Sherry_Frick

On Day 48 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge Luckman Park was the 4th park we visited in one day!  This is a lovely park that is shaded in a wooded area in the middle of a neighborhood.  There is a big kid area, a little kid area, swingset, pavillion, and tables w/ a chess/checkers board built into them.  

The little kid area includes springy animals, 4 armed springy thing, dinosaur to climb on, a small structure w/ slides, and a structure of activity panels.  My 5 yr old liked the springy things the best in this area.  

The big kid area had a large structure with slides, chin up bars, monkey bars, fire pole, bridge and various climbing apparatus.  My son really enjoyed the different kinds of slides, and he enjoyed attempting to do chin ups like he saw some middle school aged kids doing.  

The swings are separate from the other equipment and is an older tall support bar with both big kid and baby swings on it.  They were deemed "good swings" by my son because you can "go higher".  

We thought the tables with the chess/checker boards built into them were really neat.  They are all gathered in a little courtyard like section of the park, with nice planters around them.  It seems like a nice way to spend a nice day outside in the park, enjoying nature.  Just bring your own checkers or chess pieces.  Or you could get creative and gather rocks and wood chips to use!!  

Our third stop on Day 48 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge was at Gwynn Oak Park.  The playground area included big and small structures, swings and a balance beam.  There was a pavilion in the distance, a stage, and a paved pathway.  I'm not sure how long the pathway is or where it goes.  The boys had no interest in the little structure, but played "ship" on the big structure for awhile.  There's also plenty of open grassy area to just run around on here.  Overall it's a nice park.  

On Day 48 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge we noticed a sign for this park while driving to another park and decided to stop and add it to our list!  It was a basic park with a play structure, swings, and picnic area.  We stayed for a short time, partly because my kids weren't too interested in the equipment (they had just been at the recycled tire park) and partly because we got a sense that we weren't welcomed from other park users.  

The boys spent most of the time on the swings.  They liked that they were tall, so they could swing higher.  The play structure was pretty basic w/ slides, climbers, etc.  They explored it a little, but then we moved on to the other park we had planned to visit today.  I will note that there was a lot of shade here.  

We visited several parks on Day 48 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge in an effort to "catch up".  First up was the much anticipated recycled tire playground at Patapsco State Park.  I've known about this park for YEARS, but never managed to make it down here with the kids.  One of the reasons I wanted to participate in the challenge was because it would force us to come here!!  Why did I wait so long?!?!  This place is awesome!!  The tires are arranged in various climbing structures, use as swings, combined with wood to become vehicles and trains, tunnels, etc etc!!!  There's also some "traditional" playground equipment thrown in like fire poles and monkey bars too!  My youngest to boys had a great time, and I think if my 14 yr old had chosen to come along he would have had fun too!  

The boys liked everything here!!  They liked jumping from the wall of tires, climbing on the "wiggly" tires that weren't as firmly planted in the ground as others were, they were held together by a cable so the moved, or wiggled, and you climbed on them.  They engaged in a long game of tag with a younger child and had great fun going over, under, and through tires as they tried not to get tag or tried to tag the others.  My 11 yr old was even kind enough to allow the other kid to tag him on occasion.  The wide metal slide and the train were fun too. 

The playground is located in the woods, so is very shady.  There is a small shelter w/ 2 picnic tables right on the playground, and other tables/shelters a short ways away.  There is a open restroom building.  In addition to the playground the nature center is right here too.  We stopped in and learned about how beavers build their dams, saw a wasp or hornet's nest, and discussed the pros and cons of hunting with the volunteer naturalist.  We also looked at different skulls from different animals!  

I should note that there is a $2 per car admission fee to get into the park, but it was so worth it!!  Also, I believe that it may be possible to buy season passes or multi day passes at a discount.  Also, this was just one small area of the park, I know there is a campground and trials and a river elsewhere in the park.  

Cromwell Valley Park is a park we have actually visited multiple times this summer, but we decided to make it the official park for Day 42 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge.  Although there is no playground here this is one of our favorite parks.  There are plenty of trails to hike, a stream that it is safe to get in, a frog pond, a children's garden, a new nature center, and a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm.  We go every Tuesday to pick up or CSA share.  We support local agriculture and get to eat some obscure veggies you can't find in stores.  And everything is organic!  I've found over the years that my kids  have been more likely to eat something that they either helped harvest, or  actually talked to the farmers at the farm, or just the fact of picking up the produce right next to the field and being able to say "That squash grew over there"!  My middle son has had his own garden plot in the Children's Garden for about 5 yrs.  He's learned a lot about growing veggies in the Children's Garden Club that meets twice a month during the growing season.  The kids like to hike the trails, especially the one by the steam on hot days . . . they can get wet, in the spring they catch tadpoles.  The new nature center opened this year and has some resident critters and a great staff of naturalists.  There are also plenty of programs at this park, all for nominal fees.  Both of my younger two boys really enjoyed their weeks of nature camp here this summer.  I believe actually exploring nature is important, not just spending all your time outside on a big plastic playground!  

