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.

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.

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.

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.

110. Robert Burnaby Park, Burnaby

It's been a while since we visited a new playground, so the first weekend of spring seemed like a good time to go and try a new one!  The weather wasn't supposed to be good at all today, but it started clearing up in the early afternoon, showering on and off.  We "parked at the park" to Charlotte's complete amusement and she ran down the hill to the playground while I sorted out Theo.  Another little girl came by with her parents, but they both stuck so close to their daughter that there was no chance there for making a new friend.  Shortly after they left, another mum showed up with her two kids, one older and one younger than Charlotte.  Charlotte played nicely with them and all was well.  The little boy, Donovan, climbed up on a piece of equipment and couldn't get down again.  While his mum was helping him down, little Capri took off like a shot.  She didn't look much older than a year and she probably didn't need to be high up on the equipment on her own, so I ran down and stuck close to her until her mum was ready to turn her attention back to her.  It was really nice - she thanked me for helping and it was pretty awesome - just a couple of mums looking out for each other at the playground, just like it should be.  I played pirates with Donovan for a couple of minutes and then Charlotte said she was ready to leave.  Only she didn't want to go back to the car, she wanted to go over to the nearby hill to go roly poly, roly poly!  The hill is a steep one, perfect for tobogganing on the rare days when there's enough snow to do so.  Charlotte tipple-tailed all the way down it - four times!  It took about a dozen tipple-tails to get to the bottom, so she probably did about 50 tipple-tails in a row and I don't know how she didn't get dizzy!  She would have gone again if I hadn't convinced her it was time to head home and change out of her wet clothes - the grass was still soaking wet from all the rain we've had lately.  There are a dozen geocaches in this park, but none of them showed up in the GPS today; we've already cached out the park!  The playground is located at N 49.13.907 W 122.55.728 and is point no. 110 on the map at the bottom of home page.

93. Herbert Spencer Elementary, New Westminster

Since this will one day be Charlotte's school, I figured we should make sure that the playground features in our blog!  Theo was disappointed that he wasn't allowed on school grounds, so he waited for us patiently while we went to play.  There are actually four playgrounds in one here, so there was something for all ages and abilities.  We even found the elusive purple playground here!  There were lots of kids playing, but most of them were older and not much interested in Charlotte.  A girl a little younger than Charlotte did come by and Charlotte showed her and her mum where to find the steering wheel so that they could drive the ship, but the mum was a bit of a helicopter and that was the end of that before it even began.  The playground is located at N 49.13.072 W 122.54.771 and is point no. 93 on the map at the bottom of home page.

70. Ross Park, Vancouver

We finally returned to Ross Park, the little park we discovered a few weeks ago but were swim diaper-less at the time. This time around, Charlotte was ready to go – but to our disappointment, the wading pool was bone dry. Still, there were tons of kids around as there were families having picnics, so it seemed like a fun place to go hang out for a while.  We got off to a slow start - all the kids were bigger and then Charlotte had a small meltdown when she wanted to play with the steering wheel but another kid was using it.  We had to have a discussion...  But eventually, she made some friends and ended up having a good time.  There was very little helicoptering going on here - the picnicking families seemed to be all related to each other and everything was very relaxed.  The really disappointing thing about this playground is how much garbage there was everywhere.  It was really quite disgusting - it was on the grass and it was on the sand around the playground itself.  I was thinking that if I ever organize a CITO, this is where it would be!  There are no geocaches in the park itself, but the "Entrance to Narnia" is just a few blocks to the north.  Sounds like an interesting one to go back for one day!  The playground is located at N 49.13.010 W 123.04.932 and is point no. 70 on the map at the bottom of home page.

66. Edgewater Park, Mt. Vernon, Washington

It’s that time of year again – time to head down to Seattle for the annual Groundspeak block party! I took Friday off work so that we could take our time getting down there and we stopped about half-way in Mt. Vernon so that Charlotte could stretch her legs and have a play. There was a cache in the trees just a few metres away called “Fish On!”; we looked for it, but couldn’t immediately find it, so we moved on to the playground. Charlotte was anxious to get climbing and besides, there was a bit of a dodgy guy hanging out nearby.  We eventually spoke to him a little; he just got in from Alaska a week prior and it sounded a lot like he didn't have anywhere else to go.

