventure that Charlotte and Theo would share together.  Theo and I explored the ravine by ourselves a little while after this adventure too, after he had received his cancer diagnosis, but before he began to decline.  That outing will always provide happy memories for me.  Back in November, we had no idea what was in store for us and we had a happy time here.  We didn't spend all that much time on the actual playground itself, but instead played down by the creek.  Theo looked for rocks that Charlotte obligingly tossed in for him.  I found a geocache called "Little Ammo Can" in the rocks above the creek and Charlotte and Theo played Poohsticks together from the two wooden bridges that span the creek.  After that, Charlotte jumped from rock to rock in the parking lot while Theo stayed close, protective as always.  It was a cold winter afternoon, but we still managed to spend three or four hours here before we had to leave.  The playground is located at N 49.14.518 W 123.00.689 and is point no. 148 on the map at the bottom of home page.

147. Broadview Park, Burnaby

I had spotted this little playground while driving along Canada Way, so today we went to check it out.  It was pretty cold out, so we had the place to ourselves.  Charlotte wasn't much interested in the playground itself for some reason, and was much more into digging around in the sand.  I would have thought it was a bit cold for that, but she didn't seem to mind!  Theo chewed on sticks and things only went downhill when he decided to chew on a stick that was integral to Charlotte's master plan for the sand pit, but they always managed to work it out between them in the end.  There was a geocache just a few metres away called "In-Tree-Ging", but it has had so many DNFs on it lately that we didn't even bother looking for it.  The playground is located at N 49.15.345 W123.00.973 and is point no. 147 on the map at the bottom of home page.

143. Whatcom Falls Park, Bellingham, Washington

We found ourselves in Bellingham on International EarthCache Day - and therefore, in need of an earth cache.  We took a detour up to Whatcom Falls Park to find "Go Chasing Waterfalls".  The falls were pretty skimpy as we still haven't had much rain, but we enjoyed exploring and Theo had a swim in the pool at the base of another waterfall further up-river.  There was a small playground near the parking lot, so we stopped there for a while so that Charlotte could have a play.  She made a new friend and they spent a long time chasing each other around and around until Charlotte took offense to him saying that he could faster than she could - and that was that.  Silly Charlotte!  Challenge him to a race next time!  The playground is located at N48.45.097 W 122.25.712 and is point no. 143 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.

122. Riverfront Park, Sedro-Woolley, Washington

This weekend, Charlotte and I undertook our first mama-daughter camping trip!  We've been on lots of overnight trips before, but have always stayed with family or friends - this was our first time camping.  It was the May long weekend, so the border was pretty hectic; we headed inland to hit the border at one of the "quieter" crossings.  So much for that bright idea.  We eventually made it to Sedro-Woolley, the last big town we would encounter on our trip.  The plan here was to hit the playground and then stock up on groceries for the weekend.  The playground was chock-full of kids, which was great in one respect and not so great in another.  I was horrified at one point to realize that I'd lost sight of Charlotte after tending to Theo.  For a few moments, I just couldn't see her at all, even though I thought I was carefully looking at every single possible spot on the playground.  The fact that we were not far from the banks of a very fast river crossed my mind - but I needn't have worried, because little Miss Boston Strong was playing on the roundabout with the boys.  She sure knows how to hold her own with the big kids - she just lets them know how things are going to be.  So the whole mystery of her disappearance had nothing to do with her and everything to do with me, so I tried not to let on how worried I'd been - but she did get a bigger hug than usual next time she came to check in.  The playground is located at N 48.29.425 W 122.13.431 and is point no. 122 on the map at the bottom of home page.