Day 41 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge was my birthday.  We took a day off from visiting parks to do some birthday stuff. 

The second park we visited on Day 47 was Valley Fields North.  This must be a new park, because it's not in my map book (which is several years old) and when my oldest was a baby/toddler I spent a lot of time in this area with playgroup families, and we never went here!   I used to drive this section of the road a lot, and I don't remember much being here.  Anyways, it was a nice park with lots of lacrosse/soccer fields and a playground area and a small gazebo with a picnic table under it.  

The playground included 2 structures, swings, and a springy teeter totter.  My boys enjoyed the really big structure with it's really big spiral slide.  I thought the big structure was unique in that it was almost designed for play only on one side, as opposed to most structures that have things to do on every side.  The back side of the structure only has one small ladder to get on it from.  It actually worked well for the layout of the playground because this structure was at the very edge of the park . . . just up an embankment on the other side of the hedge row is someone's house!!  I've just never seen a play structure designed like that before.  Another interesting note is that there was a support pole holding up the side side of the structure.  I believe it's not intended to be a climbing apparatus, but that didn't stop my now 11 yr old (today is his birthday!)!!!  He climbed right up and over to the slide in a creative but unconventional way!   The smaller structure, which is as big as some other parks' big structure, didn't get much play from my boys today.  The much taller slides got more attention!  They also went on the swings for a bit, and tried out the teeter totter, but the 11 yr old looks ridiculously big on there!  

While we were there my youngest had to use the potty.  We looked around and didn't see any facilities, which I found kind of odd given all the sports fields . . . usually where there are lots of lacrosse games there is at least port-a-potties.  So, he used a tree.  On the way to the car, however, we discovered there was a port-a-potty cleverly disquised behind a nice white fence.  I had assumed it was  a trash dumpster back there!  We only discovered it because a police officer had pulled in to use the facilities and the kids recognized the sound of a port-a-potty door slamming shut.  They really should put a small sign on the fence indicating what's behind it!  

This was a very clean and well maintained park.  We may come back again.  

On Day 47 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge we started with Towon Manor Park.  This park has a playstructure, springy animal, sandbox, baby swing set, big kid swings, and a gazebo with benches inside, plus some grassy area.  The structure has a tropical theme w/ palm trees and a thatched roof hut (well everything is plastic but it's made to look like those things).  Daniel set up his ice cream stand at the house panel.  After climbing around on the structure for awhile they went to the swings and had jumping contests.  They would swing as high as they could and jump off.  Sometimes they would coordinate and jump together.  They got silly and had contests for the funniest pose in mid air!  It was very entertaining to watch!  After a short while they decided it was time to go into the library.  

Our Park of the Day on Day 45 of the challenge was Patterson Park.  The playground here has a whimsical little kid area and a big kid area with a really cool castle wall in addition to the playstructure.  The castle is great for hiding behind, playing hid and seek, playing knights, etc.  There are even bars on the windows so you can put somebody in the dungen!!  The design makes use of the natural hill, so the castle wall overlooks the structure.  The structure has all sorts of bridges, slides, climbing towers, etc.  There were a lot of kids playing here today and it turned into one giant game of hide and seek!  It's awesome for older kids, although I imagine some younger kids might get lost/scared navigating through the castle part.  Also, for parents who insist on their child being within eyesight at all times, this is not the playground unless you're gonna follow right behind them!  I am definitely not one of those parents!!  

The little kids area is really cute and whimsical!!  There is a small structure, then several playthings in the shape of flowers, planes, imaginative creatures, etc.  Everything kind of has a cartoonish look to it with bright colors.  We only had our 10 yr old with us today (the 5 yr old was invited to a playdate and the 14 yr old was doing his teenage stuff).  The little kid area wasn't really his thing, but I snapped a few pictures and he actually did experiment with some of the equipment, even if he looked like a giant on it LOL!!!  

