A while back at at Summer party in fact, Kendra recommended a park in Piedmont near her house that she often walks too. One night a few weekends ago Joel and I decided to go questing for it. We were driving and Holly was still sleeping and we thought we could let her snooze for a bit and then wake her and go play.
We ended up discovering two parks. This one is simply called "Piedmont Park" the other one, the one I think Kendra was actually talking about is called Dracena park. It also was pretty amazing, Joel got out and took a look, you can't see it from the parking lot. 
He said it had a giant climbing wall and huge sand pit with a water feature and a huge playground. it was geared towards much older kids, but it was in a deep valley and you could "hike" in and walk through the trees it was beautiful. We decided to go there another day. 
But in our explorations we found this awesome park. We spent a while driving around Piedmont which we are now calling the "Rich" part of Oakland, and Oh My! Is it "posh" the houses are huge and beautiful, the streets wide and tree lined, it was pretty darn nice.
We had so much fun randomly driving around, it was something we would spend hours and hours doing years ago when we first moved here. we called it "Car hiking" and would drive through the hills in Marin, the streets of San Francisco, the Technology Corridors of Silicone Valley, and well it was nostalgic and a lot of fun to discover this new little town near by. Previously I had only know of "Piedmont Ave" not the rest of Piedmont, miles up into the hills.
This park was fun. Holly of course was drawn to the swings, but she also had fun running on the structure, going down the slides, spinning the letters, and exploring the park. In addition to this play area, there were steps down a walk into the trees as well.
Holly also really enjoyed playing in the sand. The park came pre equipped with some neat sand toys. Holly is starting to get to be quite Handy with the Shovel. But more so she likes dumping out the bucket, all over herself.
The sand at our park is sandy, and once she dumped it down her shirt which was so funny. The sand here was a little more like dirt, so I had to keep an eye out that it didn't get in her face or down her shirt.. That didn't stop her from getting it all over the front of her shirt, and she was wearing this adorable new white shirt from her granny.
There are rainbow embroidered fishys on this little top sent to us from her Granny's visit to Mexico. I should have taken her shoes off of her when she started playing in the dirt, as later she took them off and dirt dumped out all over and her toes ended up filthy anyways.
Holly is getting so grown up. She has a plan and is so intentional in everything she does. Sometimes I think she is scheming. She plays games and little jokes. She tries and gets us to chase her and entices us and she is starting to really test her limits, I look at her and see the little wheels turning as she contemplates her next move.
It is so wonderful that she is starting to communicate now also. She shows us what she wants and says more so we will do it again. This is a fun little game where the pegs drop down to the bottom. She doesn't know how to manipulate them through the zigzags to get to the top yet, so she will take Joel's hand and point to get him to do it for her and then ask for more. Giggling as they fall.
She is also at this phase where she is wanting to learn things for herself, so I have to be extra careful with edges, and with telling her to do something, as sometimes she doesn't do it just because i told her too, the defiance is cute now, but it will get her into trouble one of these days, so slowly I am letting her learn her own lessons, so she realizes mommy only tells her things that are good for her.
The other really cool thing about this park was the beautiful fountain. It was up near the entrance and we passed it by on our way out, so of course we got side tracked. Holly is transfixed with water in all forms ad so she was delighted by this fountain.
She had toddled over to take a look and then patiently waited for us to catch up with her. She wasn't nearly as close as she wanted to be to the water. Her eyes just say Mommy, help, More Water.
She puts her arms up saying "up" she wants to get closer, and she wants me to pick her up to help her get closer. Isn't she so beautiful? I didn't realize how long her pixie like hair was until I recently looked at some pictures of her from a year ago when it didn't even reach her ears yet. It is getting so long!
So of course I couldn't deny that fairy face its every wish, and the shoes were off, dust went everywhere and soon she was dipping her toes into the water. of course sitting sweetly on the edge and letting her toes dangle wasn't enough, she wanted to run her fingers through the falling water as well.
As spoiled as she is, her mommy complied and she had so much fun. First she wanted to stand in the water, dip her feet completely. I suppose I didn't mind this so much because her feet were at least clean now, not the shirt so much, it was still covered with dirt, but her toes were pink as ever. Then she wanted to let go and walk over to the rest of the fountain. But I was worried that it was slippery, so i kept hold tight while we finished playing.
Slides - 1/2 - There was one slide, but it was wide so Mommy and Daddy fit, and not too big so Holly could go down holding our hand. But more would have been nice.Swings - 1 - Yes, and she tested them out right away.
Surface - 1/2 - It was sand, but the sand was more like dirt, I suppose I could make this higher, but it just wasn't my favorite surface.
Shade - 1 - It was shady, but near the fountain was a sunny area if it was cool.
Climbing - 1/2 - The structure had a ramp which was cool, but didn't leave a lot of room for climbing. There were a few more sophisticated ways to climb into the structure, but not ways that Holly could manage on her own.
Parking - 1 - Was near the park, on the street, but it was a one way street and you had to go a long way around to get onto it so you could park along the park.
Bathrooms - 1/2 - There was a bathroom, but it was locked. I wanted to give this a zero, but I am assuming that earlier in the day perhaps the bathrooms are unlocked.
Distance - 1 - Its just 5 miles away, and only takes about 15 minutes according to Google maps, it took us an hour, as we were wandering around, so it gets a full point for being less then 20.
Friends - 1/2 - During the day I have heard it is full of babies and children, we went late afternoon, early evening, so it was pretty empty.
Fun - 1- I think without the fountain it would be less, but she enjoyed the sand, swings, and slide. So she had a lot of fun.
I keep trying to go to the City Web age and it isn't working, but this is a link to it on google maps in case anyone wants to find it.
http://maps.google.com/maps?near=Piedmont,+CA&geocode=&q=park&f=l&hl=en&gl=us&sll=37.824644,-122.231829&sspn=0.000919,0.002411&ie=UTF8&ll=37.824158,-122.231998&spn=0,359.845676&t=h&z=13&iwloc=A&layer=c&cbll=37.82416,-122.232138&panoid=hKRZhwaKOmjq2PJCYZQa_A&cbp=12,142.21,,0,-0.68
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1 comment:
Looks like a great park and great fun! Yep, the defiance is cute...now. Then it turns to annoying. Then I'm sure you can guess the rest. :) She's a cutie!
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