This morning Oliver and I went to the beach. We parked at Will Rogers and walked southbound looking for the ladies who volleyball. They were not playing this morning, or at least not while we were there, so we walked the bike trail, played in the waves and swung on the swing set. Oliver was too scared of the water to actually get close to it. After a while he let me carry him over the crashing waves, but he was not going to allow me to set him down. I think his favorite part was watching the helicopters, airplanes and birds fly over us. He also enjoyed the joggers and bicyclists who passed us by on the bike path. After about an hour of that we drove back home to help Papi sort out the garage which is still not done.

Keep reading for more on the beach...

Continuing our West Hollywood Park and recreation theme, this morning Oliver and I went to West Hollywood Park (647 North San Vicente Boulevard). A playground and toddler park that lies just steps away from The Abbey. As tempting as it is to leave your kid in the fenced in play area and grab a sour apple martini at the bar, please refrain from doing so.

This park is perhaps the cleanest, yes I said it, the cleanest park we have been too hands down. The sandy area in the toddler playground was freshly raked and the equipment was in great shape. West Hollywood Park also has a bigger kids play area with a really cool tube slide that spirals. The bigger kids’ park is covered with wood chips and surrounded by a big grassy area and shade trees. There is a public pool where kids of all ages can take lessons (although there is a ton of Chlorine in the pool—so much that I could smell if from the other side of the fence. That said, it’s probably a good thing given the number of kids peeing, er, swimming in there.)

The crowd initially was made up of attractive, presumably straight couples (although I had my doubts), Latina nannies, and expecting single moms with children. Who knew that so many “normal” people would be found in West Hollywood and did I mention that this park is right behind The Abbey. Go figure.

At around 11am a couple of single Dads (clearly gay, but whatever…) came around with their toddlers. It felt nice to not be the only “one” around. Oliver played well with all the other kids who were having a blast in the Toddler area. In addition to being well groomed and up to date with the latest playground equipment, the toddler area is also covered with a mesh tenting so that it is shaded even when the sun is at it’s peak—protecting Oliver’s pasty white complexion and provided a nice diffused light for pictures. As you will see from the blog I took quite a few.

There is a rock near the kids play area that dedicates the park to a little boy who died September 11th alongside his Daddy and Papa. Very sad, but moving dedication to a family who once enjoyed the park.

Without question,we will be frequenting this park. Four Stars!!

Today’s park adventure leads us to West Hollywood’s Plummer Park. Plummer Park is located at 7377 Santa Monica Blvd (at Santa Monica and Martel). Just so that it is perfectly clear, the park gets its’ name from the Plummer family home—the oldest house in West Hollywood (it’s been moved since and not longer resides here). The name does not come from “Plumber's Crack”. (I made that mistake—it can be very confusing.) It’s a nice little park with a large play area covered in wood chips and a smaller toddler area covered in wood chips, dirty sand and cigarette butts.

The local crowd is primarily dominated by Russian immigrants. The parents and young adults who frequent the grassy lawns love to speak Russian and smoke cigarettes. I had to run to catch Oliver from picking up a lit butt that someone through on the ground and didn’t step on. The Kid loves to pick up trash in all the parks we go to, and this park had more cigarette butts and used tissue than any other we have visited.

There is a large tube slide in the middle of the play area that seemed fun until I took a look inside the tunnel to see what was up and, well, lets just say other things happen in that tunnel besides kids crawling. There was some graffiti inside the tunnel too. At least we can be thankful that the Russian teenagers need to work on their spelling.

Aside from the dirty sand, and thuggish people, the park itself has a lot of potential. The large grassy lawns and big shade trees to cover the afternoon sun very nicely on these long summer days. Oliver loved to chase the dogs around and for the most part the people were very friendly. The older people playing chess and dominos loved to watch Oliver run around the trees. Oliver met some nice women who let him pet their dogs, and he was especially taken with the teenagers who were playing basketball on the full court adjacent to the playground.

There is a large new community center too. This community center is a community gathering area for Seniors, locals and various gay and lesbian organizations. When Oliver was younger we were here once for a Pop Luck Club gathering (See the link on the side for more on Pop Luck Club.)

This is not a terrible park, but it’s not the cleanest either. We like the location and the fact that it’s cooler than the valley parks this time of year. Who knows, maybe The Kid will pick up a little Russian too. We give it two stars out of four.

Today’s park adventure led The Kid and I to Roxbury Memorial Park in Beverly Hills. This park is just south of Olympic on Roxbury. It’s a wonderful park with acres of rolling green hills for Oliver to run through and the impeccably kept trees provide a canopy of shade throughout.

In addition to the large space, there are tennis courts, bocce ball / croquet lawns, tennis courts, a baseball diamond and volleyball courts. We were there for the toddler playground.

The toddler playground is getting a bit long in the tooth, and the park has seen its share of fun. This is evident by the permanent black stains on some of the equipment. There are only two bucket swings working – a serious problem when you have a bunch of toddlers forming a queue to swing. We never actually waited for a swing to open up. We skipped it altogether. The play areas are surrounded by sand so you need to expect that your kid will get dirty here. Albeit a bit old, and very popular with the residents, Roxbury Park is a great place to spend an afternoon.

