115. Train Station Playground, Stanley Park, Vancouver

C

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.

112. Richmond Nature Park, Richmond

Our second new playground in a row is birthday party-related!  This time we headed to the Richmond Nature Park to celebrate Alex's fifth birthday.  The playground itself is a rope pyramid that's a bit much for Charlotte for now, but she did play on it a bit with the other kids.  Mostly she cared more about the giant log nearby that was just perfect for climbing on - lots of kids seemed to prefer it over the structure that was actually designed for climbing!  When everyone had arrived, we headed along the boardwalk on an Easter egg hunt, with all of the kids finding a treasure.

We ended in the "grassy meadow", where we had a pizza picnic and the kids romped and played.  I turned on the GPS from underneath the picnic shelter and found myself just three metres away from "Green Meenie"!  At that moment, some other geocachers arrived and we all hunted for the cache together.  We actually came back to the park a few days later after work and daycare to climb on the log some more and to find one of the other caches in the park, "Time Machine 2".  There are still lots of caches to find in the park, including some of the Richmond GeoQuest caches, so we will be back again for sure!  The playground is located at N 49.10.247 W 123.05.640 and is point no. 112 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.

 

30. Stevens Mini-Park, Ladner

Today was both Pete’s birthday and Mother’s Day – of course we had to go out to celebrate! After a lovely day at the Reifel bird sanctuary, we stopped to pat some horses and then stopped at a small playground we have driven by many times before, Stevens Mini-Park. It is indeed a mini-park, just a fenced off area with a few pieces of equipment in it, but when you’re two, you don’t really need much! The slide here was pretty good – it had steps that were easy enough to climb, but it was quite a tall slide – tall enough that it took Charlotte a while to build up her courage to go down it. She also loved going on the seesaw with dad, and of course, no trip to the playground is complete without a go on the swings. Robins, mourning doves and chickadees all flitted through the park as we played. Some of the houses around here are amazing; check out the gigantic one behind Charlotte on the seesaw!  There is no geocache near the park, but there is a great power trail along the dyke just to the south. The park is located at N 49.05.207 W 123.06.020: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1