160. Mary Avenue Park, Burnaby

We have no photos from this playground, but that's okay as it wasn't a particularly memorable one anyway.  And if it was memorable, it was for the wrong reasons.  When we first arrived, we were the only ones there, but eventually a couple of brothers showed up.  They weren't interested in playing with Charlotte at all, despite her overtures.  The playground is right next door to a school and at 3 p.m., the bell rang and the kids came pouring out.  Many of them stayed to play, but they were all much older than Charlotte and all knew each other, so no one was interested in playing with her.  In fact, one kid went out of his way to tell her she was too small to play with them and another got in trouble with her dad for pushing past her on the playground.  We decided to chalk it up to experience and went home to make popsicles instead!  The playground is located at N 49.13.009 / 122.56.127 and is point no. 160 on the map at the bottom of home page.

126. Tomekichi Homma Elementary School, Richmond

Today we were out and about in Richmond, looking for some more of the Richmond GeoQuest series.  After finding the one at the Britannia Shipyards, we went across to the playground that Charlotte's eagle eyes had spotted when we arrived.  Charlotte managed to make friends with a little girl named Anna, despite the fact that she was never allowed to be more than two feet away from one of her parents at any time.  After Anna left, Charlotte got off to a bad start with an older boy named Paul, who told her that she couldn't climb up on the same structure as him.  Charlotte was really upset and came to me for a snuggle.  I told her that she could go wherever she wanted on the playground and before very long, things were patched up with Paul and they were playing again.  When Paul left, Charlotte joined me on the bench and took over reading my book.  The playground is located at N 49.07.367 W 123.10.157 and is point no. 126 on the map at the bottom of home page.

118. F.W. Howay Elementary School, New Westminster

One hot day, we were out and about after a swim at the relatively nearby Canada Games Pool when we happened by this elementary school playground.  It was a bit big for Charlotte, but she had a good time practicing her balancing.  Some big kids came along and they were busy playing "Hot Lava" and they didn't much care about Charlotte.  But they also didn't mind when she played with their soccer ball for a bit until they were ready to dash away on their next adventure.  It was quite nice to see them playing, making up their game and solving their own problems without an adult in sight!  Gives me hope after all...  We will have to come back soon as there is a geocache nearby that we haven't found yet - "In Loving Memory" - one of our closest unfound caches at the moment.  The playground is located at N 49.13.540 W 122.54.629 and is point no. 118 on the map at the bottom of home page.

117. Mt. Lehman Elementary School, Abbotsford

Continuing on with our hunt for caches that would help us qualify for the 122 Degree Challenge, we came across this elementary school playground where we stopped for a picnic lunch.  The small playground was just right for Charlotte and we also had a game of hopscotch!  Some other kids came by to play too and we chatted with them for a while.  The playground is located at N 49.07.074 W 122.23.007 and is point no. 117 on the map at the bottom of home page.

40. Sir Wilfred Grenfell Elementary School, Vancouver

Every Thursday on our trek from Richmond to North Van, we pass by an elementary school that sports three different playgrounds, all in a row.  Every week, I tell myself we will have to stop there, and finally we got around to it.  Charlotte took off up the ladder on the big kids' playground before I had any chance to have any say in the matter and was at the top before I had any opportunity to worry.  That's the way to do it!  Only trouble was that she couldn't get down again - she wasn't up for the giant slide and hasn't yet figured out how to turn around and go down the ladder backwards.  We soon moved on to playground number two, which was a little more little-kid friendly.  In fact, it was a little bit boring, so we decided to walk a couple of hundred metres further along the school grounds to playground number three.  There was a wire fence around the playground, but it never occurred to me that the entire playground would be inaccessible, but sure enough, the gate was locked shut with coil after coil of chain wrapped through it.  Evidently, someone was adamant that no kids get in there!  Charlotte decided soon after that that she wanted to get going to nana and grandad's, so we packed up and headed out.  Only as soon as we got to the car, she started crying for the playground again!  Not my favourite playground ever, but at least we finally stopped to check it out after driving past it so many times.  The playground is located at N 49.14.580 W 123.02.105: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1