End of Summer Break in Pennsport
After three years away, even my favorite playgrounds are fuzzy memories. I don't remember exactly where they are or exactly what they are, and I no longer have a smart phone, so mornings the kids and I want to go exploring, I sit at my laptop with my cup of coffee writing names and addresses on a piece of paper, and then we're off. It was in this haze that I sat down to find a playground that was outside the River Wards area and that had both playground things and green things.
Overall, every time my kids get older parenting gets better for me. I like when everyone walks and gets their own glass of water. But what I do miss is having kids who were perfectly satisfied with going to a plain old square instead of needing a playground. Philadelphia has a number of squares, some super groomed and posh, and others more modest, and some pretty run-down, but I like the feel of a square, even if it doesn't have any play equipment. When my kids were small, all I'd need was a bag of snacks, a truck or two, and a blanket, and a square was enough. Friends and I could sit in the square with babies on blankets or toddling down a walk and chit chat. But my kids are not blanket age anymore, not by a long shot, and apparently this love of squares makes me boring now.
And so this brings us to my vague recollection of a square next to a playground in Pennsport. Sacks playground is, for me, a great mix of "old school" and "new school" feel. I know it's hot and it peels but I love the feel (like literal feel, on my hands and feet) of a metal playground, and I sort of love the garish color of this park. This small playground has a few swings, a nice main structure, a small rock-and ladder climber, and a random concrete turtle that's seen better days but that my kids kept hugging and standing on. It also has a public pool, so check it out next summer!
Flooring here is a little worn, and there's a wood panel where a metal wall needs to be replaced. But that didn't slow down my kids or the crowd of daycare kids on the playground.
I don't think this was here in 2015/16. It's not super high or challenging, but entertained my big kids for a while.
Don't think our fam could ever tire of the classic tic-tac-toe board.
They're weird; what can I say?
Big kid asked me to photograph him jumping off the swing. I did the best I could, ok?
Ok so we're playing at this playground and it's going well. The weather is nice and cool and the metal isn't blazing hot and burning us all and it's quiet and empty at the park since the daycare kids left but that's fine by us. We have some casual plans to head over to the square and run around ("Ugh, but did you even bring a soccer ball, Krys?") after this. But then, and I know this is going to give you flashbacks to my last post, but bear with me: someone has a bathroom emergency and is waddling around the playground looking like a lost animal.
Last time this happened, we were in the strip mall reality of Mayfair and I knew that if we got in the car we'd find somewhere to pee in two seconds. Pennsport is not that. So, smartphone-less me grabs waddle-child and his two brothers and we head east. I tell them that I'm pretty sure there's a donut shop a few blocks away, but I keep looking into the horizon and worrying I've misremembered and something messy and terrible is about to happen (have I mentioned that none of these children are babies or toddlers? They're just used to our small Michigan town with clean public restrooms at every playground.)
Ok so we're roving around Pennsport and luckily happen upon the Pennsport Beer Boutique. It's a bar and bottle shop with a really large selection. So while offending child took care of business, I bought a few new-to-me beers for later. Shout out to the staff for letting us use the bathroom even before I started browsing.
We decided to keep wandering because I knew there was a Federal Donuts around there somewhere. On the way, my kids spotted Herron Park, one of those parks that's always on lists of best playgrounds in Philadelphia. They asked to stop and check it out, and honestly, if we are at a playground that means no one is trashing my house, so go right ahead.
Frankly, I've always found Herron to be pristinely clean and well-shaded, but never got the hype. My kids didn't care for the structures, designed by playground equipment company Kompan.
Turns out three years makes a huge difference in their ability to access, and love, this place. The kids had a BLAST on the creative and challenging equipment, some of which, as with the spinning wheel jawn and this three-person see-saw, requires teamwork. Note the half-happy, half-terrified look on little kid's face.
3.5 year old is still on the young side for this playground, but my older kids had an amazing time on the climbing structure.
It's difficult to the point where my middle kid, who just turned six, needed rescues a number of time. He generally scales playground equipment with little effort. I do think that part of the lessons of playgrounds should be failure, but ever since we spent three years in Michigan and my children spent a lot of time scaling trees and logs, I've been wondering whether the playgrounds we frequent offer enough opportunities for failure. They failed at climbing so, so many trees. My kids can competently walk along the top of monkey bars and the edges of winding slides and can launch themselves from high swings. I haven't seen them so challenged by playground equipment in a while.
My oldest kid's deliberate motor planning made him the king of this structure. It doesn't hurt that he is NBA-sized. Longest legs ever.
This playground has an interesting surface. It looks like mulch but it's really rubber. It also has grass and clean, new walkways. It has shaded benches and picnic tables. It's a really nice looking park. Everything is functioning well. My little kid was crabby that he couldn't do some of the park elements, like this dangly thing.
But part of this is my fault because I forgot this park was so close to the other (so close! I love double park days) and so didn't pack swim stuff. The little kid LOVES spraygrounds. The key thing to note about this park that you can't see well in my pictures is that it has a GREAT sprayground. Small splash pad for littles and some more powerful sprinklers for big kids. So basically, don't be me. Pack for the elements.
On a final note, I've seen a few of these spinny elements around town. They are NOT cute and NOT benign. I volunteered to go first and there aren't any pics but...let's suffice it to say they spin very fast and it took all of my kids' help to stop me. If they hadn't stepped in, I'd still be in Pennsport spinning.
"Ok, Krys, did you say something about a donut shop?"
He wasn't mad. I think I just said something rude and then snapped the picture.
For the record, the flavors we had were blood orange, lime caramel, and blueberry muffin. All of us agreed that the lime caramel was the best.
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