 

Charlotte was on her own at the playground at first, but then another family showed up.  Charlote ran to say hi to the kids, but they were steadfast in their refusal to have anything whatsoever to do with her.  Eventually another family arrived and clearly they had agreed to meet there.  The kids played together, but still no one even made eye contact with Charlotte, despite her efforts to talk to them.  The parents all looked through her like she didn't exist.  The whole situation became more and more bizarre as I noticed that there was no noise whatsoever coming from the playground - the kids all played in absolute silence.  It was completely surreal and made me want to say something to the parents who had so instilled the "stranger danger" attitude in their kids that they couldn't even play with a two-year-old at the park.  But what could I possibly have said to make any difference?  Time to continue on to Seattle - and as we got back into the car, we waved to our new friend from Alaska - the dodgy guy who turned out to be the friendliest guy at the park.  The playground is located at N 48.25.232   W 122.20.518 and is point no. 66 on the map at the bottom of home page.

65. Thunderbird Park, Vancouver

The very top of this playground structure is visible from 1^st Avenue if you happen to be stuck at a traffic light, waiting to turn onto Highway 1. Since we almost always seem to hit this light on our way to North Van from Richmond, we have had plenty of opportunity to notice the playground and finally today we had our opportunity to go and play on it! It was a bit of a grey day, the kind of day that suggests that summer might not last forever. A couple of kids were playing there while their uncle sat on the wobbly bridge with his face so far forward over his device and his cap so far forward over his face that I never did really see him. I may complain about helicopter parents sometimes, but this uncle had clearly never heard of the term!

 

Charlotte had fun playing with five-year-old Jeremy and nine-year-old Angel. Angel seemed to take to me too – I had the feeling that she might not have a lot of adults in her life who cared about what she had to say and she seemed very happy to be able to have a conversation with me and to be listened to. We ended up staying much longer than I had intended given that we still had groceries to buy for the upcoming week! The playground is located at N 49.16.096  W 123.01.735 and is point no. 65 on the map at the bottom of home page.

63. Maywood Community School, Burnaby

Today, we discovered a great little park with a wading pool that would have been perfect for this hot afternoon. I started getting us out of the car, but realized that Charlotte's swim diaper, which is usually under the stroller, had been left at home. Poor Charlotte was so disappointed, but I promised her a different playground instead. It took her a while to get over her disappointment, but when we finally found the playground at Maywood Community School, she was finally over it for good. There were lots of things to explore here; she even did a little rock climbing, though it was a little bit much for her for now. A couple of other kids came by after a while, but they were with their dad and he kept them pretty occupied. Charlotte was a little disappointed, but what else is new? I'm so tired of these parents who don't allow their kids to just play and to learn social skills on the playground. I can't understand how they fail to see how abnormal it is.  Charlotte still managed to have a good time, though it wasn't my favourite playground; there was a fair amount of garbage around and it just had a bit of a dodgy vibe altogether. I didn't have a working GPS at the time we visited, so don't have the co-ordinates for the playground, but it's no. 63 on the map at the bottom of home page.

57. Killarney Park, Vancouver

Every Thursday afternoon on our way from Richmond to North Vancouver, we drive past Killarney Park and Charlotte shouts "There's a playground, mum!"  I've kept it in mind for one of these Thursdays - and today was the day!  Although it's right next to Kerr Street, it's a bit difficult to get to - we drove all the way around the block to park at the nearby community centre, then walked over to the playground.  It was quite disappointing though, because it was definitely geared towards older kids - Charlotte couldn't even begin to try to climb up on it.  She did have a bit of a go on the swings though, and she did have fun playing with Owlie.  We practiced balancing like tight rope walkers on the wooden beam that surrounded the playground and we just made the best of it.  There was a pair of twin boys about ten-months-old playing in the sand underneath the climbing frame, getting dirty and had a great time while their mum watched from the grass nearby, letting them do their thing.  She was great - made me feel like there is hope that helicoptering is starting to crash and burn!  There is a geocache called "Killarney Park" in the northwest corner of the park - I had found it a long time ago though.  The playground is located at N 49.13.634 W 123.02.525 and is point no. 57 on the map at the bottom of home page.

