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.
What a beautiful sunny day for an afternoon at the playground! Only it wasn't a whole afternoon at the playground - it was much too cold for that. The playground at Foreshore Park is designed like a boat, in keeping with its location on the river. As Charlotte played, she was continually stopping to watch the tugboats going this way and that up the river. She told me that she loved this playground and it really was just right for her. I was freezing, but I managed to convince her to leave without a meltdown - by promising her a trip to the swimming pool! There are lots of geocaches along the shoreline; the FFT series runs by here, though Charlotte and I have already found the ones near here. The playground is located at N 49.11.510 W 122.59.911 and is point number 87 on the map at the bottom of home page.
This afternoon, nana and Charlotte came out to Steveston; I met them there and we had a delicious (really, really delicious!) dinner at the Crab King before walking over to the playground outside the community centre. I had no idea what an amazing playground we were in for! So many playgrounds are so similar to each other, mixing and matching components, that it was a nice surprise to find something quite different. It had a few pieces of the usual stuff, but the wooden boat was completely unique. Even the steering wheel was a real marine steering wheel, complete with rust!
The playground was huge too, and teeming with kids. Charlotte had a great time climbing up onto the boat and taking the helter skelter back down again. That is until another boy, probably a couple of years older than her, took a shine to her and began following her around everywhere she went. At first, it was cute - he was down the slide right behind her, then following her up the steps again, always right on top of her. When she climbed the hill for what turned out to be the last time and found him still on top of her, she got really upset and started coming back down the steps again. He was so close to her that he was stepping on her as she went down the steps on her bum and I had to step in to get him to back off. She started crying in frustration and I told him that we were going to play by ourselves for a little while. Luckily we were able to ditch him and go off to play by ourselves for a bit before we headed back to the car. I had a little chat with her in the car on the way home about how it's okay to tell someone to back off if they're too close. Really? Am I really having this conversation with her when she's only two-years-old? And why aren't this boys parents having a word with him about backing off when someone doesn't want all your attention? This was another case of me getting the creeps about a situation that is wrong now and would be even more so fast-forward a few years. Still, the park itself was amazing - definitely one to keep in mind for future visits! We picked up the geocache when we first arrived, "End of the Line". The playground is located at N 49.07.548 W 123.10.786: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1