Water Play

On a hot summer day, there is no better activity for small children than water play. I was completely oblivious to parks with water play features until our oldest Xander turned three. Before that we lived in San Francisco, and like air conditioning there was little need for us to seek them out.

The San Francisco Bay Area is rich with beautiful community parks and gardens that have fun water play features. A quick google search, and I found parks in the East Bay including San Leandro Marina Park, Emerald Glen Park and San Ramon Central Park, and on the Peninsula including Ryder Park and Stafford Park.

In Silicon Valley we have a variety of parks that we have been to, and some that we haven’t (such as Serra Park, Las Palmas, Lincoln Glen Park and Campbell Park).

Last weekend we went to Mitchell Park in Palo Alto. We ate at Printers Café on California Street -- a wonderful café with egg bagel sandwiches. Xander likes the sandwiches deconstructed (he eats the eggs separately from the bagel).

On first observation Mitchell Park isn’t much. It has plenty of green open space, but is tucked behind some municipal buildings. We quickly decided that San Jose has better parks … but once the boys got in and started playing, we recognized some of the park’s assets.

The park is definitely more low key then Almaden Lake Park and not as beautiful as Vasona Park or the Los Gatos Square for that matter. From tunnels to bridges the sandy area was fun. The water play area was fantastic, partially in the shade, plenty of seating for the adult onlookers, and fenced in. The boys loved splashing in the water that shot up from the padded ground.

The only major problem, which is true for many area parks this time a year, was water rationing made it so the kids had to keep hitting the button to get water, and the frogs which are supposed to spit water weren’t working.

We wouldn’t go out of our way to go to Mitchell Park, but whenever we are in the area with the boys we plan to stop by.

Now Almaden Lake Park in San Jose is worth writing home about. It is a huge park with two separate playgrounds on opposite sides of the lake. On the Almaden Expressway side there is a beach, pedal boats, and the larger of the two parks. The water play area includes a dragon shower, and fountains that shoot up from the padded ground. Nearby there is a lone shower (favorite for the boys). On the smaller kid playground there is a ship, and on the big kid playground there are cool geometric rope climbing structures.

Because of the vicinity to the beach, and the wonderful big kid park this area tends to attract big kids. This can be intimidating to the little ones, but if you walk to the other side of the lake there is a less trafficked smaller kid park with a water play feature.

All of the water features at Almaden Lake Park are in full sunlight, and that area of San Jose tends to be warmer … so make sure that the kids are lathered in sunscreen, and repeat often.

Close to home there is Lincoln Glen Park, I plan to take the boys there tomorrow when the weather heats up again. I heard that the spitting frogs actually work.