The playground surface is that really nice rubber mat stuff, very bouncy and soft!!  According to signage there is a "Friends of Patterson Park" so I suspect that they probably raised money and designed this playground.  I can't imagine that the city spent that much money on one park!  

Just outside the playground area there are large boulder rocks in a circle which is also a cool place to let the kids play.  They like to climb on the rocks, or hide behind them.  

We like this park, but don't come here often.  Driving through the city takes a lot of time and parking can be an issue.  

It was a busy week and we didn't go to any parks on these days. 

We had a busy day today and did were not able to squeeze in a park visit. 

On Day 39 as a family we visited Druid Hill Park which is a large park in the city.  Until now I've only ever driven through this park to get to the zoo, never actually stopped in the park.  Why?  I guess my suburban friends have scared me with the perception that this park is "dangerous" because of the surrounding neighborhood.  Taking my husband with me made me feel more secure, and it was a Sunday afternoon so there were a lot of people in the park.  We also saw several police cars throughout the park.  This turned out to be a very nice park with nice facilities.  I'm still not sure I'd bring the kids all by myself, but definitely come as a family again, or perhaps if I managed to convince a group of moms to come with me!!  

There is a playground with some unique features, pavilions of different sizes located throughout the park, tennis courts, a lake w/ bike/walking path around it, adult FitTrail equipment, a city pool (admission required), the zoo (admission required), Safety Town (a mini city that I think they bring school groups to to teach kids safety skills like how to cross the street, etc), and lots of grass and trees!  

We began our adventure on the playground.  We started on the playground structure which includes various climbing apparatus, slides, bridges, and activity panels.  The kids enjoyed all the different challenges of the different climbing structures.  The activity panels where unique.  One was musical chimes that you could play.  My older boys actually played songs and amazed the other kids on the playground.  Another panel you slide a thing through a track racing your friend.  There is another track panel where you're helping the bee find the hive.  My 5 yr old challenged other kids to race him down the big slides.  Separate from the structure was the monkey bars.  My 10 yr old really enjoyed the configuration of this, different types of monkey bars positioned in a square so you can move from one type to another.  There is a swingset nearby, but it's across a park road so you need to be careful to watch for cars.  

After playing for awhile the kids rode their bikes around the lake.  My teenager just took off and left us in the dust!  My husband stayed with my 5 yr old who has become quite a whiz on his balance bike.  They got way ahead of me and my 10 yr old.  I was helping my 10 yr old who still isn't really confident or proficient at riding a bike (our lack of appropriate place to ride in the neighborhood and our busy schedules preventing a lot of trips to biking acceptable parks are the reason).  Today, however, something amazing happened . . . he "got" it!!!  At the beginning of the path he was still only going a few feet before falling over.  Somewhere around the middle of the loop he just all of the sudden "got" the concept of how to stay upright and balanced and would go a fair distance!!!  I was so proud, and he was soooo excited!!!  By the end of the loop he was going faster, and I told him it was ok to go ahead of me.  The rest of the family was very surprised when they saw him come riding along and I was nowhere in sight!!  They even called my cell phone wanting to know where i was! It was a good day!! 

This park had really nice looking new modern FitTrail equipment for adults.  It looked like it would be a good workout to jog from station to station, then do the sit ups, chest press, chin ups, etc.  I never would have imagined that such nice equipment existed in this park in the middle of the city!  

I think this park was actually much nicer than my perception of it was.  I wish more people would use it, or it's image would change so it would be safer, and be perceived as safer.  I think fear prevents a lot of people from utilizing the facilities here, and that is a shame.  I am now intrigued to look up crime statistics and see just how much crime occurs or doesn't occur here.  I "felt" pretty safe, although at one point on the far end of the lake there weren't many people on the path.  I was basically alone w/ my 10 yr old on his bike and a shady looking guy made me a little nervous.  However, just over the small embankment was a busy street so in my mind I figured if he tried anything I'd run that way!  And lets face it, strange shady people are everywhere . .  city, county, suburbs, country  . . doesn't matter!  

We didn't have time to fit in a park on Day 37 between camp and hockey on Friday night.  Day 38 was a rainy day so we went bowling as a family.  After bowling it had stopped raining and we were headed towards a park, but then the radio announced that there was a severe thunderstorm warning and decided that taking the kids to a metal playground during a thunderstorm wasn't the best idea! 

Day 36 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge's park was Northwest Regional Park.  This is a new park in Owings Mills with lots of sports fields, several pavilions, and a playground.  I believe some of the wooded area is also part of the park, I'm not sure if there are trails or not for hiking.  

