130. Emery Barnes Park, Vancouver

Emery Barnes Park is a lovely little gem in downtown Vancouver.  It's a busy spot at all times, but when we were there at lunch time on a Tuesday, it was really bustling.  Charlotte really didn't spend much time on the playground itself as there is a water feature that few kids could resist.  It's meant to be decorative, but with its stepping stones, child-sized bridges and the little "river" leading from the waterfall to the spray fountain, it's hard not to resist kicking off your sandals on a hot summer day.  We had brought Charlotte's swimsuit along in anticipation of a trip to the beach later in the day, but we pulled it out here and let her loose.  She made a new friend, as you can see from the picture.  Maya was there with her mum and she did a great job of looking after Charlotte.  While Pete was keeping an eye on Charlotte, I went off to find the geocache hidden just a few metres from the fountain, appropriately named "Emery Barnes Park Cache".  The park is located at N 49.16.580 W 123.07.446 and is point no. 130 on the map at the bottom of home page.

115. Train Station Playground, Stanley Park, Vancouver

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Charlotte's third birthday!  It was Pete's day off and I took the afternoon off too so that we could take Charlotte to the aquarium.  After we left, we stopped by the playground to play for just a little while before we were off for a birthday dinner at White Spot.  This is a nice little playground, so we'll have to come back after another aquarium visit and check it out further!  The playground is located at N 49.18.109 W 123.07.953 point no. 115 on the map at the bottom of home page.

114. Maple Grove Park

The days are getting longer and warmer and after-daycare playground season is about to get underway!  This time we went to Maple Grove Park and Charlotte especially liked crawling through the tunnel and poking her head out of one of the three holes like a mole in a "Whack-a-Mole" game.  She played for a while, then I asked her to come with me to find the park's geocache "Excel in the Park" - but she was having none of it.  Next time, the rule is that we find the geocache first and then we get to play!  The playground is located at N49.13.423 W123.09.561 and is point no. 114 on the map at the bottom of home page.

83. Carleton Park, Vancouver

I am officially out of the running for mum-o'-the-year after today's fiasco. I pumped Charlotte full of birthday party excitement and we headed off to Gabi's fourth birthday party. I promised Charlotte kids, games, fun and birthday cake. We were running a few minutes late – yet I was able to pull up directly in front of the house and there were hardly any other cars on the street... That was the moment I realized with a sinking feeling that we were not just a few minutes late but 24 hours and a few minutes late. Charlotte had fallen asleep by the time we got there and Gabi and her family were out, so I pulled away, intent on finding a playground that was so much fun that Charlotte would forget all about the delights that I had promised her...  Carleton Park seemed to fit the bill - it had a playground and a geocache, both of which would make the birthday party fade away in Charlotte's mind.  It actually seemed to work at first, though the fact that we couldn't find "ABC" made things a little more difficult.  We did a little climbing, but Charlotte soon announced that she didn't like this playground because it was "too big".  The photo of her here is not "Look mum, no hands," but "This is too cold to hang on to!"  And so she asked when we were going to the birthday party...  I sheepishly explained my mistake, and brightly suggested a Pirate Pak at White Spot instead.  Luckily for me, she bought it.  The playground is located at N 49.14.515 W 123.01.853 and is point no. 83 on the map at the bottom of home page.

 

77. Riverview Park, Vancouver

Our first post-daycare outing in quite some time! The days are noticeably shorter than they were last time we went out after daycare and fall is definitely in the air. We found “Another Marpole Hide” first; I was so proud of my girl who wanted to open the cache herself, then said “Please have the log book?” so that she could sign it herself. She is getting to be quite the little geocacher! We headed over to the playground and Charlotte met a little boy named Mason, who was just a little bit younger than her. They played a little bit and did a brilliant job of taking turns driving the train. I heard from Mason's dad about the new playground in Terra Nova that opened while we were on vacation and that everyone has been telling me about. I told him about John Storvik playground in Anacortes, but I'm not sure he's willing to make the trek! The playground is point #77 on the map at the bottom of home page.

