Porter Park Playground - PART ONE

I feel really bad giving out a poor review to this playground, but then again I am in the habit of thinking inanimate objects, including playgrounds, have feelings. But I feel the need to put it all into context.

I was driving down Fairfield yesterday when I spied this little park and I laughed at it. 'A' and I visited it today and the first thing I thought was that it was the playground that time left behind. 'A' didn't seem to care and was eager to get onto one of the toddler swings and he didn't pay any attention to the two children there who were actually playing with a bow and arrow. Who plays with bows and arrows these days? I started to think that this playground hadn't been left behind, but that there was actually some time warp and the children had been running around in it since 1982.

Anyway, then I started to feel sorry for the park. Compared to all the shiny new playgrounds around these days, it just looked like the saddest playground in town. However, when taking stock of the features to list in this blog I caught sight of a glimpse of red down over the grass and rocks and there, through the bushes I saw the actual saddest playground in town. See Porter Park PART TWO.

Anyway, back to business....the PART ONE playground, which is on a sand base has two toddler swings, two big kid swings, a metal slide with a spiral of metal as its only way up, a rainbow style climbing arch and a spindly metal seesaw. It's set in a surprisingly lovely little park with lots of grass and rocky outcrops and the world's oldest picnic table. There are no facilities, but despite all of this, 'A' and the park's two clientele seemed to be having a good time.

MacDonald Park Playground - 9/10

Yesterday we had our first visit to MacDonald Park which is officially on Ladysmith Street but for the sake of ease I'll say it's at Simcoe and Oswego in James Bay. It definitely helped that it was sunny and after the long winter people were taking full advantage of the chance to get outdoors, but this park scores on the feel of it's location. As soon as we arrived there was the feeling of community - people were happy, smiling and there was a faint buzz of summer in the air.

As I have mentioned before, A loves ramps. MacDonald Park Playground has this incredibly long wooden climbing structure which is low- probably aimed at the smaller children- and has ramps and a funky wavy ramp. A was all a-twitter with excitement and ran up and down for some time before we could even get him to consider the`rest of the playground. When he did, we found balancing beams that connected the two parts of the wooden structure, the second half of which has steps up to two slides- one metal, one plastic curly, which do not patronize their small users as many small kid slides do.

Between the wooden structure and the colourful metal climbing area for the big kids, there are a row of six big kid swings. The big kid area features a ton of climbing options, a tube thing that can be climbed up or slid down and a high metal slide. There is a climbing wall and the whole thing is on woodchips! There are fences to protect kids from the road.

MacDonald Park is well-kept and has a snack bar on the opposite side to the playground and presumably washrooms too, though I didn't see them. So to sum up, nice location, great climbing structures, swings and slides and lots of grass to run around on. You might ask where it loses the point (9/10)....well, if I am being picky- which is what this blog is about, then it lacks any imaginative features- it's good old climbing frames, swings and slides at their best.

Cadboro-Gyro Park

Cadboro-Gyro Park at Cadboro Bay is hard to rate. I want to give it 10/10 for imagination and 1/10 for functionality. Every time we go there A is so excited but when he actually gets up to the playground, he is always disappointed. Let's start a new category for weird parks and it wins the award hands-down!

The playground is on sand (and you know how I feel about sand in play parks-ugg) and features incredibly exciting looking sea creatures. The octopus alone sends A into swoons on sight. However, when you get up close it is actually made of concrete and you can't slide down the arms as it promises from a distance. There is a pretty cool ship built there for kids to run all over but it gets really crowded and attracts dogs, which A isn't always keen on so if your kid isn't a dog lover you might want to watch out for puppy love rushing over for a quick face-lick.

The park also has the usual swings and a pretty cool metal slide. While it gains points for originality, the real attraction of this playground isn't actually the playground, it's the location- beautiful sea views, a great beach and lots of grass to run around on. There is a block of washrooms and picnic tables too, and parking which fills up fast on nice days.