San Pablo Park 9.5/10

Last week I decided to take a walk and meet Joel at work. He had forgotten his Veggie Box, which he splits with a co-worker and Holly and I decided to bring it to him. We met him at his building and it was just about a quarter to Seven. Together we all walked over the the far away building to deliver the veggies.Afterwards we decided to walk to the park before going home. I figured we were already out, Holly had been in the stroller for a while and it would be good to let her run around before dinner and bedtime. I think we had been couped up in the house most of the earlier part of the day.Holly loves going to the park with Daddy. When Daddy is around she gets to do more dangerous things because she has both of us there to spot her, so I can climb up to a slide with her and Daddy can catch her, and so forth. On this particular visit to the park, Mommy was tired for all the earlier walking and decided to take a rest and let Daddy run around after Holly.So since there was no one to play catch, they decided to go down the slide together. I thought this was quite cute and wanted to give them a chance to bond and play. Sometimes I get nervous when Joel is watching Holly on her own at the park. I am far from the over protective mother, but I tend to hover just behind her at the ready for her to fall or loose her balance.Joel tends to give her a little more space, especially when there is just sand of bouncy turf, because even if a little fall might scare her she won't really be hurting herself much. He also trust's in her abilities more then I do. It's not that I don't think she can do something, I just know that she isn't always paying attention to what it is she is doing.But overall He is great with her, and when I resign to let him do things his way and step back it doesn't really matter, perhaps I might be right there to catch her if she is close to an edge, and he isn't, but in the situations she is able to get herself into, and edge is only about 6 inches up form the level below, she not too much damage can be done, and kids will be kids, so when I need a break I let go and they have a blast.A park favorite is always the swings. I think Joel sometimes uses them to help wrangle Holly when he is getting tired of following her around and watching and climbing and making she she doesn't get hurt, because well, she is pretty contained in the swing, and she is having the time of her life on top of that.The tot park is fenced in, but there is a little grassy knoll all along the edge bordering it and Holly is nothing, if not thorough, so even the grass and little flowers are open for exploration. Of course that's not too excited, and soon she is just trying to take her socks off, so it's back to the play ground for some more fun.Holly is pretty fascinated with Strollers. She loves them. One of the reasons I like Studio Grow and Sadie Dey's so much is because the bags and strollers are far away from the play area and I have no worries that she will be trying to get into other people's stuff.But in this case it was our stroller and we didn't see the harm in letting her play around with it. The turf was a bit gritty with sand, and at the time was a fairly new surface for Holly to walk on, so she was quite happy having the stability of the stroller to help her walk, and she got quite a workout pushing it around and around the inner circle off the play ground.She wasn't so good at the steering and threatened to crash into the grass when she was pushing on her own, so Joel is helping keep her on course, but he isn't doing any pushing. She is doing all that work herself. Once she got tired of walking around she was ready for round two of playing, but soon after both mommy and daddy were tired so we let her push the stroller almost all the way home.

Here are some Video's from one of our many visits to San pablo Park:

Slide and Sand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AlQfC4vtNY
Trying to Climbing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWZfqBdxutU
Rocking Horse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsV4xe8hlSk

Slides - 1 - There is a slide and Holly has done this one by herself. But she has bumped herself turning while going down, so it is better when she has help.

Swings - 1 - yes

Surface - 1 - Sand, Grass, Bouncy Turf

Shade - 1 - There are tree's and I have never noticed being excessively sunny. But it isn't overly shaded either.

Climbing - 1 - Lots of fun to climb around here are walk up to the slide and on the various platforms. There is also the train to climb on, not pictured.

Parking - 1 - There is a lot of street parking, but we walked from home.

Bathrooms - 1/2 - Does the bathroom at home count? There might even be a bathroom in the rec center, I am not sure though. But home, is as close as some bathrooms in a big park.

Distance - 1 - Its like one block away. Technically we live on the park, bu the playground is on the other side.

Friends - 1 - There are always kids here, various ages, always someone new, and many of the mom's I know from swim class live in the neighborhood and I have run into them at the park.

Fun - 1- We always have a lot of fun. On top of the swings and slide, there are rocker animals to ride, little seats and see saw type things, and a long train with various rooms to sit in and climb through, and little houses.

Also this is all in the tot park, right next door is the big kid park, which at most places I usually let Holly explore, but there is so much to do here, we haven't had to do that yet.

This park might have one of the highest ratings, and it is pretty awesome, but it is still fun to get out and see other parks and try different kinds of structures and climbers too.

Also, I guess in full disclosure, I should mention there is a community room, tennis and basketball courts, a baseball field, picnic tables, chess, and the other park. I often also see BBQ Parties on the weekends in the park with rented bouncy houses, there is lots of lawn room.

But I may be biased, this is "Our Park"

http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=12844