45. Gordon Park, Vancouver

We weren't planning on coming to Gordon Park today. I had entered the co-ordinates for Sunset Park into my GPS and intended to go there, collecting a geocache along the way. I knew the general area where I was heading, so couldn't understand why Paddy (my GPS!) was pointing me elsewhere. Soon enough, I realized I must have entered the co-ordinates incorrectly and I wasn't sure enough of the location of Sunset Park to find it otherwise, so we ended up at this park that we had spotted last week on our way to Maywood Park. Charlotte had a nice time here; the taller climbing frame was a little daunting for her and she insisted on holding my hand across the wobbly bridge and down the slide, but she was okay on her own on the small one. Not long before I was thinking of getting ready to leave, a little girl who seemed very close to Charlotte in age showed up along with her mum and dad. It would have been so nice for them to have the chance to play, but Clara's parents micro-managed every movement she made, instructing her where to play instead of allowing her to explore on her own - and to have the opportunity to perhaps make a new friend on her own. Sometimes these playground expeditions are very disappointing... The park has no geocaches in it - there are more of these cacheless parks around than I had realized! Though I expect that many of them have multi and puzzle cache finals in them. The playground is located at N 49.13.409 W 123.04.287:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&hl=en

42. Cariboo Park, New Westminster

Poor Charlotte! She waited all day to get to the playground – and when we finally got there, she had a bit of a misadventure! We went to Cariboo Park, which has not one, but two playgrounds – one for big kids, one for small. She made a new friend here, Caleb, and they played on the small playground for a while before moving on to the playground of doom.

Charlotte began climbing a ladder – a vertical one with slim rungs that was very challenging for her, something she hadn't yet tried before. And yet, she was actually doing it! She was very focused, head bent, watching her feet as she carefully placed them on each higher rung. But Caleb's mum swooped in, “protecting” her head from the rung above – which really posed no danger to Charlotte! The swoop distracted Charlotte to the point that she lost her balance and she fell / was scooped up by Caleb's mum who deposited her “safely” on the ground. Charlotte then went and tried something a little easier and I was a little upset with Caleb's mum for helicoptering her. But she did try it again and this time she made it to the top! “I did it!” she cried and there was a round of applause from myself and Caleb and his mum. She took the small slide down and tackled the ladder again and again, making it seem easier and easier each time she did it.

So what came next was a little too ironic for my liking... After climbing the ladder again, Charlotte went even higher, moving on to the big slide rather than using the small one again. It was no higher than many other slides she had been down before and thought nothing of it, but just as Charlotte set off down the slide, Caleb's mum told me it was “dangerous”. A second later, Charlotte was at the bottom, face-first in the gravel. Caleb's mum was closer to her than I was and stood over her, flapping her hands in a panic. I picked my poor girl up and she spit out a mouthful of gravel through her tears. She ended up with a scraped forehead, chin and knees, but thankfully she only cried for a minute or two before she was back at it again. The slide had a pretty strange design to it – it ended at the bottom in a box shape and the kids needed to put their legs on either side of it. Caleb's mum said she had seen lots of older kids hurt their legs on it, but poor Charlotte had no idea what she needed to do and just pitched off face-first. But soon she was climbing the ladder again – though taking the little slide back down! Besides, she got to go for a Dairy Queen ice cream afterwards! The park has two geocaches in it, both of which we have already found, “Cariboo Park” and “Cariboo Park #2”. The park is located at N 49.14.048 W 122.54.208:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1

 

26. MacDonald Park, Vancouver

If anyone deserved a trip to the playground after daycare today, it was Charlotte!  She has been one sick little girl for quite some time now and playgrounds were out of the picture.  She was finally back at daycare, the sun was shining afterwards, and it was time to get back in the swing of things.  We're not on track to get 101 by the end of the year at this rate - we'd better pick up the pace!

We got the nearby geocache first, "Have a Ball".  It wasn't too difficult to find and soon we were at the playground.  Charlotte started off on the small slide, but it was disappointingly slow, so she decided she wanted to tackle the big slide.  And the big slide was BIG!  She couldn't climb to the top by herself because the steps were too big, so I got recruited into giving her a boost when she needed it.  But I do draw the line at accompanying my child down the ladder.  Seriously.  One of the dads was taking his kid down the slide and I will never understand that.  Is it about safety?  Because it seems to me that you're safer when you're in control of your own actions than when a couple of hundred pounds of dad is also added to the mix.  Anyway, Charlotte managed three or four goes on the slide before she suddenly chickened out and had enough.

There were some fun kids playing at the playground - one of them pointed out a caterpillar that we went and examined.  One of the grandparents was not so kind - she made disparaging remarks about Charlotte: "I think it's a girl," she said.  What gave it away?  Must have been the purple shoes!  Her own grandaughter was dressed in voluminous skirts and lots of lace for her trip to the playground, so whatever to her.

Another fun thing at this playground was all the toys!  Some old toys were lying around: stuff to ride on or to dig in the sand.  It was kind of nice to have a few little extras.  We were here for an entire hour before I had to insist that it was time to go home for dinner.  The playground is located at N 49.13.785 W 123.05.928:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&pli=1