climbing playground

I love, love the trend of having climbing equipment on playgrounds.
And i don't mean those crazy metal things we played on back in the Dark Ages or even the plastic climbing walls with the colorful hand- and toe-holds.
I mean crazy, ropes course-like things:

TM Sam tries to make here way across the ropes only to find that they all have bungee connectors so that they sway.

Meanwhile, TM Katie discovers that the round footholds spin all the way around.

 Even what looks like a flat incline rotates about 50 degrees on its axis when Sam tries to walk on it; she determined that it might be physically impossible to walk upright on it. Luckily, the ground was the sprongiest surface i have ever felt, just in case someone takes a header.

And none of us are really sure about the weird hanging plastic seats, though they make for a great place to relax and read during lunch.
Yes, this really is my life. ;-)

a suitable end

Friday was the last day of regular programming for my team.
In some ways this has been one of the best and one of the worst years in my career.
It has certainly seen a lot of changes, that's for sure.
But through it all, the actual moments with kids -on stage or in a classroom or at the museum- makes everything worthwhile.
Plus, it really is a job that puts you in situations every day that you never quite expect.
I was doing the last shows of the season with Adult Safety Partner Jasmine when we decided that since the heat had broken we'd eat lunch at a nearby park. There was a super playground, so of course we went to play after eating and i spotted something i had never seen before - drums on the playground:

Yes, indeed; gourd shakers, bongos and congas all formed in plastic and attached right to the super-structure. For being plastic, they actually sounded pretty good.

Do i even need to tell you how happy playing drums in the sunshine between my final shows of the year made me?

i still get paid for this

Joy and Rapture! Not only did i get the clean bill of health this week, we started programming for the year. I am not a desk person. I need to be out and about. I need to have variety. I need to get paid to go to playgrounds. Speaking of which... i was cleaning out my photo files and found a lunchtime adventure from March that never made it into the Nikiverse. It was the day before i left on the cruise; by the time i got back from vacation, dealt with mom's health emergency and blogged all 972 posts from Disney i'd forgotten all about it. So in honor of being back on the road [HAZZAH!] here are some pictures of former team member Carrie and current team member Amy along with yours truly at the AWESOME playground in Pennsylvania. The first thing we noticed was the sheer size of this place; i think the park is almost the same size as the town. The towers and platforms go on and on, linked by any number of climbing, jumping, hopping and/or sliding activities. There was an enclosed tiny tots area with smaller interactives, including a slide the same langth as Carrie and a fabulous "Mom Swing" where you can relax and watch the children hard at play. (check out the great train painting around the border) They really utilized every inch of space by tucking swings and such in nooks and crannies to be discovered by kids of different sizes. But for us the coolest things were the various fun skill elements of the playground; instead of just climbing and running there were balance and strength pieces that were challenging even for these kids. As an added bonus, it is almost worth the drive to York to see the interesting decorations and paintings all around the park. Is that a polka-dotted goose wearing a bow? Is that a snake in a necktie? As you are climbing and sliding and running and balancing and falling (if you're me) you might come upon a startled bunny in a cubby soooo cute or a stoned protesting bear What?!?!? It was like the painter was bipolar : nursery rhymes one day and PCP hallucinations the next. You gotta take your favorite kid (even if s/he is 35) to this playground, even if you don't get paid to be there like some of us.