71. Memorial South Park, Vancouver

Brr!  It may still be August, but today, fall was in the air.  Maybe even winter!  This large park has several caches in it and I was hoping to cache the park out, but Charlotte only had it in her to get two before she wanted to hit the playground.  We cut across the playing field between the two caches, flushing out all the mosquitos that were hanging out in the wet grass.  They swarmed us!  We managed to shake them when we returned to the dead, brown, end-of-summer grass in the rest of the park.  There were a few kids playing on the playground with not a parent in sight - very refreshing!  They were a bit too old to want to play with Charlotte, but she had a good time anyway, digging in the sand and swinging off a bar as she's doing in the photo.  It was truly cold though, so I convinced her to come back to the car with me sooner rather than later - and we got back just as the skies opened and the rain began to pour.  The cache is located at N 49.13.836 W 123.05.158 and is point no. 71 on the map at the bottom of home page.

70. Ross Park, Vancouver

We finally returned to Ross Park, the little park we discovered a few weeks ago but were swim diaper-less at the time. This time around, Charlotte was ready to go – but to our disappointment, the wading pool was bone dry. Still, there were tons of kids around as there were families having picnics, so it seemed like a fun place to go hang out for a while.  We got off to a slow start - all the kids were bigger and then Charlotte had a small meltdown when she wanted to play with the steering wheel but another kid was using it.  We had to have a discussion...  But eventually, she made some friends and ended up having a good time.  There was very little helicoptering going on here - the picnicking families seemed to be all related to each other and everything was very relaxed.  The really disappointing thing about this playground is how much garbage there was everywhere.  It was really quite disgusting - it was on the grass and it was on the sand around the playground itself.  I was thinking that if I ever organize a CITO, this is where it would be!  There are no geocaches in the park itself, but the "Entrance to Narnia" is just a few blocks to the north.  Sounds like an interesting one to go back for one day!  The playground is located at N 49.13.010 W 123.04.932 and is point no. 70 on the map at the bottom of home page.

65. Thunderbird Park, Vancouver

The very top of this playground structure is visible from 1^st Avenue if you happen to be stuck at a traffic light, waiting to turn onto Highway 1. Since we almost always seem to hit this light on our way to North Van from Richmond, we have had plenty of opportunity to notice the playground and finally today we had our opportunity to go and play on it! It was a bit of a grey day, the kind of day that suggests that summer might not last forever. A couple of kids were playing there while their uncle sat on the wobbly bridge with his face so far forward over his device and his cap so far forward over his face that I never did really see him. I may complain about helicopter parents sometimes, but this uncle had clearly never heard of the term!

 

Charlotte had fun playing with five-year-old Jeremy and nine-year-old Angel. Angel seemed to take to me too – I had the feeling that she might not have a lot of adults in her life who cared about what she had to say and she seemed very happy to be able to have a conversation with me and to be listened to. We ended up staying much longer than I had intended given that we still had groceries to buy for the upcoming week! The playground is located at N 49.16.096  W 123.01.735 and is point no. 65 on the map at the bottom of home page.

57. Killarney Park, Vancouver

Every Thursday afternoon on our way from Richmond to North Vancouver, we drive past Killarney Park and Charlotte shouts "There's a playground, mum!"  I've kept it in mind for one of these Thursdays - and today was the day!  Although it's right next to Kerr Street, it's a bit difficult to get to - we drove all the way around the block to park at the nearby community centre, then walked over to the playground.  It was quite disappointing though, because it was definitely geared towards older kids - Charlotte couldn't even begin to try to climb up on it.  She did have a bit of a go on the swings though, and she did have fun playing with Owlie.  We practiced balancing like tight rope walkers on the wooden beam that surrounded the playground and we just made the best of it.  There was a pair of twin boys about ten-months-old playing in the sand underneath the climbing frame, getting dirty and had a great time while their mum watched from the grass nearby, letting them do their thing.  She was great - made me feel like there is hope that helicoptering is starting to crash and burn!  There is a geocache called "Killarney Park" in the northwest corner of the park - I had found it a long time ago though.  The playground is located at N 49.13.634 W 123.02.525 and is point no. 57 on the map at the bottom of home page.

