158. Ernie Winch Park, Burnaby

We came out to this park on an overcast evening to find a geocache starting with "E" - it was called "Ernie Winch Park Cache", appropriately enough.  After making the find, we headed over to the playground; it wasn't a lot of fun at first as there weren't many kids there and those that were there were being very closely helicoptered.  However, Charlotte soon found Apollo and Ateem to play with and they had a great time on the school bus, turning it into an ice cream truck and whatever else captured their imagination.  They thought it was great that they were aged three, four and five - it was then convenient for Owlie to be six, Riley to be seven and me to be eight!  All went well until I brought the camera out and allowed them each to have a turn taking pictures.  There was much drama and heartache over how much time each had been allowed to spend with the camera and things went downhill from there.  They made up for a time, but three very strong personalities couldn't help but clash again!  We headed out, Charlotte in tears over some transgression committed by one of the other girls.  I thought it was good for her to meet some kids who wouldn't let her boss them around!  The playground is located at N 49.12.880 W 122.56.732 and is point no. 158 on the map at the bottom of home page.

155. SInclair Park, New Westminster

One of our closest unfound geocaches to home happens to be located a few metres from a playground - so we had more than one reason to head to Sinclair Park on this overcast day.  Charlotte played with Owlie and I helped them both down the fireman's pole and made a daisy chain for Charlotte to wear on her head.  We met a muggle who was exercising her dogs; she was going to move on at first, but we assured her that we were dog people.  Tyson may have looked scary to some people, but not to us!  We had a go on the swings and finally we saw our opportunity to look for the cache.  We came up short at first, but after taking the time to read the logs, we were able to come back later to make the find, which was simply called "Sinclair Park".  The playground is located at N 49.13.287 W 122.55.088 and is point no. 155 on the map at the bottom of home page.

153. Westminster Pier Park - East Playground

Charlotte and I ditched pre-school and work early today - and set off on an adventure!  We took the bus down to the Quay and walked east along the boardwalk, as far as we could go.  We were in search of a geocache at the far end of the boardwalk ("There's a $^@#3 in my Boot!"), which we didn't find, but we had fun getting there.  Along the way, we stopped off at the west playground, which we have visited before, then here, at the east playground.  This one is much smaller than the west playground and designed for younger kids.  There were a couple of kids playing here, but they were being told not to climb (!) so they weren't a whole lot of fun to play with and we soon continued on our way to the giant W made out of shipping containers.  After our failed attempt at finding the cache, we took the glass elevator back up to street level and caught the bus home again for dinner.  Charlotte walked and walked - I don't think she ever walked quite so far in her life!  The playground is point no. 153 on the map at the bottom of home page.

147. Broadview Park, Burnaby

I had spotted this little playground while driving along Canada Way, so today we went to check it out.  It was pretty cold out, so we had the place to ourselves.  Charlotte wasn't much interested in the playground itself for some reason, and was much more into digging around in the sand.  I would have thought it was a bit cold for that, but she didn't seem to mind!  Theo chewed on sticks and things only went downhill when he decided to chew on a stick that was integral to Charlotte's master plan for the sand pit, but they always managed to work it out between them in the end.  There was a geocache just a few metres away called "In-Tree-Ging", but it has had so many DNFs on it lately that we didn't even bother looking for it.  The playground is located at N 49.15.345 W123.00.973 and is point no. 147 on the map at the bottom of home page.

142. Edmonds Community Centre, Burnaby

On an unseasonably warm afternoon, Charlotte and I set out to find "Edmonds Evergreens".  We found the cache and we also found a very awesome playground a few steps away.  It was a big one and a challenging one - there was a climbing mountain that Charlotte wasn't completely confident on at first - and it's been a long time since she asked for help with a climbing mountain. The playground was packed with kids, which is usually a great thing, but in this case, there was a pretty unfriendly vibe.  Charlotte came running back to me in tears to tell me that one of the other girls had told her that she couldn't play there and though I tried to talk her through how to handle it, she wasn't into it.  We went to another part of the playground where Charlotte crossed the rope bridge with some trepidation, only to be unable to get off when a boy at the other end of it blocked her way and refused to let her go past.  I'm not a fan of parents intervening in playground squabbles, but I had to step in in this case.  The helicopters were going beserk in their condemnation of the parents who were completely ignoring their kids' bad behaviour.  Strangely enough, we were talking to our friends who had been there too and they had a similarly bad experience.  It's so disappointing as the playground itself is amazing and not too far from our place.  We will give it another try and hopefully get a better mix of people next time.  The playground is located at N 49.12.916 W 122.55.976 and is point no. 142 on the map at the bottom of home page.