120. Ellwood Park, Abbotsford

Today was a pretty exciting day for us - we finished our 122 Degree Challenge!  Afterwards, we went in search of Charlotte Park - I had discovered that there was such a place while doing a little pre-trip research.  But although we found Charlotte Avenue, Charlotte Park remained elusive.  However, at the end of Charlotte Avenue, we found a playground that would suit us just fine and we went in to play.  We never did find out the name of the park while we were there - we just got it off the map afterwards.  There were lots of kids playing, but unfortunately, most of them were from a birthday party that was being held there, so they all knew each other already and weren't interested in getting to know anyone else.  Charlotte still had fun while Theo and I soaked up some sun on the grass.  After the playground, Charlotte and I zipped around from tree to tree, looking for the one that held a geocache, "Getting to Know My Way Around - K".  Great, now there's another series that we need to complete since we've got one of them!  The playground is located at N 49.03.457 W 122.20.924 and is point no. 120 on the map at the bottom of home page.

110. Robert Burnaby Park, Burnaby

It's been a while since we visited a new playground, so the first weekend of spring seemed like a good time to go and try a new one!  The weather wasn't supposed to be good at all today, but it started clearing up in the early afternoon, showering on and off.  We "parked at the park" to Charlotte's complete amusement and she ran down the hill to the playground while I sorted out Theo.  Another little girl came by with her parents, but they both stuck so close to their daughter that there was no chance there for making a new friend.  Shortly after they left, another mum showed up with her two kids, one older and one younger than Charlotte.  Charlotte played nicely with them and all was well.  The little boy, Donovan, climbed up on a piece of equipment and couldn't get down again.  While his mum was helping him down, little Capri took off like a shot.  She didn't look much older than a year and she probably didn't need to be high up on the equipment on her own, so I ran down and stuck close to her until her mum was ready to turn her attention back to her.  It was really nice - she thanked me for helping and it was pretty awesome - just a couple of mums looking out for each other at the playground, just like it should be.  I played pirates with Donovan for a couple of minutes and then Charlotte said she was ready to leave.  Only she didn't want to go back to the car, she wanted to go over to the nearby hill to go roly poly, roly poly!  The hill is a steep one, perfect for tobogganing on the rare days when there's enough snow to do so.  Charlotte tipple-tailed all the way down it - four times!  It took about a dozen tipple-tails to get to the bottom, so she probably did about 50 tipple-tails in a row and I don't know how she didn't get dizzy!  She would have gone again if I hadn't convinced her it was time to head home and change out of her wet clothes - the grass was still soaking wet from all the rain we've had lately.  There are a dozen geocaches in this park, but none of them showed up in the GPS today; we've already cached out the park!  The playground is located at N 49.13.907 W 122.55.728 and is point no. 110 on the map at the bottom of home page.

99. Sullivan Park, New Westminster

I have been "saving" this hidden playground, in walking distance from our apartment, and I finally got to use it today.  I had worked in the morning and had the afternoon off - but by the time I got home, I did not want to tackle Christmas Eve traffic and there were only a couple of hours of daylight left.  I have always called this park "Secret Park", Mya and Addy call it "Oliver Park" because it's at the foot of Oliver Street, but it's real name is Sullivan Park.  I don't think I can bring myself to call it by its real name though!  In fact, I have known the real name of this park for a while because its geocache is called "Sullivan Park" - but I had forgotten all about that.  Charlotte had found this cache when she was about six-weeks-old; I remember that day well because I had showered, put on clean clothes and had Charlotte recently-fed and freshly diapered all at the same time! 

Everyone had a great time here today - Theo played with another Golden Retriever named Senator for a while and after Senator left, a Goldie named Casey showed up too!  Charlotte played in the sand more than anything else and I just enjoyed the sunshine - it was warm like spring today.  We left as the sun was starting to slide down towards the horizon, stopping to pick up one last thing that we needed for Christmas as we went.  The playground is located at N 49.12.736 W 122.12.877 and is point no. 99 on the map at the bottom of home page.

96. McLean Park, Richmond

After visiting the playground at the community centre, we headed over to McLean Park, where the ERT series begins. I had found “ERT01” back in the winter of 2011 when I was pregnant, so technically Charlotte had been along for the ride - but she wasn’t yet Blackford Girl!

