74. Book Cliff Elementary School, Green River, Utah

After a busy day travelling from Colorado National Monument and exploring Arches National Park, we were ready to wind down for the day. We had a problem with one of the tent poles though, so while Pete tried to fix it, I took Charlotte to the playground of the local elementary school. I was unimpressed with the amount of garbage lying around, but it was a decent playground. There was a climbing structure that Charlotte really liked – it offered her just the right amount of challenge. She had difficulty with it at first, but was soon climbing it like a monkey and was ready to show off for dad when he came to collect us.

 

Latin music filled the air as we played and a delicious smell wafted on the breeze. We stopped on our way out of town to check it out and had our most delicious meal of the trip, quesadillas and tortillas done up on an outdoor grill. The cook didn't speak any English at all and relied on his bilingual “waitress” to help take orders. When she was busy, I used my Spanish – he did a double-take! There are only a handful of geocaches in the entire town and none very close by, but unknown to us at the time, an event cache had been held there earlier that day – in honour of Green River Watermelon Days! The playground is located at N 38.59.587 W 110.09.477. and is point no. 74 on the map at the bottom of home page.

73. Dinosaur Playground, Dinosaur, Colorado

What an amazing playground in such a random place!  We had just crossed into Colorado from Utah when we needed to stop for gas.  Across the road from the gas station was a huge, colourful playground in this small, dry, dusty town.  It seemed very out-of-place, but because it looked awesome and because it was in a town called Dinosaur, we decided to stop for a closer look.  It was very tall - three storeys rather than just two!  It was a little much for Charlotte in places and even I was a little bit challenged by one of the climbs!

The grass was obviously watered often and was lush and green which made for a nice change from the arid landscapes we have been used to lately.  There was even a dinosaur-themed game to play - but of course there was in this playground in this town where all the streets are named after dinosaurs!  There was a cache called "We All Scream for Ice Cream" hidden not too far away, but it was on the other side of the chain link fence and I didn't bother with it.  Even though I didn't yet have a cache in Colorado!  The playground is located at and is point #73 on the map at the bottom of home page. 

72. Alberta Park, Portland, Oregon

We were on the second day of our vacation, waiting for nearby Podnah's to open for lunch.  Pete was excited to have some barbecue, Charlotte was excited to play and I was excited to find the nearby geocache, "Another Name for Depression is Van Buren".  No, I don't understand the title either!  There were lots of kids at the playground, though most of them were older than Charlotte.  One woman had nine kids with her - nine!  Charlotte is into swinging on anything she can find these days, so that was her main amusement.  She loved the merry-go-round too - a really old school one that it would be possible to fall off!  She played with a couple of other kids and the adults all took it in turns doing the spinning.  When I was off-duty, I was practicing my juggling - haven't done that for a while and I'm a little out of practice!

We continued on our way shortly after Podnah's opened - Pete loved his lunch and I made the best of it with my trout - all of the trout, except for the eyes.  Just the sockets!  Charlotte played with my GPS and deleted the waypoint, but it's point #72 on the map at the bottom of home page.

71. Memorial South Park, Vancouver

Brr!  It may still be August, but today, fall was in the air.  Maybe even winter!  This large park has several caches in it and I was hoping to cache the park out, but Charlotte only had it in her to get two before she wanted to hit the playground.  We cut across the playing field between the two caches, flushing out all the mosquitos that were hanging out in the wet grass.  They swarmed us!  We managed to shake them when we returned to the dead, brown, end-of-summer grass in the rest of the park.  There were a few kids playing on the playground with not a parent in sight - very refreshing!  They were a bit too old to want to play with Charlotte, but she had a good time anyway, digging in the sand and swinging off a bar as she's doing in the photo.  It was truly cold though, so I convinced her to come back to the car with me sooner rather than later - and we got back just as the skies opened and the rain began to pour.  The cache is located at N 49.13.836 W 123.05.158 and is point no. 71 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.

69. Princess Park, North Vancouver

We had a great time in Princess Park today!  First, we took Theo for a walk and we came across a couple of other dogs playing in the creek.  Charlotte waded in the creek with them and I guess I knew it was an accident waiting to happen.  Sure enough, one of the dogs bowled her over and made her cry.  I got her dried off and changed and we headed off to find "Dangerous Daschunds".  We stopped to listen carefully to see what we could hear in the woods - and we came up with a woodpecker!  We got our cache and then went to the playground to play for a while.  We had such a good time that we came back again the next day with dad and found another geocache, "Princess Poisson" and had another play.  The playground is located at N 49.20.456 W 123.03.365 and is point no. 69 on the map at the bottom of home page.

68. Lynn Valley Elementary, North Vancouver

We are staying in North Van these days while nana and grandad are away, so this evening we hit one of the playgrounds near their house.  This was the elementary school that both my brothers attended, but it's a lot different now than it was back then.  The building that used to house the school is now the North Shore Archives and a brand new building has been built beside it for the school.  There are two playgrounds and both of them are a little bit big for Charlotte as they are meant for elementary school kids, but she still had a great time climbing and exploring.

There were a few big kids playing and Charlotte tried doing what they were doing.  She even managed to keep her owlie clips in her hair and the hair out of her eyes - all in the name of being a big girl!  The playground is located at N 49.20.311 W 123.02.228 and is point no. 68 on the map at the bottom of home page.