Wynnum Esplanade and Wading Pool

Oh my goodness. What a day! It was the stuff of little kids dreams but also the stuff of childhood memories all wrapped into one. I love that we've created a memory for Cody out of something which was a fond memory for us as children. Perhaps she will pass this on to her kids. I'm talking about a playground, a beach, $3 serve of chips, sand and new friends. In Brisbane, this can only mean one thing - Wynnum Esplanade. Map is here. I took a gazillion photos - be warned.

I don't want to be too prescriptive on this site and tell you how to experience parks - only you and your kids can do that. However I'd like to share our experiences if they extend beyond a playground and we get it right and maybe inspire you to use the playground visit as a base to really have fun with your kids. Certainly I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know here though. If you go to the beach its quite the standard to have chips wrapped up in paper and maybe an ice cream. Though I fear that Cody may want to nickname this "chips and ice cream park"...

The whole day was a blast - and I say "day" because we managed to spend HOURS upon hours there. We got an amazing park in the car park - which really makes a difference if you are juggling two kids let's face it - and the second Cody saw the park she could barely contain herself. It's an impressive sight! We went in winter when all the water features were closed down so I can only imagine how rad it would look in the warmer months with water jutting out of the whales and the wading pool in full operation.

Walking into the park, the first thing which strikes is the tree completely full of corellas. This is an amazing sight (and we were fortunate enough to see them leave the tree and circle the beach) and surprisingly unobtrusive (they were neither noisy nor pooey). The second observation was that we were going to be getting into the car with sand coming out of all sorts of places. The whole park is built upon sand and so walking through it to chase your child is somewhat comical.








There were literally too many features in this park to list - rocking ship like structures, a baby slide, spinning tops, climbing frames - this list could go on and on and on so I'll let the pictures show you the full scope. Our highlights were - surprise surprise - the climbing frame. Now I know that Cody has a well documented penchant for the climbing frame, however this one was undeniably spectacular. It was hilarious to watch - she was trying to leave it to go somewhere else but she got two meters away and was pulled back by an invisible string which had her like a yo-yo.

The playground was amazing - I'll leave it at that. It was a 40 minute drive for us when you take into account having to go through the city but it was well worth it for the playground alone.

Best part of my day was when Mika discovered the sand. In the seconds in between me trying to wrestle her hand (filled with sand) away from her mouth that is. She had a look of absolute joy on her face. This girl is going to rock the playgrounds in a few months time for sure!





We managed to get away from the playground to eat our $3 serve of chips, which we scoffed on a picnic bench whilst Cody's eye wandered beachward. Chips inside, there was no stopping her. The beach here is just beautiful. Clean sand, clear water, ripples which run across the sand and tickle their feet as they run splashing across the shore. It is picturesque. It took some convincing to get her to walk down the 80-odd year old pier - she just didn't want to leave the sand. The walk was wonderful and I couldn't help thinking this would be a fabulous thing to do at night (sans kids!).







After the pier and the beach we headed to the other park - only ten meters away from the main park but obviously the original park which was put in place many years before the redevelopment. This was a fun old school park and a great contrast to the new park. It was steel and slides and monkey bars to the colour and wood of the other park. There was of course not a soul playing there!




A trip back across the road to the shop for ice cream (and Cody had never had a commercial type ice cream like a Billabong before so she was much taken with their sickly sweet dripping sugar) to polish off the storybook day. All up we got two serves of chips, two drinks and three ice creams for under $15 and spent about four hours of absolute fun there. It was a fabulous day but also really inexpensive so I can see us doing it time and time again.

I think the playground was awesome and the day was next to perfect. Easily a 9.5 rating.

RATED:

Age Groups: Everyone. I was super impressed with the little kids area too - the slide was about a meter long and super cute. In summer the older kids will love the water features.

Kid Friendliness: There were too many kids and too much to do to even stop for a second and talk to someone else.

Parent Friendliness: See above.

Shadiness: trees cover the park

Tricked Out: yeah, so many surprises. I will report back in summer, however I can see that it would be super spectacular when summer rolls around.

Picnic/BBQ: major BBQ area in the middle of the park - which was a nice touch to have it centralised with the park surrounding it. I doubt you'd EVER get this spot on a weekend though. Off to the side there were tons of tables and chairs.

Shabbiness: really clean

Toilets: lots of toilets in a block off to the side. Clean too!

