Cannery Park - 5.5/10

For months I have been wanting to check out this park, but for some reason or another something always came up. I think the fact that it is in Hayward had a lot to do with it.Its called Cannery Park and has these amazing water features which is why I was so eager to try it out. We all know how fond of water Holly is.The water area was really neat. The surface was the soft padded kind which we really like. The water kept the ground in the main play area cool, but it was too hot to walk barefoot anywhere else.Holly really enjoyed playing in the water with the other kids, and she actually ran underneath the spouts getting her hair all wet. I love the little grin on her face in this picture.One of the other kids had these little goggles which Holly picked up and decided to carry all over the park and swing them around.Here is little Mady, she is about 9 months old now. She is such an adorable little thing. She normally loves the water but it was pretty cold. There were a few times that Holly was shivering and I cuddled her in the towel but she didn't want to get out of the water, and in the sun it was super warm.Here is Benny snacking on a banana, he was so sweet, he wanted to share my watermelon and Holly didn't like it so we had a bunch together.Here is the little one sitting on the step, but that was one of the problem area's It was super slippery on these concrete steps, and with those huge stones nearby I was terrified every time she tried to go up or down.She sure did have fun though and I suppose it wouldn't be mommyhood without constant worry about scraped knees and tumbles down the stairs and slips in the water.I usually let the leash out a little more once we both get familiar with a new place and I see how confident Holly is in her surroundings, but I still tend to hover.Unfortunately I don't get a chance to hang out with the mom's in this group as often as I would like, so I don't know a lot of them very well, but I enjoy the chance to chat when we have the opportunity.I love that Holly is so into water. One thing that was really neat about this park was that there was this button you could press to make the water "go" again.I think it would have been nice if the water was a little deeper, her only opportunity to get wet was if she walked through the spouts.I love this little picture of her wet foot prints I tried several times to catch this but the sun was shining so bright that they often would dry before I could snap the shot.Holly ran over to the swing all the way at the other side of the park and had a blast. I think she uses the swing as a chance to decompress. She gets a chance to zone out. Overall we had a wonderful time.Slides - 0 - There were no slides at this park

Swings - 1 - There were swings but they were on the far side of the park.

Surface - 1 - Most of the park had bouncy turf which we really enjoyed. But there was the rock and concrete area that I wasn't thrilled about.

Shade - 0 - There was almost no shade at all, this was a huge drawback. So much sun, and so very hot. We ended up leaving after a short time because of the heat.

Climbing - 0 - There wasn't a lot of stuff to climb around on.

Parking - 1 - Very close parking at the front of the park.

Bathrooms - 1 - Yes. Though I don't remember seeing them.

Distance - 0 - It was pretty far away. More then a twenty minute drive.

Friends - 1/2 - On this particular day there were lots of friends for us to play with. But other then the kids in my mom's group, there were no other kids that came the 90 or so minutes we were there.

Fun - 1/2- Holly had a lot of fun and she loved the water and she is capable of playing in only the water for hours, but she gets distracted and wanted to run around, but the ground was hot, and the play structure wasn't toddler friendly, so there wasn't anything else for her to do.