 

We had a lot of fun at this playground; Theo was free to play and Charlotte played hide-and-seek with Owlie. He hid in various nooks and crannies around the playground and I called out “warmer, warmer!” as Charlotte got closer. I think she was figuring out the concept!

We were there for a long time, but as we started going back to the car afterwards, Charlotte did something very out-of-character. She took off across the huge, open grass field – and at first I let her go, allowing her to explore. But before long, she was further away from me than I liked and I shouted after her to stop. Continuing with her out-of-character break from reality, she ignored me – and kept going! If she kept going like that, she’d be able to get to Westminster Highway before I could get to her, so off after her I went. She had crossed the waterlogged field in her waterproof purple boots – I crossed it in useless little black shoes and my feet were soaked and freezing long before I even got to her. Yes, there was a little bit of trouble! At least Theo had gone with her. We walked back to the car along the path, which took us past the playground again. And there was Theo’s leash – so I would have left it behind if Charlotte hadn’t staged her little escapade. But I still didn’t thank her for putting an end to my plans for the rest of the day and for making me go home to get out of my wet shoes! The playground is located at N 49.10.329 W 122.58.391 and is point no. 96 on the map at the bottom of home page.

95. Hamilton Community Centre, Richmond

Today was a beautiful sunny day – and much warmer than we’ve been used to lately. It has been unseasonably cold – and today it was unseasonably warm. In fact, it felt a lot like spring! We made the most of it and visited a couple of playgrounds today. We visited this one first and it was a lot of fun as Theo got to play with us. Charlotte was extremely proud of herself when she climbed an arched climbing wall all by herself, using alphabet-shaped grips to pull herself up. She then took the slide back to the ground again, where Theo was waiting for her to come and play with him. The community centre and Hamilton Elementary School both share the same building; we were on the big kids’ playground, but there was a smaller one that we may need to check out one day that doesn’t look too small for Charlotte. There are lots of geocaches nearby as the ERT (East Richmond Tour) series goes by here, some of which we have, some of which we don’t. We have a DNF on the closest one to the playground, so we didn’t bother humiliating ourselves with another attempt at it today! The playground is located at N 49.10.578 W 122.57.941 and is point no. 95 on the map at the bottom of home page.

93. Herbert Spencer Elementary, New Westminster

Since this will one day be Charlotte's school, I figured we should make sure that the playground features in our blog!  Theo was disappointed that he wasn't allowed on school grounds, so he waited for us patiently while we went to play.  There are actually four playgrounds in one here, so there was something for all ages and abilities.  We even found the elusive purple playground here!  There were lots of kids playing, but most of them were older and not much interested in Charlotte.  A girl a little younger than Charlotte did come by and Charlotte showed her and her mum where to find the steering wheel so that they could drive the ship, but the mum was a bit of a helicopter and that was the end of that before it even began.  The playground is located at N 49.13.072 W 122.54.771 and is point no. 93 on the map at the bottom of home page.

91. Sapperton Park, New Westminster

One cold afternoon, we headed to the playground across from the hospital where Charlotte was born.  She likes to hear that this was the place where she was born every time we go by!  There was another family there, and they were a little afraid of Theo at first, so I kept him close.  But eventually, the little girl got used to him and wanted to give him a pat.  The boy was a little harder to win round, but eventually, they were both fighting over who would be the next one to throw the stick for him!  I think Charlotte was quite proud that her dog was the centre of attention.  The playground itself wasn't really Charlotte-friendly as it was a bit too big for her though.  There is a geocache in the park called "Sapperton Park Rebirth" - we found it when Charlotte was just eight months old!  The playground is located at N 49.13.648 W122.53.714 and is point no. 91 on the map at the bottom of home page.

84. Blundell Elementary School, Richmond

It wasn't raining after daycare today, so we went to check out a playground that I had recently noticed while taking Theo for a lunch-time walk.  Although it's an elementary school playground, it didn't seem to be too much for Charlotte.  Until we got there, that is...