The playground included a playstructure and swings.  The structure really wasn't that big by the standards my son has come to expect.  He did enjoy the moving bridge and thought the baseball themed tic-tac-toe was amusing.  It was VERY hot here as you are literally in the middle of a big open field.  I'm not sure what the park designers were thinking because they put the picnic pavilions really far away from the playground!!  Definitely don't rent a pavilion here for a party thinking the kids can play while you sit in the shade w/ food and stuff watching them.  An adult would have to take the children over to the playground and supervise them.  I took a picture of the pavilions while standing on the playground, you can see how they are WAYYYY across the parking lot!!  The playground is near some of the sports fields, so I think it's more suited for entertaining the younger siblings while their brother/sister's game is going on.  We did like the cleverly designed bike racks, although the road leading to the park did not seem like a safe place to be riding a bike, especially children.  Perhaps there is another back way into the park from the neighborhoods that I don't know about, however.  

On Day 35 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge we visited Seminary Park.  There are 2 parking lots at this park, upper and lower.  The lower one is near the playground, but we found and parked at the upper lot.  That was ok, because then we got to walk down the hill and see the whole park!  There arfile:///Users/Sherry/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library%20Full/Originals/2010/Seminary%20Park/DSC_0151.JPGe tennis courts, baseball fields, soccer/lacrosse/football fields, playground, pavilion, and a consessions/restroom building.  The fields include a beautiful artificial turf lighted field!!  

The playground includes a sandbox, swings, springy animals, a large structure with various types of slides, bridges, climbing, zip line, etc, and a train!!  This park is located in historical Lutherville, near historical train tracks, hence the train theme.  Today the light rail runs on the tracks.  My son loves trains, so the train climber was a big hit.  He was the engineer and I had to wait at the station and get on.  He also spent time in the sandbox, which included toys!!  Of course the wobbly bridges and the zip line on the structure were cool too.  

An added bonus of doing the challenge and coming to this park is that we found a nice tennis court that we didn't know was there.  My middle son recently took up tennis, so now we have yet another place he can come to play/practice.  

I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of this park as the years go by, especially if my youngest sticks with lacrosse.  The beautiful artificial turf field is in constant use during lacrosse season with games.  I know because you can see the field when you're on the beltway.  

This week my son is in a ice hockey camp so we're at the Reisterstown Regional Park everyday!!  This park is home to the Reisterstown Sportsplex which is a ice rink and indoor soccer facility.  In addition, outside there are lacrosse fields, baseball fields, pavilions, and a playground.  Today after hockey camp we stayed and played on the playground for a little bit for our Park of the Day Challenge on Day 34. 

The playground has a big structure, little structure, and swings.  The big structure includes rock climbing walls, big plastic bolder climber, slides, climbing pedestool/lilly pad things, bridges, the wheel monkey bars, and a challenging chain bridge.  My 5 yr old said his 10 yr old brother would be disappointed that he wasn't there because he loves those wheel monkey bars ever since we found them elsewhere this summer.  In addition to doing all the "normal" playground activities (slides, swings, etc) he really enjoyed challenging himself w/ the chain bridge.  It was a single chain along the bottom that he had to walk on, supported by V-shaped chains at regular intervals suspended from parallel metal bars.  He was so proud of himself when he made it all the way accross!!  

This park is only a few years old, so everything still looks new.  There is a restroom building that was actually opened!!!  That is a rare thing I'm finding!  

Hannah Moore Park was our destination for Day 33 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge.  This is a huge playground with many different structures/features.  In addition this park includes pavilions, sports fields, a separate off leash dog park, and a skateboarding park for the teens.  We really enjoyed this park. 

From the parking lot the first thing Daniel spotted was a huge spiral slide, and he ran right to it.  He was amazed that there were so many different structures.  He explored the climbers, slides, monkey bars, zip lines, bridges, etc.  Fire poles were also a big hit with him here.  The most interesting thing we found was a giant funnel in the sandpit area.  He spent a really long time here scooping up sand into this thing and directing it down the small hole.  His goal was to make the pile of sand that formed underneath touch the bottom of the funnel.  He enlisted the help of other children, and physically got inside the giant funnel to push the sand through.  He would also jump out and check the progress of the pile from underneath.  He had a definite goal in mind, and didn't stop until it was achieved!  