Hovering Required: Yeah, I'd say kids would be pretty easy to lose sight of in this park

Bring Yr Bike: The esplanade is set up for bikes, however I'd suggest maybe more experienced riders as there is lots of stray walkers wandering across the paths

Crowded: we went on a school day during the day and it was quite packed (but handled it okay). I can't imagine the chaos that would be a weekend or a school holiday day.

Wow: buckets and spades of it (geddit).

Downey Park/Northey Street

Northey Street Park was one of the first parks we started visiting with any regularity. It was not right next to our home (so it was 'special' enough to drive to) and it just was made for the young folk just finding their legs. On the weekends it was a stop past when we went to the Northey Street markets and Cody and her dad would often bike ride on the Kelvin Grove/Windsor bike paths over to here. It certainly is a special place for us. Map can be found here.

I should just say that you should NEVER attempt to visit this park on a Saturday. It's nestled between the hockey and netball grounds and thus is over run with literally hundreds of sporty pre-teens and their sporty vehicle driving parents (no parking for miles on the weekend!). During the week it plays host to quite a few playgroups, mothers groups and a place for field trips for some special needs kids from a school nearby.



What do we love about this park? Well firstly its always clean and the bark which covers the ground of the park is always fresh looking. Cody is a shoes off the second she sees a park kind of girl and - maybe I've watched too many movies or am being overly paranoid - but I do worry about what lies beneath that first layer of bark at parks. This park doesn't make me want to run ahead and scour the park for glass, needles, condoms or whatever other object of danger which I have conjured up in my paranoid mind. It's clean, its localised, its not near a road or a river - its safe.

I guess that's what I love about this park, but asking the expert - what Cody loves about this park - is that its served her so well from her early beginnings that she's formed a very fond association with it. The playground is really very good for small children. The little frame with the slide/walkways/cubby underneath has wide steps, well protected sides, easy accessibility for parents. It's made for kids which still need their hands held when they climb stairs yet it has appeal enough that Cody (now nearly four) enjoys climbing and running across it. On this visit, the cubby was an ice cream shop and the bark was the ice cream. Perhaps I should call this "wishful thinking park".





The base of the park also has a great see saw, swings and a climbing wall and climbing rings. What makes it unique is the 'spinny thing'. I have no idea what they are called but it seats four kids and you spin a wheel in the middle and it spins and spins until a kid screams STOP as they are about to throw up. Surprisingly, this is not Cody's favourite thing here and she rarely goes near it. What draws Cody the now big-little-kid is the newly installed climbing frame.

The climbing frame has automatically ensured that its rating from Cody is high. She loves to climb! This one is extra special as it is TWO of the usual climbing frames which are connected by a rope bridge. The frame is high, requires skills to navigate beyond the first level and is a great addition to the park to ensure the older kids are kept happy too.





What this park excels at is flexibility - the surrounding grounds are great for ballsports and biking. There is ALWAYS a crew of children on the bitumen of the nearby basketball courts learning to ride their bikes. Its wonderful to see the bike excitement on the courts - be it first time on a new bike or first time with the training wheels off - its an area of such excitement and ambition.



Further beyond the playground and the courts are the actual bike paths (which run from Kelvin Grove to Northey Street) and the creek which runs along beside the RBWH. The bike paths are lined with the exercise equipment, streams of runners and a truck load of dogs (there is an off leash area behind the netball courts). Unless its a Sunday and the markets are on, don't even think of being able to find a coffee around here so make sure to come when you are naturally perky!

Cody is in danger of outgrowing this park sometime soon but for the moment it keeps her most happy. This park would be rated a nice solid 7.5 if you are looking at the park for Cody now, but if you are taking very small kids then I'd suggest you really can't beat this park for suitability.

RATED:

Age Groups: Suits the 8 month - three year crowd best of all but the climbing frame and the bitumen give it a bit of older appeal also.

Kid Friendliness: give the clientele is so young, its really parallel play at this stage rather than anyone seriously forming an organised game or involving each other.

Parent Friendliness: all the parents have been lovely that I've met here.

Shadiness: the playground is shaded by a canopy of trees

Tricked Out: nah, not at all really

Picnic/BBQ: there is one BBQ and one undercover table

Shabbiness: lovely and clean

Toilets: given that on the weekend this place turns into a sports hell, the toilet block is as functional as a school toilet block. Its built for the masses, for frequent use and sturdiness.