The playground is quite old school and Charlotte banged her face just a few minutes after we arrived while trying to climb a ladder - a ladder that had an overhanging piece of wood at the top that made it hard to climb over.  I cheered her up and helped her try again - she had fun on the slide, but she was done with climbing.  She had a go on the swings and we hung out in the little playhouse and warmed our hands - and that was all she was up for.  The playground is located at N 49.09.262 W 123.09.158 and is point no. 85 on the map at the bottom of home page.

69. Princess Park, North Vancouver

We had a great time in Princess Park today!  First, we took Theo for a walk and we came across a couple of other dogs playing in the creek.  Charlotte waded in the creek with them and I guess I knew it was an accident waiting to happen.  Sure enough, one of the dogs bowled her over and made her cry.  I got her dried off and changed and we headed off to find "Dangerous Daschunds".  We stopped to listen carefully to see what we could hear in the woods - and we came up with a woodpecker!  We got our cache and then went to the playground to play for a while.  We had such a good time that we came back again the next day with dad and found another geocache, "Princess Poisson" and had another play.  The playground is located at N 49.20.456 W 123.03.365 and is point no. 69 on the map at the bottom of home page.

64. Harris Park, Pitt Meadows

This playground is easily visible from Lougheed Highway as it passes through Pitt Meadows, so I had it up my sleeve if we were ever out this way and needed a playground. It has a spray park and even an outdoor pool, so it was packed on this hot summer day. It wasn’t very Theo-friendly for this reason and poor Theo had to hang out under a tree and keep a low profile while Charlotte played.  We had a delicious picnic lunch and then Charlotte headed off to play. She met a couple of older girls who were really nice to her, engaging with her and playing tag with her. She gleefully chased them back and forth across the wobbly bridge while they played along with her until they had to go. It was really sweet and made a change from our usual solitary playground adventures!

 

Charlotte checked out the spray park, but this really isn’t her thing yet – maybe next year she will be into it more.  There is a geocache nearby called “Pitt Meadows Info Centre”; I had found it quite some time before, but I didn't have the coordinates on hand to find it with Charlotte.  The playground is point no. 64 on the map at the bottom of home page.

62. Meadowood Park, Burnaby

With another blazing hot day ahead of us, we hit today's playground early.  We picked this small neighbourhood park in Burnaby because it had a cache in it.  We were in the shade at first, so Charlotte played happily; the little picnic table inside the smaller climbing frame was a nice touch.  Theo had a good time here too as he was able to climb part of the way up the big climbing frame, returning Charlotte's hat to her when she dropped it overboard!  We went to look for the cache afterwards, "Meadowood Park".  It was a little bit off-trail and so we left the stroller behind and started looking.  It was just the right amount of off-roading and climbing over things for a two-year-old explorer!  We found the cache without too much difficulty, then played some more before the heat sent us back into our air-conditioned car.  The playground is located at N 49.15.812 W 122.56.004 as is point no. 62 on the map at the bottom of home page.

