148. Wesburn Park, Burnaby

Wesburn Park has become a special place for me this winter.  It proved to be the last playground adventure that Charlotte and Theo would share together.  Theo and I explored the ravine by ourselves a little while after this adventure too, after he had received his cancer diagnosis, but before he began to decline.  That outing will always provide happy memories for me.  Back in November, we had no idea what was in store for us and we had a happy time here.  We didn't spend all that much time on the actual playground itself, but instead played down by the creek.  Theo looked for rocks that Charlotte obligingly tossed in for him.  I found a geocache called "Little Ammo Can" in the rocks above the creek and Charlotte and Theo played Poohsticks together from the two wooden bridges that span the creek.  After that, Charlotte jumped from rock to rock in the parking lot while Theo stayed close, protective as always.  It was a cold winter afternoon, but we still managed to spend three or four hours here before we had to leave.  The playground is located at N 49.14.518 W 123.00.689 and is point no. 148 on the map at the bottom of home page.

146. Quayside Park, New Westminster

It was a sunny day, but a cold and blustery one, when we finally headed down to the boardwalk to explore Quayside Park and pick up my two closest unfound caches to home, "Riverside Walk 4" and "Quick Tour of Riverside Walk".  We walked down to the riverfront, Charlotte riding in her stroller - even though that was supposed to be later, if she got tired.  We found our geocaches first, then went back to the playground to play for a while.  By this time, Charlotte was feeling quite cold - but she refused to put her coat on, silly girl!  We played for a little while before heading to the Quay for gelato - just what you need to warm up after playing outside on a cold November day!  The playground is located at N 49.11.894 W 122.55.350 and is point no. 146 on the map at the bottom of home page.

145. Lower Lougheed Park, Coquitlam

I first discovered this tiny neighbourhood park long before Charlotte was born; I was looking for a place to hide a geocache and found this tiny little green triangle on a map.  The cache didn't run all that long before it was muggled and there is no cache in the park at the moment.  Perhaps I should re-hide something smaller and trickier - the old one was a large cache hidden under a bridge.  We were in the area today and so we stopped off so that Charlotte could see the park too.  She played for a bit and took Owlie for a ride on the back of her airplane.  There were no other kids there and it's a noisy place as it's right next to the highway, so we didn't stay for very long.  The playground is located at N 49.14.355 W 122.53.215 and is point no. 145 on the map at the bottom of home page.

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.

135. Evil Birds Park, Richmond

I had come across this playground while geocaching alone a couple of months ago; I chose not to go after the cache back then, preferring to wait until Charlotte was with me.  After all, there's nothing that makes me happier than a geocache and nothing that makes Charlotte happier than a playground, so if you put the two of them together...!  As far as I know, this tiny park doesn't have a name, so I have unofficially named it after the geocache, "Watch Out for Evil Birds", so named because of all the bird houses that hang from the park's trees.  We didn't see any evil birds, but we did see a little nuthatch creeping about on the tree trunks in search of food.  The playground was quite old school - wooden splinters and all.  Charlotte had fun swinging on the tire and loved going through the geocache, finally choosing a little toy squirrel to take with her and leaving behind one of her previously-treasured Easter eggs.  The playground is located at N 49.10.057 W 123.10.097 (which also happens to be the coordinates of the geocache!) and is point no. 135 on the map at the bottom of home page.

131. Albion Park, Maple Ridge

Charlotte and I found ourselves in Maple Ridge on this very, very hot day, in search of "Sudoku Summit", a geocache with a difficulty rating of five.  There was a souvenir at stake.  Geocachers will get it...  After making our find, we returned to this playground that we had spotted from the car on the way to the cache.  We found a shady spot to spread out our picnic blanket and set to.  Before very long, a little boy named Otis came along, but he was with his security detail (i.e. his parents) and they looked at Charlotte like she had two heads when she asked their son if he wanted to play with her.  Eventually, they went on their way and another family came along, also with a little boy.  They gave off quite the unfriendly vibe too, so no playmate there.  Later on, as we were packing up to leave, a man came by with his dog and he was so unfriendly that when we were just a few feet away from him, he deliberately turned his back on us rather than exchange a "hello".  This playground gets a failing grade from us because of all its unfriendly people!  The playground is located at N 49.11.424 W 122.32.637 and is point no. 131 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.

