TISDALL PARK PLAYGROUND

Ever had the sudden urge to work out while your kids played at the playground? Me neither. So ignore that fitness circuit here at Tisdall Park because you don’t need to feel even more guilty about eating that whole bag of chips last night.

The playground here is a climber, with signage indicating it’s been specifically designed for the 5-12 years old range. It’s very vertical structure has four options for getting up to the twisty slide – steps, curved ladder, climbing wall, or a cylinder rope climber that’s interestingly called a Chimney Climber. The play system is reminiscence of the one at Kaslo Park but simplified.

Next to this is a freestanding spinner, called a TopsyTurny that can hold a number of friends between the vertical cables. It’s slimmer and has a smaller surface area than the popular cone or pyramid spinners and therefore spins a little faster.

The aforementioned fitness area, or wellness circuit, was created in 2009 for seniors and includes 13 activity stations. Exercise on equipment like a cardio stepper, ab crunch or leg lift, squat/chest/back press, balance steps and more. Even though this portion of the park is named the “Vancouver Senior’s Community Park”, there’s no reverse ageism here as it’s wide open for the public to use. This includes your kids who might want a shot at bench pressing a hundy. Everyone can hulk out here as much as they please.

Lastly, there’s a stone circle nearby for a nice communal place to sit. A perfect spot to converse with other families while flexing biceps and say jokes like, “Call the vet, because these pythons are sick!”