The Perks of the New & Improved Central Park

This is yet another playground located not too terribly far from our house.  Not biking distance (oh, to live on the Iron Horse Trail), but located on the same property as the community center, yards away from the middle school, and across the street from the library.  In a nutshell, a perfect, centrally-located park. All of my kids loved it, especially Nicholas (read: several water features), and spent many hours there until last October.

I stopped taking him there when I realized that much of the playground equipment was falling apart.  No, no worries, I have not morphed into a security/safety nut, the condition of some of the 'bridges' (that connected different parts of the structures) were moss-covered and rotting , and it even concerned me.  Considering my baby-proofing methods (nope, didn't work, they still got in), you know it must be bad if I have decided to let the little guy frolic elsewhere.  No matter, there are only 18,000* other parks and playgrounds in the area, right?  Trust me when I say there is no deficiency in the play area arena anywhere in the East Bay.

From then on, we simply skipped our post-Kindermusik trips to the park, until I realized that we could no longer go even if we so desired.  According to a poster in the lobby in the community center, and huge fences around the old park, the playground was no more.  Gone were the rotting (and I mean not much wood left, if any) pieces of equipment, the old swing sets and the monkey bars.  What would replace it?  I didn't really look too much, just a glance, but it looked bright and colorful and from driving by, appeared to be going up quite rapidly.

Last week, I heard from several sources that the park was open.  Yippee!  We took it to task yesterday, and all five of us spent a good hour and a half at said playground. Results?  An overwhelming two thumbs up from everyone in the family.

Nicholas loves the new sand pit, which is located next to just one water feature (not two), meaning just enough when the water feature is on, he will be able to build a sand castle, but there will be less temptation to clog the nice waterfall that leads to a little pond (when actually filled with water).  In fact, we wanted him to test the regular playground equipment, but ran out of time, and had to finally drag him out of the sand pit when it was time to go. 

The other two had an absolute blast.  Finally, a playground that really caters to ALL of the kids.  While I love most of them, the age labels seem a bit off.  They are listed as being for those up to age 12, but in reality, you rarely see kids over 10 playing on them, as the structures simply don't seem 'big' enough.  Not that my kids can't play on their own, but it was so refreshing to see them, primarily Cait,  enjoy a playground as much as the younger kids. 

I didn't even think about it at first, but there are no swings in the new playground.  Guess what?  The kids didn't even notice. I looked and looked, but could find few, if any, failings with this gorgeous, state of the art, brand-new playground that I am sure kids in some areas only dream about.  Central Park, you are back on our list!

*Turns out I lied.  There are only 55 parks and 15 trails.  However, they cover a total of 91,000 acres of land.  Nothing to sneeze at there, folks.