119. Arborlynn Park, North Vancouver

This playground has been on our list for a long time - it has a geocache in it that starts with "A.  Now that we have almost completed the 122 Degree Challenge, we are looking for a new challenge to work on and right now, that's "The A Challenge".  Grandad just got back from Boston, so Charlotte went all tough in her "Boston Strong" t-shirt and played on her own while I grabbed the cache.  A family of four rode up on their bikes and Charlotte tried to play with the kids, but none of them (including the adults) seemed to know how to respond to "Do you want to play with me?" and they all just seemed uncomfortable.  I'm proud of my girl for being as outgoing as she is and I hope she never stops trying to get the other kids to play with her.  The playground is located at N49.19.259 W 123.02.035 and is point no. 119 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.

116. Bradner Community Park, Abbotsford

Somehow I have the impression that this playground is haunted!  We came across it while working on our 122 Degree Challenge.  It has clearly seen better days - the wooden structure is in some disrepair and grass and weeds are starting to take over at the base.  It was actually quite shocking since we are so used to sanitized playgrounds in tip-top condition.  We played here for a while, chased each other around the grassy field and found the two nearby geocaches, "Geo-Poker Run 2013 Cache 33" and "Geo-Poker Run 2013 Cache 34", before I finally convinced Charlotte that we could probably find a nicer playground somewhere else.  The playground is located at N49.05.832 W 122.25.608 and is point no. 116 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.

111. Brickwood Park, Maple Ridge

Today we found ourselves in Maple Ridge, off to visit our friends Andy, Khanh, Avery and Kayden - to celebrate Kayden's first birthday!  We headed out a little early so that we would have time to discover a new playground at Brickwood Park and hopefully unearth the nearby geocache, "Fruit Salad: Lime".  Charlotte played for a while before we went off to find the cache; it was at the bottom of a steep grassy hill and I managed to stay upright while I retrieved the cache, but planted my hands and knees in the mud as I tried to scramble back up the steep, muddy hillside.  Charlotte and Dad did some more playing while mum had a go on the swings and then we were off to the party.  The playground is located at N 49.12.729 W 122.35.966 and is point no. 111 on the map at the bottom of home page.

109. Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford

We came out to Abbotsford today to do a little geocaching for our 122 Degree Challenge.  Charlotte absolutely refused to allow me to take her picture, so I pulled up this old one taken when we were last at this park for a geocaching event in September 2013.  She has changed so much since then!

There were lots of kids there when we first arrived in the late afternoon and Charlotte ran off to join them, periodically returning to me to joyfully tell me that she had "made a new friend" or to report something funny that one of them had said.  She scaled the climbing mountain like a monkey and generally had the time of her life.

I perched on the curb around the edge of the playground and watched her run and play and make friends.  It was all exactly as it should be and I was happy to see her having so much fun.  So I was more than a little surprised when one of the other mums fixed me with an evil eye, staring at me so intently, and with no reason that I could think of, that I turned around to see if there was someone behind me.  She asked "Is that your daughter?" so coldly that I was taken by surprise.  When I simply said "yes", she turned away unsmilingly with a grunt of disapproval.  How can two mums at a playground see a situation so differently?  I truly don't know what her problem was!  Whatever to her because Charlotte had the time of her life.  The playground is located at N 49.02.549 W122.18.605 and is point no. 109 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.

104. Cannon Beach Playground, Cannon Beach, Oregon

We have all been so sick lately that playground visits have been in short supply.  We have re-visited one or two favourites lately, but mostly we have been languishing at home, trying to shake our sniffles and coughs while watching "Paw Patrol".  This week though, we are on vacation in Cannon Beach and though the sniffles have followed us down to Oregon, the weather was beautiful and just perfect for a visit to the local playground in between our beach explorations.  The playground was just a couple of blocks from our motel and it was a decent playground with a high climbing mountain - which Charlotte scaled with no problem whatsoever!  It's amazing how quickly she can go from needing help with something to being completely independent.  After we had finished working up an appetite at the playground, we set off to find the nearby geocache, "Cannonfloria plasticus" and then for lunch at the Lumberyard.  After that, it was back to the motel for more sniffle-nursing, at least for me!  The playground is located at N 45.53.942 W 123.57.579 and is point no. 104 on the map at the bottom of home page.