This playground was a lot of fun.  It was nice to see people of all ages there.  Kids with both moms and dads, grandparents, nannies, people without kids walking their dogs by, and even the teenagers were playing on the playground when they tired of the skatepark!!  I also noticed that there was diversity in the mix of people at this park, which is a good thing! 

Today was a disappointing day in regards to playgrounds.  It's Day 32 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge and we needed to drive to Philly to pick up my oldest son from the airport.  I wasn't sure how we could manage to get to a park also, but then remembered that there is a playground at the Perryville Outlets.  It seemed like a perfect plan .. . a little break from the car ride for the kids, plus I could go check out one of my favorite stores!  

When we arrived at the shopping center we found the playground area blocked off w/ yellow caution tape!!!  I walked around the whole playground and didn't see anything broken or dangerous.  There was no sign indicating why it was closed off.  So we had a VERY upset child who had been promised that we were going to a playground!!  Now I know it wouldn't have prevented the upset child, but I really wish management had offered an explanation via a sign.  Even just a "sorry for any inconvenence"  sign.  Don't they know that the playground is used as a bribe for good behavior in the stores by virtually every mother shopping there???   As an aside, to add insult to injury the store I wanted to visit was no longer in business!!  

I added a picture of the playground . . . it is small but adequite for a outlet shopping center.  I can't comment on what features my kids enjoyed, however! 

On the 31st day of the Park A Day Challenge we stopped by Wyman Park on our way to dinner with just Mommy, Daddy, and our youngest (our 2 older boys were both away on separate trips, and their trips overlapped just this day).  The playground at this park is rather sad, just a very small structure which is more suited to toddlers, swings, and a springy horses.  The playground surface is compacted woodchips with weeds.  Nevertheless Daddy was with us which was a special treat, as he's rarely seen at a playground!!  After showing off his swinging skills, including jumping off the swing, and wild spring animal riding, our son played a game of tic tac toe with Daddy.  He also attempted to play tic tac toe w/ a much younger girl who was there.  She didn't understand the game though, and just wanted to spin the blocks which greatly frustrated Daniel.  Overall he thought this playground was "too small, it's for babies".  

This park is mainly urban green space with walking paths.  A stream runs through it, but given the contamination in the water it is not recomended that you play in the water.  It's a nice place to walk your dog, or sit on a bench and read a book or eat lunch.  I think they should expand the playground, however. 

This is a nice park that is always shady.  We visited here on Day 30 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge.  There is a fairly large playground, basketball courts, baseball field, and picnic tables under shady trees.  The kids enjoyed the various slides, climbing, bridges, etc on the structure.  They spent a lot of time on the zip line, even though it was not as fast as the one they had found at Putty Hill.  They inspired two little girls, ages maybe 1 and 3 to try the zip line!  The girls' mom simply held them and pulled them across.  The girls were amazed at how my boys could do it themselves and how fast they went!  They were in awe of "those big kids"!  Today they decided to swing as high as they could on the swings and jump off.  I go some great midair pics of this activity!  And what seems to be becoming a theme w/ the little store window features on these structures, my 5 yr old opened is ice cream shop and sold not only to us, but the little girls who were there playing too.  I was talking to the other mom and we realized this is one of the few parks where the equipment is in the shade!!  Most times it's out in the open w/ the hot sun beating down!  We enjoyed all the mature trees in this park.  

On Day 29 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge we found a small playground area outside of the Parkville Rec Center.  There is a playground structure, springy horse, springy car, plastic playhouse, and basketball courts.  This playground would be best for toddlers to preschoolers, my boys weren't very impressed.  The playstructure features slides, a bridge, a tunnel, climbing spiral, tic tac toe board, etc.  They did enjoy the tunnel.  

On Day 28 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge we found ourselves at the "Kids Castle" at the Loch Raven Rec Center.  I found this playground by looking for green space on the map, then looking online on the Baltimore County Parks & Rec site to see if there was a playground.  First off, to all my local friends who live in Loch Raven Village, how long has this playground been there, and why have you kept it a secret from us!!!  It was awesome!  

The whole play structure area has a castle theme, w/ turrets and castle looking decor.  There is a small structure, a dragon, a globe, balance beam,a large structure w/ some interesting play elements, various monkey bars attached to the big structure, zip line, and swings.  Of course there are swinging bridges.  The tunnels at the bottom look like dragons w/ their mouths wide open!  There are talking tube things built into the play structure.  There's even an abacus! One of the coolest features was a musical panel which was unfortunately broken and not working anymore.  It appeared that if you pressed the key of the note, which had the letter above it, plus the music staff w/ the note in the correct position above that it would play that not via chimes inside the panel.  There was also a faded musical score above the staff of notes, so you could play a song by following the letters!  My musical child was very disappointed that it didn't work!  The tunnel slides, swings, and zip line were of course favorites! He also set up an ice cream stand and served me mulch ice cream!  Yum?!

