Tuesday, May 15, 2018

spooner park

Before heading out to visit a park, I always do a quick check on park specifics. Mainly I look for whether or not the park has a playground and if so, what the playground looks like.

In most cases, this pre-check is a time saver.

In some cases, like Spooner Park (350 Eli Road, Little Canada), it's not.


Here's what you need to know:
Parking: Lot
Age range (playground): 2+
Sidewalks: Paved around park (not directly to play area)
Seating: Several benches around play area
Bathrooms: NA
Picnic tables: Several in picnic shelter
Grills: Several by picnic shelter
Sports field: See the website for details on what's here

As soon as we turned into the parking lot, all we could see were "allergies" (dandelion seeds) floating in the air, literally turning the air white. For people with seasonal allergies (Madi and me), this wasn't necessarily a warm welcome.


The play area is a few minutes' walk from the parking lot down a well-paved sidewalk (unfortunately, the sidewalk isn't a straight walk from the lot; it curves this way and that).

On the way down we passed a lovely stone picnic shelter and plenty of open, grassy areas for lounging about or (maybe) even a game of volleyball.


The play area is split into two sections. One accommodates kiddos ages 2+ and the other accommodates kiddos ages 5+. Both are laid with sand, made of wood, and have metal slides.

Zoey had a hard time navigating the smaller playground due to the tall steps and long drops. She was also uncomfortable with feeling wood under her feet (we took off shoes to keep them from trapping sand).


Titus and Madi were uninterested in the smaller playground because it's pretty bare: a single slide, bridge, some steps, and a tiny tunnel (less than a yard long).

Madi was eager to try out the big kid playground, but had a hard time doing much on her own. She was able to scale the curved wood ladder and take the steps up to the top of the playground. She also found the balance beam (her first ever) an especially fun challenge.


She couldn't, however, navigate the monkey bars, which comprised half of the playground. She quickly grew tired of this section.

Each playground has swings suitable for the intended audience. The big kid playground also has a tire swing, which Titus enjoyed; and a big digger, which Madeline enjoyed.

We were here for no longer than 20 minutes when we decided we'd had enough. None of the kids were comfortable scaling the equipment due to its composition and even when they did, there wasn't much for them to do.


I wanted to keep exploring in the city of Little Canada; but both of the two closest parks (one of which we've been to) looked just about as impressive as Spooner, if not less.

My guess is Little Canada's parks and rec system isn't as current as surrounding cities'. As is such, we won't be coming back unless we know updates have been introduced.

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