Luxton Park in Minneapolis

We took a trip to Minneapolis last week to visit Obaachan (grandma). We stopped off at a non-descript playground in Luxton Park in SE Minneapolis. They still loved it since it was a playground. Just old, and the playground wasn't that clean. They do have a small, public wading pool with a spouting water fountain.

Rating: Three stars

Hershey Park, PA

Okay, this isn't really an official playground, but this water park was just so outrageously insanely cool!

This is the water park that opened this year at Hershey Park, PA.

The structure must go up 10 stories and there are a couple of water slides that start from up there! Of course, we never did any of them because it was a 20-minute wait to go down it. . . lines were everywhere.

Anyway, it was really neat and water was spraying everywhere including a GIAGANTOUS bucket at the top of the structure that literally DUMPS hundreds of gallons of water on to the people below!!! There were hoses all over the structure where you could maliciously spray other water park goers with. . . it was an invitation to be mean and annoying. That was fun.

Franklin Lakes, New Jersey

Last week we went on a family vacation to Hershey, PA. Didn't get to see a lot of playgrounds because of the tight schedule (why do we have to have such a tight schedule?), but we did stop at one that was uneventful other than the cool ground cover. Ripped apart tires. It's the same stuff they use at fancy horse runs at some stables. Cushy stuff! Much softer than anything around. Of course it's really expensive.

Anyway, the playground was at Blessed Sacrament Elementary School in Franklin Lakes, NJ.

Parents and Kids Magazine

I just received an August copy of Parents and Kids Magazine from their editor, Heather Kempskie, with a nice handwritten note on the cover saying "enjoy Pg. 3!"

Hey! That's my book!

They were generous enough to include Playgrounds of the North Shore, 2e, in their August PK Picks book recommendation section.

Yeah. The first publicity for the second edition.