54. Bobolink Park, Vancouver

Today we needed a playground not too far off our route from Richmond to North Van - and it had better be a waterpark, given this heat wave! Bobolink Park seemed to fit the bill, but when we got there, we were disappointed to find the wading pool empty. Perhaps it had been drained for the day, but maybe it hadn't been in use at all - it seemed pretty dry. This was disappointing, but Charlotte managed to get in a good play anyway, though I preferred to find a bit of shade on this scorching hot day. There weren't too many other kids playing here, but Charlotte tried to make friends with a couple of crows that were hanging about. She kept asking them to come closer, holding her hands out to them, and was very disappointed each time they flew away! I believe there used to be a very tricky geocache in this park that I never did find. It's gone now though - I'm glad that now I will never have to find it! The park is located at N 49.12.931 W 123.03.376 and is point 54 on the map at the bottom of the 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

27. Balaclava Park West Playground, Vancouver

Balaclava Park - the right side of the tracks!  Very posh houses around here...  Charlotte and I found our geocache, appropriately named "Balaclava Park", then had to decide which of the two playgrounds we would visit - this is how the rich kids live, I guess!  We went with the westernmost playground - it was bigger, so perhaps not the most appropriate for Charlotte, but it was the closest one to the cache and there was another little girl playing there already who was just about Charlotte's age.  They had a great time playing in the sand together with a couple of toys that were permanent residents of the playground.  It's always nice when there is someone around to play with who has parents who will actually allow the kids to play without supervising every movement.  This girl's mama happened to be French - perhaps that has something to do with how amazingly easy-going she was - she laid down on the grass, closed her eyes and soaked up some sun - she seemed more than happy to trust that her daughter was just fine, doing her own thing and making new friends.  Brilliant!  I have a lovely picture of the two girls playing together in the sand, but I guess it's probably not cool to upload random pictures of a stranger's daughter to the Internet.  After they left, Charlotte did some climbing and swinging till I got worried about sunburn.  Time to start schlepping the sunscreen around again, I guess!  The park is located at:  N 49.14.753  W 123.10.520:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1

26. MacDonald Park, Vancouver

If anyone deserved a trip to the playground after daycare today, it was Charlotte!  She has been one sick little girl for quite some time now and playgrounds were out of the picture.  She was finally back at daycare, the sun was shining afterwards, and it was time to get back in the swing of things.  We're not on track to get 101 by the end of the year at this rate - we'd better pick up the pace!

We got the nearby geocache first, "Have a Ball".  It wasn't too difficult to find and soon we were at the playground.  Charlotte started off on the small slide, but it was disappointingly slow, so she decided she wanted to tackle the big slide.  And the big slide was BIG!  She couldn't climb to the top by herself because the steps were too big, so I got recruited into giving her a boost when she needed it.  But I do draw the line at accompanying my child down the ladder.  Seriously.  One of the dads was taking his kid down the slide and I will never understand that.  Is it about safety?  Because it seems to me that you're safer when you're in control of your own actions than when a couple of hundred pounds of dad is also added to the mix.  Anyway, Charlotte managed three or four goes on the slide before she suddenly chickened out and had enough.

There were some fun kids playing at the playground - one of them pointed out a caterpillar that we went and examined.  One of the grandparents was not so kind - she made disparaging remarks about Charlotte: "I think it's a girl," she said.  What gave it away?  Must have been the purple shoes!  Her own grandaughter was dressed in voluminous skirts and lots of lace for her trip to the playground, so whatever to her.

Another fun thing at this playground was all the toys!  Some old toys were lying around: stuff to ride on or to dig in the sand.  It was kind of nice to have a few little extras.  We were here for an entire hour before I had to insist that it was time to go home for dinner.  The playground is located at N 49.13.785 W 123.05.928:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1

25. Norquay Elementary School, Vancouver

What's this?!?  Two playgrounds in one day?!?  In the evening, we went to visit our friends Paula and Gabi; we had dinner with them and then they took us to check out their favourite local playground.  The playground is brand new, thanks to the fundraising efforts of the parents of the kids at the elementary school and apparently the old playground left a lot to be desired.  Let's not get into whether or not parents should be selling dozens of cookies and cupcakes in order to be able to have a playground in the schoolyard...  Charlotte and Gabi had a great time tearing all over the playground, checking out the swings and slides and climbing everywhere.  Because the playground is designed for school-aged kids, there were no bucket swings for Charlotte, but she didn't seem to mind as she was enjoying herself so much, clambering about and making friends with one of the other girls at the playground.  By the time we left, the sun was almost down, it was getting cold - and we only just made it home in time for bedtime!  There are no geocaches nearby with it being a school, but we already got one today anyway!  The playground is located at N 49.14.467 W 123.03.051: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1

