All these recent thoughts on playground began with a random conversation with a complete stranger over the summer. She was the twin sister of a member of our small group and we were all having fun at a couple of fountains on Purdue campus. I don’t know how the playground conversation started, but she mentioned that a couple of friends of hers back home in Rochester, New York had started a blog reviewing playgrounds in their area. And that made me start thinking about playgrounds: past, present, work related, in Pittsburgh and here.
Back in Pittsburgh, we frequented a few playgrounds. One was across the Ohio River from where we lived in the town of Monaca, right where the Ohio and Beaver rivers meet. It was really a nice little playground with swings, a play structure for small children and one for larger children. Perhaps the only downside was that it really was for larger children as there was a tunnel that made an ascent and it was several months before Emry had the leg length to climb it. Only once or twice did we run into much larger children who were a little too rambunctious and unsupervised, which is always a challenge. But the best part of that playground? It was right on a river – the perfect spot to throw rocks.
The others in Cranberry, I’ve already mentioned: the Pirate Ship and the Tower. The former was by far our favorite. Other parks we visited now and then, but none as often as these three.
Here in Lafayette, there are three parks (of many) that we frequent. All are varied, which is nice, and I would say we visit them all about the same even though one is the favorite.
Armstrong Park is just short a mile down the street. We jumped in the stroller and headed down there one oddly warm day not long after we moved in. The park as a whole includes a pond with a trail around it (which I jog often), baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts, and the pool we frequented this summer. The playground is simple enough: swings and a wooden play scape with slides, a tunnel, a climbing net and climbing wall. The kids enjoy it, but there’s nothing fancy about it. Still, a trip down there with a packed lunch is a favorite pastime.
Munger Park is probably their favorite. Known by most kids as the “Spider Web Park” because of it’s huge climbing “spider web”, it may be the newest playground in town. I like it because it has the rubber matting throughout the swings, spider web, dragonfly seesaw, and sprawling play scape that includes various slides, multiple ways to climb up, three different sets of monkey bars, and it simply fun to run under as well as around and through. Also at this park are baseball fields, more pickle ball courts than I have counted and the older playground (which is newer than me, but you don’t see many kids on it). I like it because it’s easy to keep an eye on it, the kids are never bored, and there are almost always other kids there to play with.
Columbia Park is probably the highlight of Lafayette, Indiana. A sprawling park that includes the baseball field for the Lafayette Aviators (a summer collegiate team), the water park (complete with two new slides this summer), a train, a pond area, several playgrounds, and (greatest of all) the zoo! Yes, a zoo – complete with monkeys, wallabies, otters, bald eagles, a petting area, butterfly house and several other small animals. Next year, it will even have a penguin exhibit. And since it’s free and quite a nice place to wile away an hour or more, it’s easy to see why it’s such a popular place. The kids also love the various playgrounds, laid out around a hill on which sets the largest play scape which is quite tall with lots of slides and things to climb. The other play areas include swings and more age-specific areas, although that doesn’t seem to stop any child old or young from playing where they please. And while it’s a great place to take your kids to run off lots of energy, it’s the consensus among parents and grandparents that whoever the designer was did a bad job. That hill blocks views from one play area to the next so when a kid slips away (and what kid doesn’t in a blink of an eye?)…you’ve no clue which direction they have gone. And it can take the longest most frightening seconds (or even minutes) of your life to find them. This has happened with Emry, Ethan and my nephew Beto. I would never take them there alone and often want to start a petition to have that park redesigned.
And that ends my four-part “thesis” on playgrounds. And now, off we go to the playground!
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