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.

152. Harwood Park, Burnaby

I park near this playground every day, so it's only fitting that I should one day bring Charlotte here to play!  There's not much going on here during the week, but on this Saturday morning, the place was packed with kids playing soccer on the nearby pitches and their younger brothers and sisters were all over at the playground.  All the parents were spinning the merry-go-round for the kids - who never tired of it and required a fresh supply of parents on a regular basis to keep the merry-go-round going!  The playground is located at N 49.15.147 W 122.59.187 and is point no. 152 on the map at the bottom of home page.

151. Kilmer Park, North Vancouver

We haven't visited many new playgrounds lately.  Winter is definitely here and our hearts are heavy after saying goodbye to our beloved Theo last month.  Still, three-year-olds need to get out and run and play, no matter how cold it may be and no matter how sad their parents may be feeling.  Today, we visited a playground not far from nana and grandad's house.  It was a stone cold day, but Charlotte still had fun, selling ice cream and playing on the slide.  She had even more fun off the playground, running up and down a nearby hill and sneaking through a "secret" gate in the fence.  Me, I was freezing, but Charlotte doesn't seem to feel the cold when she's busy having fun.  The playground is located at N 49.20.788 W 123.01.499 and is point no. 151 on the map at the bottom of home page.

150. Go Bananas, North Vancouver

The weather these days has been really, really terrible.  I'm all for getting outside to play and get some fresh air, but this weather is totally inhumane!  I was told there is a good free playground in Capilano Mall, and given that we have just spent an awful lot of money on our beloved Theo, "free" was good.  Well, we went upstairs to the Go Bananas and it wasn't free at all, but I didn't have the heart to dangle this amazing playground in front of Charlotte and then tell her she was out of luck.

The guy at the counter had a little more spark to him than employees at these types of places usually have.  He had Charlotte excited to go and play - but once we got in there, she was disenchanted by the loud noise and the rambunctious older kids.  I convinced her to go play and I tried to read, but it was no place to sit back and relax.  Charlotte emerged from the playground on a regular basis and I kept coaxing her back to play.  Finally, I gave up and we left - $12 I'll never get back.  At least we didn't get rained on.  Go Bananas is located in Capilano Mall at 935 Marine Drive, North Vancouver and is point no. 150 on the map at the bottom of home page.

149. Crash Crawly's, Coquitlam

My company hosted a kids' Christmas party at the amazing Crash Crawly's.  I never did figure out if Charlotte had a good time or not!  She played on the climbing structure - with her hands over her ears the whole time.  She rode the miniature train - with her hands over her ears the whole time.  The only time she took her hands away from her ears was when she needed them to emphasize a point with Santa.  She talked his ear off and made sure he knew exactly what she would like to see under the Christmas tree.  The indoor playground is located at 1-1300 Woolridge Street, Coquitlam and is point no. 149 on the map at the bottom of home page.

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.

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.