The new playgrounds at Newtown Park opened today. The entire park was busy and both playgrounds were just crawling with kids. After yesterday’s rain and cold everyone is glad to get out on a pretty day. And as a bonus, there’s brand-new playground equipment. It’s all some type of plastic, the city wanted to get away from the wooden structures. The big kid equipment is designed with climbing in mind. Nearly everything has a way to climb up it.
I couldn’t get a photo of the whole area but this is the main play area.
We drove by on Wednesday to check the progress as that’s the day it was supposed to be open. When Katy saw this she was really excited as she’d always wanted to try one. So that was her first stop today.
The swings are really nice. They’re plastic but they’re rigid so they don’t squash your legs together and it’s easier to push if your feet aren’t pointed toward each other. It’s more like swinging on the wooden swings we had as kids.
The merry-ground-round is a little different, too. It’s this ring. Although it has the same problem as the traditional type: everyone wants to ride, no one wants to push. It’s doesn’t go quite as fast and I’m not sure if that’s because it was overloaded (there were at about 15 kids at one point) if it’s because it’s on a slant or because it’s some new safety rule that they can’t go fast. But the kids really liked it.
I don’t know exactly what this is or how it works but it was popular, too. You sit in it and it spins around of its own accord. One little girl about four got in it and it really went fast. Katy’s biggest problem was she couldn’t get out of it!
This was under the main play structure