21. Columbia Park, Vancouver

Columbia Park!  There are not many decent-sized parks in Vancouver that I haven't visited on one geocaching mission or another, but this is one that had never even made it onto my radar - until this afternoon.  Once again, we came for the cache and stayed for the playground.  "Cruisin' in Columbia Park" was well-hidden in a stand of two or three small trees - shall we say that a little climbing was required?  Once we had the cache under our belts, we were ready to hit the playground and I do think that this is Charlotte's favourite playground so far!  She was off - no need to hold mum's hand anymore.  She climbed some steps, climbed down to a lower platform, climbed up again, made her way through the tunnel, down to another platform and finally across the arched bridge.  The she made her way back down to the ground and ran off to repeat.  And repeat, and repeat, and repeat.  One of the climbs was a little tricky for her, but she put some effort into it and made it up by herself.  I resisted the urge to congratulate her on her accomplishment, but just watched her smile to herself and say "Did it!" to no one in particular.  It was so nice to see her taking pleasure from her own accomplishment, doing it for herself and not for me or anyone else.  Of course, I felt like a negligent parent amongst all the others who were within arm's reach at all times, telling their kids where to go and how to play and, quite literally, chiding them for running too fast.  In a playground.  Seriously.

The park even had a type of swing that I had never seen before; it was a step up towards a big girl swing, being a regular bucket swing but without the front part to hold 'em in.  Charlotte had fun in it, but she did hang on extra tight as I pushed her into the air!  And I didn't swing her anywhere near as high as I normally would have - I don't think she was ready for that, but more to the point, neither was I!

I don't know that this park would necessarily strike anyone else as being that much more amazing than any other.  It looks like any other playground, after all.  But for Charlotte, it was a perfect fit at this stage - just challenging enough without being too much for her.  The park is located at N 49.13.934 W 123.06.772: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI

20. Oak Park, Vancouver

Yet another beautiful afternoon!  Before leaving work, I looked for a park with an unfound geocache in it - a little something for me and a little something for Charlotte!  I came across Oak Park, with a cache named, appropriately enough, "Oak Park".  Charlotte was happy enough to go caching first - "find it!" she said.  We found it quickly, signed the log, retrieved a travel bug and were on our way back to the playground.  There were lots of other kids there on this lovely day and Charlotte had fun on the swings, the slide, and all the usual playground equipment.  There were even some non-hovery parents for me to talk to!

This park also has a water park for the summer - I had no idea how many water parks were around until I started writing this blog!  Charlotte actually had as much fun in the still-dry water park as she did anywhere else, sliding down the slopes of the pool and trotting across the bridges.  The playground is located at N 49.12.995 W 123.07.680: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI

17. Riverfront Park, Vancouver

It wasn't a very nice afternoon for a playground visit - in fact, it almost didn't happen at all.  But we had a bit of a break in the weather and we stopped off at Riverfront Park - we scored both a playground and a geocache in one go!  The playground was pretty small with just two swings, one for little kids and one for big ones.  Charlotte loved it when I was in the swing next to her - we got ourselves in sync and held hands as we swung back and forth, much to her amusement.  She had fun climbing too - the aluminium slide was pretty cool because it was VERY NOISY!

 

It was all I could do to convince her to come with me to look for a geocache just 50 metres or so away, though she got into it once we started looking for the cache.  It was called Serving It Up - a reference to the nearby tennis court and Charlotte was happy to help find it.  The coordinates for a puzzle cache are also just a few metres away - but where the final cache can be found is another story!

Charlotte enjoyed watching the tugboats go by and there were lots of puppies to pat too.  There is a picnic shelter and bathrooms close by - it's a nice little park, or it would have been for us if it hadn't been so very cold!  The park is located at N 49.12.339 W 123.03.067:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI