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.

125. Rasar State Park, Washington

After our trip to the playground in Concrete, we headed back to our campsite.  We headed down to the day use area of the park to explore the trails and get a stamp for our Washington State Parks passport from the "WaStatePks100: Rasar" geocache.  This was our first passport stamp and we have an awful lot more to go!  We went for a nice walk through the woods and found the cache in a birdhouse.  Afterwards, we stopped to play at the nearby playground, which we hadn't even realized at first was there.  It was a nice surprise - a nice little playground in the woods.  I can see us camping here when Charlotte's a little older, riding her bike down to the playground to play with her campsite friends!  The playground is located at N48.30.907 W 121.54.227 and is point no. 125 on the map at the bottom of home page.

124. Concrete Playground, Concrete, Washington

This morning, we had met up with Mr. ClueFinders for a day of caching around and about in the area.  He had left his car in Concrete and hopped in with us, so at the end of the day, we dropped him back off in Concrete and then checked out the local playground.  There was lots to climb on and Charlotte also enjoyed riding on the space shuttle - though she wouldn't let me take her picture while riding it!  There is a fairly major road nearby called Challenger Road, so combined with this play structure, I wondered if one of the Challenger astronauts had been local and I looked up the crew of the ill-fated shuttle.  Turns out that one of them, Dick Scobee, was from Cle Elum, Washington and there is an elementary school named after him in Auburn.  I don't think that he is the reason behind the playground and Challenger Road, but it was interesting anyway.  I had not yet moved to Vancouver at the time of the Challenger disaster and wouldn't have heard of Cle Elum at that point.  There were no caches at the playground, but we were near the end of a 129-cache power trail that I hope to do some day!  The playground is located at N 48.32.283 W 121.45.496 and is point no. 124 on the map at the bottom of home page.

123. Howard Miller Steelhead Park, Rockport, Washington

After our misadventure in Sedro-Woolley, we picked up our groceries and headed out to Rasar State Park to find a campsite.  We had a walk-in site, and though it was hardly any distance from the parking lot to the site, it was a bit inconvenient given that I was on my own with a three-year-old and every single trip to the car was a bit of a production.  So I decided to head east on Highway 20 in search of a picnic site - I knew there were many places along the way that would be nice to stop at and explore.  We ended up at a little county park in Rockport on the banks of the Skagit River - the same river I had pictured Charlotte in earlier today!  I pulled out the kitchen box - only to find my camping stove in pieces.  So much for the delicious pasta dinner I had planned - and so much for hot water for dishes too.  We made do with a lunch picnic.  While I was getting things ready, Theo and Charlotte were racing around on the grass near the picnic table when she spotted this playground around the other side of the nearby building.

"Maybe we can play at the playground!" she said.

"What playground?" I asked - I couldn't see any playground!

But eagle-eye Charlotte had spotted one.  It was pretty strange as a public playground goes - just a collection of Little Tikes equipment - only more of it than you would normally see in a private yard.  Charlotte wasn't picky though - especially as it was something that her friend Theo could join her on!  I was without a loaded GPS at this point, Paddy having recently died in a freak accident.  It was killing me to know that there was probably a cache hidden in the park and I didn't know where to look!  I actually took a peek in some likely-looking spots, but to no avail!  In the end, we found the closest cache, "Here's to Slough" the next day when we were caching with our friend Mr. ClueFinders.  The playground is located at N 48.29.119 W 121.35.636 and is point no. 123 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.

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.

106. Brickyard Park, Blaine, Washington

We headed south of the border this morning to meet Mr. ClueFinders for a few hours of caching around Blaine and Semiahmoo.  Since we never know how long the border line-up is going to be, we gave ourselves plenty of time and as luck would have it, we were across in 20 minutes and had lots of time to check out a new playground.  I had looked up a couple of playgrounds in Blaine and this was one of them, though it turned out to be a little much for Charlotte.  It had a structure to climb on and nothing else; it was made of rope and was more than Charlotte was up for.  But she still enjoyed running around and doing some balancing, as did Theo.  There was no geocache hidden in the park, though there wasn't really anywhere much to hide anything more than a micro.  The playground is located at N 48.59.049 W 122.44.306 and is point no. 106 on the map at the bottom of home page.

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.

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.

100. Thornton A. Sullivan Park, Everett, Washington

After Christmas and Boxing Day at home, we headed down to Edmonds to see our friends "TheClueFinders" and to attend their party on Saturday night and go to the zoo the next day.  It had been raining on and off during most of our drive down as far as Everett, but as we got further south, we could see some sunshine ahead of us and I thought we were in for a nice break at a playground I had googled beforehand.  It wasn't raining when I pulled into the parking lot - but it began to pour before I had even had time to get Charlotte out of her carseat!  Still, Charlotte needed a break and there are still two playgrounds to go by the end of the year, so she donned her Muddy Buddies and off we went.  Her Muddy Buddies were noted by a family who had just moved to the area from Texas and were still learning how to cope with the rain!

We had a good time on the playground in spite of the rain, then we went to find a nearby geocache "Silver Lake View".  The playground is on the southwest shore of Silver Lake, which was chock full of birds today - a huge flock of coots, some huge cormorants, and a handful of buffleheads.  We found the cache without too much difficulty - and no wonder, since I had actually found it before, back in June 2011, on a caching mission with Mr. ClueFinders!  I had realized that I had been here before as soon as we pulled up in the parking lot, but I hadn't realized that I was after the exact same cache!  At least Blackford Girl got a new cache for her stats.  We left the playground still in the pouring rain - and wouldn't you know it, the sun came out about ten minutes later further down the highway.  The playground is located at N 47.53.611 W 122.12.877 and is point no. 100 on the map at the bottom of home page.

82. Million Smiles Playground, Lynden City Park, Washington

Charlotte and I planned a trip to Lynden, Washington today so that we could attend a geocaching event, “The Ice Scream Man”. Before we went, I googled “best playground in Lynden” and the Million Smiles Playground in City Park immediately popped up. The pictures were amazing and this playground was clearly going to give John Storvik a run for its money!

Unfortunately, the weather was terrible all day. At least it was “just rain” when we were at the playground – as opposed to a “torrential downpour” while we were at the event. Charlotte got kitted out in her Muddy Buddies for the first time this season and we went to check out the playground.

It was very similar in design to John Storvik, though this one was much more commercialized with a little row of playshops for the little ones to play in – each one prominently displaying the name of a local sponsor. I wasn't too thrilled with the commercialism and the wet weather swayed my judgment a bit too, but even so, I think this one wins out over John Storvik because of the amazing three-storey playhouse. We climbed up to a very dark little playhouse – which lit up as soon as we got close to the top and made the place very cozy. It was entirely closed in and made for a great little spot to hang out. There was a twisty slide from almost the very top that was just a black hole – Charlotte refused to go down it – and refused to let me go down it either!

The park itself is lovely, situated on the banks of Fishtrap Creek. We will definitely have to come back here and make a day of it when the days are longer and the weather is nice again. There are a couple of puzzle caches nearby that we will need to work on too! The playground is located at N 48.56.963 and is point no. 82 on the map at the bottom of home page.

67. City Park, Edmonds, Washington

Our second playground today!  We headed to City Park with our friends, The ClueFinders.  Yes, of course they have real names, but we call our geocaching buddies by the handle chosen for them by their daughter - back when she thought geocaching was cool!  The ClueFinders live nearby and there is a cache near the playground that Mr. ClueFinders has been having some trouble with called "Table of Peace".  We went to see if we could help him cross it off his DNF list, climbing all over the picnic tables in search of a cache hidden in the rafters of the shelter above.  This was a little bit awkward given the fact that I have been trying to teach Charlotte some table manners lately!  In the end, it was Mrs. ClueFinders who came through, finding a tiny cache hidden in a piece of fake gum.  With the cache found, we headed over to the playground for a bit.  Mrs. ClueFinders walked home while Mr. ClueFinders proved to be great fun at the playground.  We had a good play before finally heading back to ClueFinder HQ for some dinner - and lots of geocaching conversation!  The playground is located at N 47.48.343 W 122.22.944 and is point no. 67 on the map at the bottom of home page.

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.

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.

31. Salishan Park, Blaine, Washington

Lately, I have been doing a solo gas run down to Blaine on Mondays – the price of gas these days is ridiculous and it’s worth the drive to fill up in the US. Things got a little off schedule this week and I ended up going on Tuesday – which meant that Charlotte was along for the ride, which meant that we would check out our first international playground! We parked near the geocache, “Salishan Park Revisited”, but it didn’t reveal itself immediately and I really didn’t get to search, Charlotte was in such a hurry to get to the playground! We had a good time here – there was a brother and sister duo, Gwen and Jack, who were very chatty. Jack asked Charlotte if she wanted to play with them and she just beamed as she said “yes!” Jack was about five and Gwen was about twelve, so the playing was a bit lopsided, but that didn’t seem to matter. The playground had something new for us – a step to climb up on that wobbled – hang on tight, so you don’t fall off! Charlotte needed help on and off, but she liked it. There were picnic tables nearby for the mums and dads to hang out while the kids played and it was in a quiet, residential neighbourhood without too much traffic whizzing by. The park is located at N 48.59.265 W 122.44.726:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1