137. Valemount and Area Museum, Valemount

On our way up to Edson to visit Andrew and Lannie, we stopped in Valemount to see the caboose outside the local museum.  I had stopped here on my way to Edson with Charlotte when she was just six-months-old to find a geocache - I had remembered the caboose and wanted to show it to Charlotte again, now that she's old enough to be into such things.  What I hadn't remembered was the small playground here - Charlotte wasn't into them yet back then!  There was quite a chilly wind blowing, but that didn't stop Charlotte from having a fun time, ringing bells and riding the rails, while Owlie hung on behind her, riding in her hood.  The geocache was still there: "I'll take the train".  The playground is located at N 52.50.172 W 119.15.728 and is point no. 137 on the map at the bottom of home page.

133. Hamilton VLA Neighbourhood Park, Richmond

We came by after work and daycare today to find an "E" cache for a challenge that Charlotte is working on.  We found "ERT06" - part of the East Richmond Trails series.  It was high up in a tree so I picked Charlotte up, hoisted her as far up as I could and she grabbed the cache, looking very proud of herself for her accomplishment.  Afterwards, we played for a bit at the nearby playground, but it was so hot that neither of us really felt much like being there and we soon headed home for dinner!  Maybe we will give this park another shot on a cooler day...  The playground is located at N 49.10.831 W 122.57.881 and is point no. 133 on the map at the bottom of home page.

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.

128. Bell Park, Coquitlam

We were driving along Lougheed Highway today when I needed something from my bag that I couldn't reach.  I needed to stop, so I pulled off the highway and Charlotte immediately spotted this playground and asked if we could stop.  We were in no hurry, so we did!  Shortly after we arrived, another dog raced over to join us - for the first time ever, Theo had met a canine namesake!  "Two Theos!" said Charlotte, delightedly.  After the other Theo had gone on his way, we were joined by a boy named Tristan and his mum.  Tristan shared his toys with Charlotte and she showed him how to do tipple-tails.  He was quite enthralled by Theo, which made Charlotte proud; she loves to let everyone know that Theo is her dog when he's attracting attention!  There is a cache called "Booty Crack" just a few metres away from the playground, but we had found it a long time ago - when Blackford Girl was just a baby and too small for playgrounds!  The playground is located at N 49.15.125 W 122.54.300 and is point no. 128 on the map at the bottom of home page.

127. Riverside Adventure Park, New Westminster

Although today was daddy and Charlotte day, I had Charlotte in the evening as Pete was going out.  He dropped her off to me at work, but it took us a very long time to get back to New Westminster due to the traffic.  It really seemed that Charlotte deserved a chance to stretch her legs, so we stopped off at the awesomely-named Riverside Adventure Park, not too far from Blackford Island.  I found one of my very first geocaches here way back in 2006; it was called "Delusions of Grandeur", named by a CO who was as amused by the name as I am.  I don't know where the "adventure" part of the name comes from and as for the "riverside" part, well, the river is in sight, way down the hill, with a highway and a busy rail yard to cross before you get to it.  The park is a lot different now than it was in early 2006 when I found my seventh geocache.  The dodgy playground equipment has long since been removed and replaced with a sanitized version that offers little challenge to anyone.  But Charlotte did have fun giving Owlie a ride on the loop.  "Delusions of Grandeur" is long gone too, but "Illusions of Grandeur" has been in its place for some years now; Charlotte and I have both logged a find on this cache!  The playground is located at N 49.12.300 W 122.56.022 and is point no. 127 on the map at the bottom of home page.

121. Graham Park, Burnaby

The days are getting to be so nice and long again!  On this Tuesday evening, we headed out after dinner to find my closest unfound cache to home - which just happens to be next to a playground!  "For Grace" is there for a sad reason; Grace was an exchange student from Korea who used to have a cache in this park, one which I found back in July 2011.  She died of leukemia in April 2013.  Her cache is no longer there as the old equipment was recently removed and the new playground installed - and now her homestay family have a tribute cache here for her instead.  We didn't get to look for the cache today; there was a family playing badminton right at ground zero.  The cache is also a four-star difficulty, so will probably require a good, uninterrupted hunt!  But Charlotte had a great time here even without a cache hunt; she especially liked driving the race car.  The playground is located at N 49.13.446 W 122.55.809 and is point no. 121 on the map at the bottom of home page.