Hovering Required: No, the park is small

Bring Yr Bike: Yes for sure.

Crowded: not super crowded but definitely popular

Wow: no wow just a solid park

Enoggera Memorial Park (AKA Shapes Park)

Firstly, I have no idea why this is known to CK as shapes park. She talks about all the rectangles and diamonds here (and waves her finger around in a random direction when I ask about them) but they just aren't jumping out at me. For me, this has always been "New House" park - as when we were stalking our new house waiting for settlement to happen we would come here for a reason to drive past the new house. Map is here.

This is another park which you are not going to go out of your way for, but if you like in the Enoggera/Alderley area then I'd recommend coming past. I'm highlighting it today for two reasons. 1. because it is about to get a shadecloth covering it - part of BCC strategic plan to invest more money in parks and gardens and ensure that every child has access to a local playground. 2. because I've met the most amazing people at this park.

(I have to digress with the above photo - CK in full pose mode - I asked her if she deliberately put her hand on her hip and stuck out her bum and she nodded. I'm unsure how to feel about this).

Number 1 is obviously quite an incredible fact and I'm seeing lots of evidence of this commitment in my local area. Not only is Enoggera Memorial Park getting its shadecloth but Sedgeley Park (on the Newmarket/Alderley border - by Newmarket Pool) is getting a brand new playground which looks pretty swish. Enoggera Memorial Park is a long neglected park and we've always said that it would be awesome if there were just some shade to it. There are barely any trees nearby and in the heat of the day its just unbearable. I was thrilled the day I went there and there was a guy measuring it up for shadecloth.

Number 2 is a slightly longer story. Well, its not really I guess. Fact is that every single person we've met at this park WITHOUT EXCEPTION has been really really interesting. From the first lady we met who was a single mum with a daughter of CKs age (who was really warm and welcoming and confessed of co-sleeping and all the other completely natural things that people seem ashamed to admit to strangers) to the grandfather from Rocky who was skirting around the fact that when he went out mushroom hunting he wasn't looking so much for the type you put in your pasta. Both interesting characters - thoroughly engaging and thought provoking (and not as dodgy as I've made them out to be here).

This is triumphed by the day we walked down and met a film crew who were filming a story about a transgendered army officer (from the Enoggera barracks nearby) who was raising her two children with her wife - who had stuck by her during her realisation that she wanted to be a woman. They had an incredible story and were really lovely to talk to (indeed the camera crew filmed us as the "normalising" couple and the wife was a teacher's aide who was telling us how accepting and open minded the kids at the local school - where CK will go - were).

Whew, I digress from the park itself but sometimes parks are more than just swings and slides. This one certainly is.

This morning the park was school were CK went with her imaginary friend Alice (we'd watched Alice in Wonderland the night before). CK and Alice baked cakes in the "everything for sale" shop under the slide and did lots of climbing and lots of running.

This park is exceptional for bikes and (if you must) scooters. there is a bike track complete with a roundabout and lots of stop/give way signs. The number of times CK has run around the track and fallen over terribly and grazed her knee/nose is more than I can count on my fingers these days. There is one slide, two swings, some old school climbing frames and little else. Oh, and some native bees in one of the trees nearby (which I think is awesome and CK and I had a huge talk about flora and fauna today inspired by the bees).

Perhaps I should rename this "hippy park" for I sound like a complete hippy when I say that the park itself is neglected and has very little bones but its the families and nature which make this one of our favourites.

If we are talking about facilities alone - CK rates this park at 6 and I would give it 5. But you know that I'm talking more than this!

RATED:

Age Groups: I think they'd probably need to be walking to enjoy this park, but it would cater to quite an old crowd given the bike paths
Kid Friendliness: best I've found
Parent Friendliness: best I've found
Shadiness: awful - the worse! But BCC is fixing in the new few weeks.
Tricked Out: nothing. nada.
Picnic/BBQ: nope.
Shabbiness: its not dirty, its not vandalised, its just neglected.
Toilets: no toilets nearby
Hovering Required: No, the park isn't big enough to need to hover
Bring Yr Bike: Yes yes yes
Crowded: never seen more than two kids here
Wow: it has no wow within the park itself but the clientele is great. Is that reflective of the park or the area - not sure.