157. Moody Park, New Westminster

Technically, we have already blogged Moody Park; it's our closest decent-sized playground, after all.  However, it's completely different from what it was last time we were here and deserves a new post!  Over the winter, the old equipment was removed and a new playground was put in place.  It opened just a short while ago, and as I drove by, I thought it looked quite boring.  It didn't seem to have any challenging equipment and gone were the high (read dangerous) ladders from the old playground.  Still, we had to give it a try and I was happy to change my drive-by opinion.

The playground is "natural" - no metal equipment painted in primary colours here.  There is a lot of wood, sand, rock and water to play on and in and judging by the number of kids playing late into the summer evening, the place is a big hit with a lot of people.  Charlotte had a great time on the slide, which is faster and more exciting than most slides these days.  She came flying off the end more than once, only to land in the sand with no harm done.  She balanced on the wooden climbing structure, she pumped water from the kid-sized pump, waded in the pool and then played in the sand - with predictable results!  We spent almost two hours there and Charlotte was filthy, soaked and happy by the time we had to call it a night.  She has been there several times with her pre-school too and loves it every time.  I think we're pretty lucky to have this awesome playground within walking distance of Blackford Island!  The playground is located at N 49.12.683 W 122.55.475 and is point no. 157 on the map at the bottom of home page.

132. Terra Nova, Richmond

Finally it's time to check out the amazing million-dollar playground at Terra Nova!  I have been saving this one for a long time, wanting to make a day of it rather than just a quick post-daycare trip.  Today we met up with our friends from two families: Gaby with Matias and Anna and Eva with Alex and Nika.  And what an amazing playground we found!

The main structure is about three storeys high and has all kinds of opportunities for climbing and sliding.  It was a bit too much for Charlotte, but the older kids had a great time.  There are lots of things to climb on and everything is made of wood and rope – no pre-fab playground equipment here!  After our picnic, we went to explore yet another part of the playground that I hadn't even realized existed at first and that's where Charlotte really had some fun.  There was a huge slide, much like the amazing slide at Garden City and the kids had a blast sliding down there as a "train".  And then there was the zip line!  I don't know how many times Charlotte went on that thing, but because it was a bit big for her, she really needed help staying on and so I had to run up and down along with her.

We were there for over four hours altogether and the kids all had a great time.  Definitely one of the best playgrounds we have ever visited, rivalled only by John Storvik in Anacortes and City Park in Lynden.  The playground is located at N 49.10.431 W 123.11.897 and is point no. 132 on the map at the bottom of home page.

86. Garden City Park, Richmond

How is that we have gone almost all year without visiting this amazing playground so close to work and daycare?!?  The days are so short now that we did most of our playing in the dark, but it was still pretty amazing.  "I love this playground!" Charlotte announced as she headed yet again for the dodgy steps up to the super-long slide that wasn't too fast or too slow, but was just right.  She didn't like the steps at first and would make me hold her hand as she climbed them, then I would run down again to catch her at the bottom.  I was proud of her when she got brave enough to do them by herself, though I didn't get as much exercise out of it when that happened!  Charlotte doesn't like to be crowded when she's getting ready to go down the slide, so when two older boys were jostling her at the top, I asked them to wait until she had gone down.  She was half-way down when they came barrelling down behind her, knocking into her and sending her flying.  She was quite upset and cried hard, but she was more surprised than anything.  That didn't stop me from angrily telling the boys that I had asked them to wait.  At least the parents came rushing up and apologized to us and dealt with their kids.

 

Charlotte and I went off to explore other parts of the playground while she recovered from her little trauma; it's made from natural materials for the most part and is pretty amazing.  There is a giant crowsnest in the middle of the playground with several ways up, none of which Charlotte is ready for yet.  When she is, my heart will be in my throat as it's very tall and designed to be challenging for sure.  She recovered from her incident on the slide and was soon back at it again.  It was all I could do to tear her away to go home for dinner and the geocache that was hidden nearby was completely out of the question!  I ended up going back the next day during my lunch break to find "CoRGQ #18 - Trees Galore".  A new challenge to take up - the Richmond GeoQuest!  The playground is located at N 49.09.917 W 123.07.363 and is point #86 on the map at the bottom of home page.

32. Draycott Park, North Vancouver

These days, Thursdays find Charlotte and I driving straight from work and daycare in Richmond to nana and grandad’s house in North Van, where we stay the night so that Charlotte can hang out with nana the next day while I’m at work. With the days so long at this time of year, we had plenty of time tonight to check out a nearby playground after dinner. We made a return visit to Draycott Park; we had discovered this little park in the woods last summer while looking for a geocache, “Whatev’s”. We had found that cache back then, so there was no caching for us tonight – we were just in it for the playground! This is one of the loveliest locations for a playground that I have seen so far; it’s completely surrounded by trees and there are several trails providing access from different directions. We parked near the main entrance, walked past the basketball court, collecting flowers and rocks as we went, rounded a bend in the trail, and there was the playground, nestled amongst towering evergreens. It’s a very futuristic playground with silver towers curving up to the sky!

The bucket swings were on a very short chain and so Charlotte soon pronounced them “boring” and wanted to go back to climbing. The slide here is a very fast one – she insisted on holding hands to go down and I had to slow her down a bit at the bottom to prevent her from shooting off the end! Some other kids came along, three more two-year-olds in fact, and they did the slide on dad’s lap. I am so against kids sliding down on an adult’s lap and here’s why: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/a-surprising-risk-for-toddlers-at-playground-slides/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0.
There was a piece of equipment on the playground that was new to us – a kind of twisting tube to climb up or down. I admit that the thought of Charlotte attempting it when she’s older was quite scary to me – but then I thought that that was a good thing – most of the playgrounds that we have seen have little in the way of challenge to the older kids. Another mum was there with her older kids; she wouldn’t let them go on it and said that it looked dangerous and that it had something “missing”. I hope that when Charlotte is old enough to try it, I will be brave enough to let her!

Charlotte got right into the wood chips, picking up handfuls and putting them in her hair. Agh! What to do – may as well just take a picture! But then she put them in my hair, so I had to tell her that was naughty and I didn’t want her to put wood chips in my hair. So she didn’t – but Owlie did! She told Owlie off for being naughty – and I had to tell her that no one was allowed to put wood chips in my hair, neither her nor Owlie! It was back to nana and grandad’s after that – we hadn’t planned a bath night, but one was necessary after this particular trip to the playground! The park is located at N 49.20.281 W 123.01.451:  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