There are loads of picnic tables and places to toss a ball around and there is a section in the kids area where three dinosaur figurines are grouped in a circle under some misting machines to cool the children on hot summer days. Those were either not working, or not turned on today.

The crowd is mostly middle-upper class Jewish kids (Not that there is anything wrong with that, some of Oliver’s closest friends are Jewish.) Two of said kids happened to be quite bossy and Oliver and I got our first experience with 5-year-old bullies in beanies. Yes two of em. These two twin boys, who were apparently without parental supervision, told us “No babies are allowed on the dinosaurs” several times. Oliver climbed a purple Triceratops regardless. I thought to myself: “If only the sprinklers were working right now”.

After yelling at Oliver, the twins continued kvetching over who was going to sit on their dinosaur’s neck. After some whining the real action began. One twin hauled off and punched the other. It was a side swing to the back, and it landed with quite the thud. Had they have been in their 20’s, and shirtless, it might have been hot. Given their bossy/bully nature, and the yarmulkes it was just sad. If Oliver had the words he would have yelled to say: “Hey! No babies allowed on the dinosaurs!” Instead, he and I just looked at them, then at each other and thought: Karma.

The Dad finally took notice of his obnoxious kids once the violence erupted. He came over to break it up pretty quick. Oliver and I just walked away and chased half a dozen other kids who were circled around a mom and her automatic bubble machine. Note to self: We really need to purchase that automatic bubble machine.

We give it three out of Four stars--We'll definitely return to Roxbury Park.

After Oliver’s nap we decided to try and find a park to let The Kid run free and burn off some excess energy. It was way too hot today to go to our usual Valley hangouts so we decided to hit a West Side park. After consulting our “City Baby L.A.” guide we settled on Coldwater Canyon Park.

Coldwater Canyon Park is located at 1100 North Beverly Drive-- on Beverly, north of Sunset. In the guide it is described as a “favorite of toddlers”. The part that stuck out to us was that it mentions a “running stream that kids love to play in on hot days”. We were very excited to visit it since it was in the 90’s and we could really use a “running stream”.

I’ve been known to be a bit of a Debbie Downer at times, but let me start off by saying that the “running stream” is actually a trickle of mostly stagnate water—what little water exists is filled with green algae and probably hosting large quantities of mosquito eggs. If I truly were in a Debbie Downer spiral I would mention West Nile Virus. But I won’t for fear that I will live up to my Ms. Debbie reputation.

Moving on past the murky stream, you walk along two of Los Angeles’ more busy side streets which border the park (Coldwater and Beverly Blvds). Once you have dodged Porches, the Luxury SUVs and the Porsche Luxury SUVs, you come to the toddler playground. The playground is your typical toddler set up with all the requisite bridges, slides, ladders, swings, etc., and it’s surrounded in sand and soft-sided rubber floors. While crossing the sand, sand fleas attacked our ankles, however, they didn’t seem to bother Oliver one bit. We decided to swing for a bit before doing a couple of laps around the park. On our way out we thought we would just play in the large grassy area (taking care to keep The Kid out of traffic).

The park was busy—not too busy—and there were a few people who set up a picnic on the lawn. There were lots of little dogs, some that bit and some that didn’t, but all of whom left little brown packages throughout the lawn and the owners didn’t seem to have any bags with them. Oliver eventually stepped in a slider that stuck to the sides of his shoes. We cleaned him up and got out of there pretty quick.

This park, while it may have been fun at some point in the past, is no longer the hot spot it once was. It sounded good on paper, and looked good from afar, however up close it’s a big mess. We’d give it one star out of four. We won’t be returning for a while.

Today we made our first family trip to a playground. We went to Griffith Park and enjoyed the playground known as Shane’s Inspiration. It is pretty amazing. For toddlers this place is a little slice of heaven. There is a huge sand area with a super safe play structure tucked in the middle of it. There are swings, and bouncy things, teeter-totters, balance beams, slides, etc. The playground is not on concrete but on a fiberglass/foamy/rubbery substance. It’s a super soft surface that neither the Dads’ nor Oliver has ever seen. (I realize that there are probably parents out there who have seen it and think I am crazy to blog about it, but hey, this is my blog, not theirs.)

The playground was named after Shane Williams, a severely disabled boy who passed only two weeks after his birth. His parents created the playground in his loving memory and the playground was made so that children in wheel chairs and those with other disabilities could have access to a playground. There are special swings that harness kids in and ramps that wheel chairs can easily climb. The best part for Oliver is that these considerations make it especially safe for a toddler who is still not completely used to the size of his feet in sneakers. A disability of sorts no doubt.

This was Oliver’s first trip to a playground loaded with other kids. Yes, he was taller than most of the two year olds (by at least a head), but they were faster and much more agile than he. When we stood Oliver on the rubbery surface he just stood there as if his feet were glued. His wide eyes focused on the kid-chaos around him. He had a huge grin on his face and after about 4 minutes of just standing there he started to move. It was not long and he was running after the kids and toys and playground equipment.

We had a blast, but then it started to rain so we headed home. Unfortunately we had no video or digital camera with us so you’ll have to wait until the next visit for snapshots. However, you can get photos and more info on the following:
Shane’s Inspiration Website

Thank you Shane!