120. Ellwood Park, Abbotsford

Today was a pretty exciting day for us - we finished our 122 Degree Challenge!  Afterwards, we went in search of Charlotte Park - I had discovered that there was such a place while doing a little pre-trip research.  But although we found Charlotte Avenue, Charlotte Park remained elusive.  However, at the end of Charlotte Avenue, we found a playground that would suit us just fine and we went in to play.  We never did find out the name of the park while we were there - we just got it off the map afterwards.  There were lots of kids playing, but unfortunately, most of them were from a birthday party that was being held there, so they all knew each other already and weren't interested in getting to know anyone else.  Charlotte still had fun while Theo and I soaked up some sun on the grass.  After the playground, Charlotte and I zipped around from tree to tree, looking for the one that held a geocache, "Getting to Know My Way Around - K".  Great, now there's another series that we need to complete since we've got one of them!  The playground is located at N 49.03.457 W 122.20.924 and is point no. 120 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.

113. Eastburn Park, Burnaby

A geocache called "Eastburn Park" had made its way to the top of my "closest unfound cache to home" list, so I was anxious to go by and make the find.  Today was a bit chilly, but it was a nice day for the playground that was just a few metres away from where the cache was hidden.  The cache was soon in hand and then we were free to play!  There were no other kids around today, but Charlotte and I had fun anyway.  She would climb the stairs, I would help her across the zip line, she would climb some more and take the big slide down to the ground again before running off to do it all over again.  They even had an old-school seesaw and Charlotte had fun running back and forth across it - holding my hand of course!  The playground is located at N 49.13.307 W 122.55.738 and is point no. 113 on the map at the bottom of home page.

108. Kensington Park, Delta

Charlotte and I found ourselves in Delta this morning after attending a "Geocachers Breakfast" at the Skyhawk Restaurant at the Boundary Bay airport.  I've been to this playground before in search of the nearby geocache, "Jiminy 'What'?".  It was such a warm sunny day today; I can hardly believe it's only February.  Charlotte raced up the climbing mountain over and over again, climbed up the slide and slid down on her tummy and generally had the time of her life.  The playground is located at N 49.05.294 W 123.02.651 and is point no. 108 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.

99. Sullivan Park, New Westminster

I have been "saving" this hidden playground, in walking distance from our apartment, and I finally got to use it today.  I had worked in the morning and had the afternoon off - but by the time I got home, I did not want to tackle Christmas Eve traffic and there were only a couple of hours of daylight left.  I have always called this park "Secret Park", Mya and Addy call it "Oliver Park" because it's at the foot of Oliver Street, but it's real name is Sullivan Park.  I don't think I can bring myself to call it by its real name though!  In fact, I have known the real name of this park for a while because its geocache is called "Sullivan Park" - but I had forgotten all about that.  Charlotte had found this cache when she was about six-weeks-old; I remember that day well because I had showered, put on clean clothes and had Charlotte recently-fed and freshly diapered all at the same time! 

Everyone had a great time here today - Theo played with another Golden Retriever named Senator for a while and after Senator left, a Goldie named Casey showed up too!  Charlotte played in the sand more than anything else and I just enjoyed the sunshine - it was warm like spring today.  We left as the sun was starting to slide down towards the horizon, stopping to pick up one last thing that we needed for Christmas as we went.  The playground is located at N 49.12.736 W 122.12.877 and is point no. 99 on the map at the bottom of home page.

98. Como Lake Park, Coquitlam

On another beautiful, sunny afternoon, we headed to Como Lake Park.  The playground equipment here wasn't terribly exciting, but it was in a beautiful location, right on the shore of this small lake in Coquitlam.  We went for a little walk out to the nearby dock, where people had fishing lines set up.  I don't know what they were fishing for though!  A woman who was fishing had allowed her son to play at the playground; he had a go on the swings at the same time as Charlotte.  When I gave her her usual two-minute time-to-go warning, he piped up with "how about three?!?"  So I laughed and gave her three minutes - it's not like these minutes are very precise anyway!  Each time I counted down, he tried to negotiate an extra minute of playtime - it was pretty cute.  There is a geocache nearby, but Charlotte wasn't into it today and we had lots of things to do with Christmas coming up!  The playground is located at N 49.15.631 W 122.51.409 and is point no. 98 on the map at the bottom of home page.