103. Robson Park, Surrey

We were out and about with no real plan today.  It had recently occurred to me that our playground map avoids Surrey almost completely - and say what you like about Surrey, it's nearby and must have some decent playgrounds?  We headed across the Pattullo Bridge (this dodgy bridge may be the reason we've avoided Surrey) and asked the GPS for the nearest cache with "Park" in the title.  And that is how we discovered lovely little Robson Park.  We played for a while on a cute little playground designed like a tree house - and Theo had fun too as some people came along who were only too happy to play stick with him.  We headed off in search of one of the three geocaches in the park after we'd played - the way to the cache was across a cute little bridge over a creek that had been dammed by beavers.  We didn't see any, but there were plenty of tell-tale tree stumps, sharpened like a pencil where the beavers had chewed.  I promised Charlotte we would come back one warm spring evening to see if we could see any.  I was very proud of Charlotte when we got to the site of "Robson Park Tree Hugger South" - it was clearly in a large tree and we started making our way around it when Charlotte said "There it is!"  She found it before me - I hadn't even had to pretend so that she could find it first!  We watched a pair of ducks paddling in the creek, then played at the playground for a little while longer before we were driven out by the smell coming from the potheads perched on a nearby picnic table.  This is Surrey, after all.  The park is located at N 49.11.054 W 122.52.247 and is point no. 103 on the map at the bottom of home page.

102. Shingle Bolt Park, Pitt Meadows

We may have slowed down our pace a bit, but there are still lots of playgrounds out there to explore!  Today we went out exploring the Pitt River Regional Greenway in search of a few caches, in particular one at 122.43 for Charlotte's 122 Degree Challenge.  We found three caches along the dyke and then Charlotte was ready to hit the playground.  The Pitt Meadows website wasn't the best one to navigate, so I came up with a playground relatively close to where we were exploring.  It was just a tiny little neighbourhood square with a tiny little playground - and it was raining too by the time we got there.  There was a little covered picnic table at the top of the playground, so Charlotte ate some of her lunch there, sheltered from the rain.  The playground is located at N 49.12.215 W 122.40.756 and is point no. 102 on the map at the bottom of home page.

95. Hamilton Community Centre, Richmond

Today was a beautiful sunny day – and much warmer than we’ve been used to lately. It has been unseasonably cold – and today it was unseasonably warm. In fact, it felt a lot like spring! We made the most of it and visited a couple of playgrounds today. We visited this one first and it was a lot of fun as Theo got to play with us. Charlotte was extremely proud of herself when she climbed an arched climbing wall all by herself, using alphabet-shaped grips to pull herself up. She then took the slide back to the ground again, where Theo was waiting for her to come and play with him. The community centre and Hamilton Elementary School both share the same building; we were on the big kids’ playground, but there was a smaller one that we may need to check out one day that doesn’t look too small for Charlotte. There are lots of geocaches nearby as the ERT (East Richmond Tour) series goes by here, some of which we have, some of which we don’t. We have a DNF on the closest one to the playground, so we didn’t bother humiliating ourselves with another attempt at it today! The playground is located at N 49.10.578 W 122.57.941 and is point no. 95 on the map at the bottom of home page.

94. Dover Park, Richmond

These days, it’s pretty much dark by the time I pick Charlotte up from daycare, but this little park is fairly well lit, so I figured Charlotte could have some fun – and I could collect a geocache afterwards! But it was so cold… Charlotte did a little bit of playing and then I gave her a push on the swings – on the understanding that we would then go and get the geocache, which was only about 60 metres away. But when she had finished on the swings, she reneged on her promise! “I ended up going back for the cache, "CoRGQ #16 – Dover Park" a couple of days later on my lunch break. The playground is located at N 49.10.315 W 123.09.731 and is point no. 94 on the map at the bottom of home page.

92. Castle Park, Port Coquitlam

We made a plan for this cold, sunny Saturday afternoon - two playgrounds in a row!  One in Castle Park, the next one in Citadel Heights, right next door.  We hit Castle Park first - it has such a beautiful view over the Fraser River down below.  The playground was a bit big for Charlotte, though she really wanted to have a go on the see-saw.  A little boy of about Charlotte's age showed up with his parents and I suggested that she ask him to play with her.  She asked so nicely "Do you want to play on the see-saw with me?" - only she asked "Are you?" like she does.  The mum was all a-fluster - "Such nice asking!" but the little boy was a bit of a crybaby and didn't exactly rise to the occasion.  Charlotte was a little disappointed, so I suggested that maybe the see-saw wasn't his favourite part of the playground.  We walked over to Citadel Heights a block further up the hill, stopping to get a puzzle cache along the way, "Pet Shop Series #4".  It was a bit of a slog through the grass, and Charlotte wasn't much up for it, but we made it out in the end.  Citadel Heights was supposed to have a playground, but there was none to be found!  We found a little gravel area that looked like it may once have housed a playground - perhaps there used to be one here that was deemed too dangerous and was removed in favour of the new one at Castle Park.  The playground is located at N 49.13.925 W 122.46.821 and is point no. 92 on the map at the bottom of home page.