53. John Storvik Playground, Anacortes, Washington

Wow! This is by far the best playground we have come across - and not just since I started this blog either. This is the most amazing playground I have ever seen! I had googled "best playground in Anacortes" before coming down here, found more than I had bargained for, and knew that we had to visit. It's a cross between a Swiss village, a wild west fort and a pirate ship! It has so many nooks and crannies to explore and climb - ranging from wooden playhouses for the little kids to bigger structures and a scary-looking tire well for the older ones. Charlotte got carried away exploring the tot lot portion and while I usually leave her be to explore what's of interest to her, this time I was cajoling her to come with me because I wanted to explore the rest of the playground! When I had seen it all, I finally went back to my usual hands-off self and allowed Charlotte to explore as she pleased. She had a brilliant time here, running around all over the place and climbing up to take the twisty tunnel slide back down to the ground again. She invited me over to her "house" and made some new friends. I was proud of her for taking one of her pals to meet Theo, who was waiting for us in the shade. She showed him how to pet Theo and told Theo he was a good dog. It was the sweetest thing - but unfortunately the boy's parents didn't like him being near Theo and that was the end of that. Sometimes I wonder if these people actual stop to take in the situation before they bark orders based on preconceived notions or fears... The playground was fenced in, but it wasn't the usual chain-link fencing that makes some playgrounds feel like a prison exercise yard. Instead, it was just part of the structure and made the playground feel like a fort, keeping the bad guys out rather than keeping the kids in. In fact, it lent a little scope for imagination to the scene; I could just imagine playing Cowboys and Indians here - if that's still something that kids do and if it's not too politically incorrect! It's really too bad that this playground is so far from home - but it's not so far away that we can't come visit it again before very long! There's a geocache not too far away for us to look for next time too; it's a multi-cache so we didn't have time for it today. The playground is located at N 48.29.863 W 122.36.888 and is point 52 on the map at the bottom of home page.

52. Schoolhouse Park, Guemes Island, Washington

I found myself with a Wednesday off work to look after Charlotte while her daycare was closed for a couple of weeks. I was looking to make an adventure out of my mid-week, day-long vacation and so we got up early (ish) and headed Stateside to picturesque Anacortes for the day. I have been through here many times and I wanted to bring Charlotte to visit this lovely spot that has such good associations for me, especially as I have ridden here on my bike at least a couple of times before. I had always wanted to take the ferry to Guemes Island and I figured that this would be the perfect opportunity: Charlotte would love bouncing over the waves, we could do some geocaching and maybe we would find a playground to hang out at for a while. The caching at the local beaches was so much fun that at first, Charlotte didn't even want to go to the playground! Throwing rocks into the water for Theo was pretty distracting... But eventually we headed inland and found the park, right in the middle of the island in a lovely, rural setting with no noise but the whisper of the wind and the chirping of the birds. The park was deserted when we first arrived, even though it was a lovely summer morning. Charlotte did some climbing and sliding while Theo and I made the most of some shade. Some big kids came up on their bikes with their parents just before we were starting to think about going, but they didn't seem interested in playing with little Charlotte and her big dog. There are no caches in the park, but in addition to the two we'd already found, we logged a couple more before we figured we'd better head back to Anacortes before the weekly dangerous cargo sailing held us up for longer than we would have liked. The playground is located at N 48.32.957 W 122.37.465 and is point 52 on the map at the bottom of home page.

49. Granville Loop Park, Vancouver

What better way to kick off summer than with two playgrounds in one day?!? We headed down to the south end of the Granville Street bridge to meet Pete after work, but we went early so that Charlotte had time to play. I used to come here once a week back in the day to pick Pete up after work, but that was long before the playground was of any interest to me! We all piled out of the car and headed towards the playground - Charlotte held my left hand, I had Theo's leash in my right and somehow the stroller rolled along between them. A guy and his dog came towards us and the dog started barking excitedly, hoping to play with Theo. Theo was just as excited and though I was the one juggling three things with two hands, the guy snarled, "Manage your dog!" as he went by. Seriously buddy, yours got going first, they're both just happy to see each other, and in case you hadn't noticed, I kind of have my hands full! So I snapped back "Control yours," and we were off to a great start. The park is a bit of a crossroads for people coming and going and given the area, there are all kinds of people going by. The entire time Charlotte was playing, some guy muttered to himself from his spot on the grass across from us. There were no other kids to play with, but Charlotte had fun anyway, driving mum around in the Jeep. Eventually Pete arrived on his bus and left it to another driver. We had a little bit more fun on the playground - then we were off to Memphis Blues for dinner! There were no geocaches in the park - but it's probably the type of park where a cache wouldn't last for long anyway. The playground is located at N 49.16.028 W 123.08.255:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1