07/26/2015 - Brands Park, Avondale, Elston and Henderson

Post #25

The Geformed panoramic.

We've been on hiatus, as it were.  But we're back, enthusiastic as ever to explore the riches of Chicago parkitecture(TM).  Yesterday, we headed up to Brands Park, to see what that was all about.

My goofs aboard a turtle.

I think I've been avoiding this because my backlog, as mentioned in post #23.  The kids get psyched about going to these parks and I think they think the blog is cool too, so when I had five entries that I'd neglected to post, I tried to avoid it.  They encouraged me to clear my plate, and I've done so - we're back on track.

Brands Park is located up on Elston and Henderson, in Avondale.  We chose it after a failed attempt.  We tried taking the 606 from our house (California and Armitage) west to a park I witnessed on the Maps app on my iPhone (we use different methods to scope out a park), which turned out to be at Richard Yates Elementary School - and completely fenced in.  After both of my kids suggesting we hop the fence, I decided that that wasn't the way I'd like to shape this blog and I would rather just say, "Richard Yates Elementary, thanks a lot for tempting us with your playground... didn't your mom ever teach you to share?"  I get it, you're a school, not a public park, but even Brentano Math & Science Academy shares it's playground - which was so good we went there twice. 

Anyways, we found Brands Park after a wider "not within walking distance" search.

And the boys found it to be:

Máximo - ★★★★, "I rated this park a four, because, well, I really liked it a lot.  But, everything was too small for me - but we still had fun."

George Carlos - ★★★★ 1/2, "I give it a four and a half, because there was a zip line thing that I really liked.  That was pretty good, and there were some other things, like, the maze ball thing, where you turn it around, the ball (a ball bearing labyrinth toy).  That's good.  I really liked the swings.  I like the chair swing, that was really fun.  And, yeah, that's all."

G riding the dolphin.

Brands has all of the decent equipment we've come to expect from a city park, as well as the smaller equipment for toddlers (including the small swings).

There are strange child workout pieces:

The chains are a little low for M - the weird hand crank is in the foreground.

Normal slide equipment:

We did our thing on the twisty slide.

A G-quence (sorry); better facilities view.

Here's the slide from the toddler half of the park.

Those spring things parks have had as long as I can remember.

Spring things - I got M to pose with a normal face, G is still frozen in goof mode.

Swings are important, and although these were too low (for my 7 and 9 year-old, not to mention me), we still managed to have fun with it.

George Carlos always makes a b-line for the recliner.

Georgie wanted a slow-mo video (these were both supposed to be in slow motion, but they didn't come through that way, apparently):

Máximo and I got in on the action, as well:

Growing bored of Máximo and my attempts at the swing-jump to piggyback, George decided to make some art:

The start of a face.

The finished glyph.

Zip lines are always welcome in our trips to check out parks, and this one proved worthy of our attention.  Well-oiled and safe, it was.

Air time.

Brands gets the seal of approval.  We all liked it and didn't even need to bring our water, as they had drinking fountains, which is always very much appreciated, particularly in July.

http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks/Brands-Park/