There were also basketball courts, ball fields, and a rec center building on this property.  We will be back to play knights and dragons! 

The second park we visited on Day 27 of the Park A Day Challenge was Rosedale Park. This was an interesting park with a mix of older "retro" equipment and newer modern equipment.  There was also an interesting swing contraption that I think may be designed for people with disabilities.  There were lots of straps/buckles/etc.  It looked like something you might transfer a child from a wheelchair into.  There were also two "in memory of" signs and given the birth/death dates they were young people who had passed.  What a nice thing to donate playground equipment in memory of!  

The equipment included a large new structure, big kid swings, baby swings, retro metal spiral slide, sand diggers, new very small structure, springy cars, 4 armed springy thing w/ retro animals, tunnel, mini climbing wall and sand pit.  Other facilities included shaded picnic tables, pavilion, baseball field, and sand volleyball court.  The retro metal spiral slide and the sand diggers were the most popular with my 5 yr old, except that the metal slide was really hot!  It was also really tall though too!  The sand pit was not well maintained, there was a lot of grass/weeds growing through and small pieces of trash (ie candy wrappers).  The "old" equipment looked like it could have been there when I was a kid, but seems to be maintained well.  The "new" equipment looks, well . . new!  

Overall, this was a nice park.  There is a large hill that you have to go down between the parking lot and the playground.  There are steps built into the hill, however, be warned that if you're trying to take a stroller down it could be dangerous!  I'd recommend a baby carrier over a stroller here! 

It's Day 27 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge and it's a GORGEOUS morning!!  No humidity, temps in the 70s, light breeze!  Perfect day for going to the park!!!  After dropping my 10 yr old off at camp we headed out to Honeygo Run Regional Park in White Marsh since we were out in that direction anyhow.  I had never been here before.  It is a huge, gorgeous, park with shiny new looking equipment, ball fields w/ shiny backstops, a paved walking/jogging/biking path, pavilions, a community center building, etc, etc!  Everything was so meticulously maintained too.  Very suburban looking.  And most amazing of all, there were actually PEOPLE in the park!!!  So far in this challenge we've usually been the only people at a playground, or at most one other family is coming or going while we're there.  To be fair, it may have to do w/ the unbearable heat wave temperatures and humidity we've been having all summer.  This weather is unusual for Baltimore and nobody really wants to be outside when it's 100+ degrees and 90% humidity.  Everyone is at the pool, or someplace air conditioned.  This is only the 2nd day of this beautiful weather so it may have enticed everyone to come out and enjoy it.  In any case there were joggers, women walking for exercise in groups, moms w/ strollers walking/jogging for exercise, moms or grandmoms w/ kids on the playground, kids w/ bikes, etc.  It was wonderful.  

The playground consisted of a big kid area and a little kid area that were immediately adjacent to each other.  Both had playstructures and swings.  The little kid area also had two springy teeter totters and a talking tube.  My 5 yr old liked the height of the big structure which was very tall and therefore had tall slides.  He immediately started interacting with other children and pretending the whole thing was his ship.  Natural born leader that he is he quickly delegated different jobs to different children.  The other children played along for awhile, then lost interest and moved on.  Daniel had fun climbing, sliding, jumping, straight zip lining, and swinging.  He also enjoyed the little kids area, especially the talking tube and the teeter totter.  We both wish we had brought his bike, as this would be a nice place to ride.  Living in the city, on a hill, we don't have a suitable safe place to ride in our neighborhood.  As I said in the Chinquapin Park post all my boys have learned by going around that sidewalk circle around the playstructure there, but that gets boring after awhile!  

The second park we went to on Day 26 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge was Belmont Park in Parkville.  This park had lots of sports fields, a couple of pavilions, a playground, and also appeared to be a paved walking/biking trail around the perimeter, but we didn't explore that.  An important feature to note is that it had restrooms that were unlocked!!  Amazing!  And we were the only people in the park, so they weren't just unlocked for a busy Saturday of soccer or lacrosse games!  

The playground structure was pretty standard w/ slides, climbers, monkey bars, etc.  It included a rock like climbing thing.  I liked the color scheme of bright pink, turqurise, and yellow; it was different and gave it an island feel!  The swingset was the standard one we're seeing everywhere w/ 2 baby swings and 2 big kid swings.  An interesting feature was a metal park bench seat mounted to three springs!!  I wonder if this originally was a 2 seat teeter totter type springy toy that somehow got damaged and instead of putting a new one in they just mounted a bench seat there so kids wouldn't get hurt on the exposed springs??  It was odd looking, but the boys enjoyed bouncing on it.  I guess it's just proof that stuff doesn't have to be fancy to amuse kids!!  There were also 3 mysterious black little platforms.  They kind of reminded me of the ones you see that kids walk on, but they were really close together and all the same level, and not leading up to the structure as they usually do.  My boys didn't quite know what they were supposed to do w/ them!!  

I'm glad we found this park.  We'll have to come back and explore the walking path, perhaps w/ our bikes.  

The heat and humidity finally broke!!!  This morning was a beautiful morning, with temps only in the 70s!!!!  It was so nice today that we actually did two parks today to try to catch up for days we missed.  First up was Belmar Park in Overlea. It's Day 26 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge.   Although I still have some parks I know about on my list to visit for the challenge, I've also just started looking at the map for the green park pattern, then looking up the internet info about the park to see if they have a playground.  That's how I found Belmar.  

This park is basically a neighborhood park, surrounded by houses on all sides.  As far as I could see there was no parking lot, people's back yards just abutted the park.  I found it by going down Belmar St, which deadended at the park.  There were swings, rocks to climb on, a big structure, a small structure, a 4 armed springy thing, a roller hockey court, and a good amount of grassy area.  

The first thing my 5 yr old noticed was the monkey bars that turn.  He said his brother would be mad at us that we came here without him (he was at camp), as these are one of his favorite things.  He just discovered them at another park this past spring.  They look like giant steering wheels going across 2 supports, like regular monkey bars do.  They are at angles, and when you grab them as you go across monkey bar style they turn giving you momentum to grab the next one.  I'm not sure if my description makes any sense, but they are really cool.  And my 10 yr old was disappointed when he learned he missed out on them today!  

The slides on these playground structures are made to look like logs, w/ the log texture molded into the plastic.  Kind of a neat feature, I guess, but I don't really care for fake plastic logs.  A real log hollowed out and made into a slide would be way cooler!!  My son climbed around on the structures for a little bit, but then went to the swings to practice his newly gained skill of pumping the swings all by himself!!  All he needs me for now is the first push.  He was even hoisting himself up onto the swing today.  He also developed another game on the swings of getting a running start then floppy belly down over the swing seat and swinging that way.  He was quite amused!  

One thing to not about the hockey rink is that there were no goal nets!  I guess you have to drag your own from somewhere??  Seems kind of inconvenient to me, and not a way to encourage kids to actually use the court.  Of course if the parks dept left goals there they'ed probably get stolen.  Maybe they could chain them down somehow?  Or permanently install them?

As we were leaving he commented that he wished he lived in the house we were parked in front of.  "Why" I asked.  "Because their yard IS the playground"!!!! he replied.  "and their house is bigger than ours" he added.  I reminded him that we have our own playground IN our yard, but he wasn't impressed.  I'm sure if we actually lived next to this park he'd lose interest in it too and think somewhere else was more fun.  Kids are like that.  

This weekend was just brutely HOT here, and the air quality was really bad, code red days.  Nobody really felt like doing anything outside on Saturday.  My 10 yr old and I went to our ice skating lesson which was heavenly!!  Skating w/ a t-shirt on is awesome!!  We couldn't bring ourselves to go to any outside parks, however, for any length of time.  On Sunday it was just as humid and miserable, so we decided to escape to the a/c of the bowling alley since some free coupons had come in the mail.  We all had fun, and the boys were glad to do something that included Daddy.  While we were bowling a rain shower came through, which we thought might cool things off a little, but just made it muggy.  We decided to try to stop by a park on the way home though, at least for a little bit, to check another one off our list and get closer to our goal of 50 parks.  As we were driving however, the radio announced a Severe T-storm Warning w/ winds up to 60 mph!!!  Then it started lightening and we thought putting the kids on metal playground equipment during a thunderstorm wasn't the best idea!!  So, unfortunately we again skipped a day on the park adventures. 

On Day 23 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge we decided to try to figure out how to actually get to a playground that can be seen from a main road, but has no access there.  I've driven past this park for years, but have never been there.  After some winding around on one way streets we found it, only to find out it wasn't a public parks and rec playground, from the signage it seems to be owned and maintained by the apartment community that is across the street from it.  I'm not sure if we were technically allowed to play on it, but since we weren't gonna vandelize it or anything we went for it.  Worse that could happen is someone come and tell us to leave, right?  And how can you deny kids who just wanna have fun?  

it was a very cute park with lots of shade trees, picnic tables and grills, and a playground.  We parked on the street and walked across the stream on a footbridge, a nice touch.  The structure included a bridge, slides, monkey bars, stepping platforms, and a chin up bar.  It also had a unique panel that was a steering wheel and a gear shift that you tracked through the gears 1,2,3,4,5,R  ; just like a manual transmission car w/ a stick shift!!  Of course I had to explain to the kids what a stick shift car is . . . and how I like driving stick better but had to give mine up to get the minivan!!  

This park seems like it would be a nice escape and oasis from a person's tiny apartment.  I could see coming out here to grill your dinner and enjoy the trees and sound of the stream as the kids played.  The apartment community seemed to have a lot of families, given that most balconies had kids bikes and toys on them.  The apartment pool was directly across the street from the park.  If I were looking for an apartment community and had kids (or even if I didn't have kids) this park is an amenity that would put this complex near the top of my list!  

We went to Putty Hill Park on Day 22 of the Park A Day Summer Challenge.  This park has an area for older kids and an are for younger kids right next to it.  The biggest draw for my kids was the zip line, that actually went downhill!!  

Unfortunately, something happened to my memory card and I lost all the pictures from this park :(  !!  I'll go back and take new pictures, then update this blog post so I can accurately describe this playground.  

Thanks for being patient! 

UPDATE: 

This park has a big kid area and a little kid area, both with some unique features.  The big area has a zip line that actually goes downhill, not just stright across like some others.  There also is a bouncy balance beam thing, and a barrel like thing you run on.  The kids spent most of the time on all of these features, although they also tried out the slides, swings, etc that are common everywhere.  The tunnel slide here was deemed "too slow", which I have to agree with.  If you look at the picture you'll see that the end is horizontal, so they actually almost had to crawl or scooch themselves out!   The little kid area has a school bus and a puppet theatre kind of thing, with plastic dinosaurs facing it, so it's like the dinos are watching the show, or kids can sit on the dinos while another kid puts on a show.  My 5 yr old enjoyed driving the school bus and picking up passengers.  Then the bus wrecked and we had to evacuate through the emergency door on the bus!  

Other facilities here include baseball field, basketball courts, pavilion, and a port-a-potty.  

There were some maintenance issues here including the slide and the bus.  At the top of one of the slides a piece of plywood had been fixated in place to prevent use of the slide.  I could not see why, although another kid claimed the slide was cracked.  The bus has 2 real tires attached to the structure, mainly for athstetic value, but is missing the other 2.  

We will definitely be back here for the awesome zip line!!  For days my kids asked "can we go back to the zip line park"?  They were actually kind of mad that we had to move on to other parks for the challenge! 

Day 21 of the Park A Day Challenge took us to Glendale Park.  I have driven past this park for years and never realized it had a playground!!!  I thought it was just lacrosse fields!!  Although we haven't hit all the parks I know about yet, I realized that I wasn't going to hit 50 parks just with the ones I know of!  So I was looking online for some kind of guide to parks in the area and came across a list of Baltimore County parks w/ a column that listed what facilities each park had.  I saw that Glendale supposedly had a playground so we set off, venturing into neighborhood residential streets to find the actual entrance to this park on the other side!  We found a small playground, just over the hill from the lacrosse fields!  You can't see it from the main road because of the hill.  There's also a basketball court back there.  It's actually really not too far for younger siblings to go play when they get bored watching the lacrosse game.  

The equipment included a small sized (ages 2-5) structure, swings, motorcycle springy thing, and stand alone monkey bars.  This was a very important and special day at the playground.  Something really big happened!!  Daniel, my 5 yr old, finally figured out how to pump himself on the swings!!!!!!!!!  He's been working on this for YEARS, and it finally just clicked today, on this little playground!!  I'm so proud of him!!!  (and so thankful that my arms finally get a break from pushing LOL)!!!  He was so happy, he just kept swinging and swinging and swinging!!!  Big brother was happy for him too!!  As he practiced his swing technique my 10 yr old was working on perfecting his monkey bar technique.  Overall, it was a good day!