Recently in Park Reviews Category

Continuing my theme of getting caught up from last summer on my Monday posts, we take a quick look at Washington Square park in Sterling Heights. The best thing about this park for our kids is that it's the one closest to grandma and grandpa's house and offers plenty of fun, even on return visits.

Date of visit: Thursday, June 21 2007

Rating: - All the basics for a fun time

Located off Stadler Drive between Hayes and Saal in Sterling Heights (Google Map), this is a true neighborhood park - the only parking available is either on Stadler Drive or inside the subdivision this park connects to. One of the more interesting physical features of Washington Square is that it could easily be considered two parks that connect via a narrow walking path. So when you're done with the area of the park that's visible from Stadler, just walk around the corner to another area with a different playscape and climber.

Along with two very nice playscapes, Washington Square has a paved play area with two tennis courts, a basketball court, a vollyball court, barbecue grills, and a short walking trail. There are no restrooms or drinking fountains, so bring your own bottled water.

Our boys have been visiting this park for a few years now, thanks mostly to their grandparents. They easily spend over an hour here between the two different playscapes and will likely be ready to visit again this spring and summer once the weather turns for the better. We've often observed tennis matches and basketball games going on and the park appears to be pretty popular in the neighborhood with not only kids but folks out walking their dogs too.

Link: City of Sterling Heights web site, list of parks

Our park tour last summer wasn't limited to just the three parks I posted on last June. there were a couple others that we visited and bothered to remember the camera that I just neglected to add. One of 'em was Waldenburg Park in Macomb Township, where we enjoyed a relatively lengthy visit one summer day.

Date of visit: Wednesday, June 20 2007

Rating: - Lots of fun, good place to visit

Located at 19225 21 Mile Road just east of Romeo Plank in Macomb Township. (Google Map), Waldenburg has a nice big parking lot and restrooms with flush toilets.

In addition to a great kid's playscape, there's a big picnic pavilion, a basketball court, two sand volleyball courts, and a walking trail back to creek that runs through the park.

There's some shade available should you bring your own lawn chair, but most of the trees near the playscape are immature. It was a beautiful day when we visited, and the park seemed to be pretty popular. The kids had to be patient at times and had to be alert at the bottom of slides, etc but that didn't interfere with their play.

The playscape is large enough to accommodate a lot of kids and there is plenty of different activities to keep kids of most ages interested for a least a little while. It was a good visit and we'd probably visit often if we lived closer.

Links:

• Macomb Township parks

The next park that we visited during our summer tour was Franklin Park in Sterling Heights, a simple neighborhood park in the middle of a subdivision. What makes this park nice is the shade and the elementary school located next door which offers several play structures.

Date of visit: Monday, June 18 2007

Date review posted: Friday, June 22 2007

Rating: - All the basics for a fun time

Located on Franklin Park Drive (17 1/2 Mile) between Ryan and Dequindre in Sterling Heights (Google Map), Franklin is a neighborhood park with one playscape, one fenced tennis court (net is missing), a simple fall field, and a fenced in baskeball court. There's plenty of open space available too. The highlight of this park is that it's located adjacent to Schuchard Elementary School which also has several playscapes and lots of swings to explore. Parking is either on Franklin Park Drive or in the parking lot of the school (recommended). There are no restrooms.

Although simple, there are plenty of mature trees in the park itself offering shaded play and benches for parents to watch. The play structures in the school yard are all in the full sun and there are no benches.

The boys spent about an hour between the structures in Franklin Park and the Schuchard yard and had a good time. As this was our third park in one day, after that hour it was time to go home for dinner or we may have spent even more time here.

Franklin Park is a nice quiet place to play for younger kids in the neighborhood but probably isn't someplace we'd visit if we didn't live close by.

Link: City of Sterling Heights web site, list of parks

Today's park review is for Delia Park in Sterling Heights. This park is not geared toward free play and instead is a place for organized sports. A quick stop on our tour, it earns a "don't bother" rating from all of us.

In fact, we think the City of Sterling Heights may want to revisit the condition of the play structure here as it is missing a slide and could pose a danger to someone that might accidentally fall off.

Date of visit: Monday, June 18 2007

Date review posted: Wednesday, June 20 2007

Rating: - Don't bother

Located on 18 Mile Road between Ryan and Dequindre in Sterling Heights (Google Map), the main purpose of Delia Park is for organized sports like baseball and softball, tennis, and soccer. There are four lighted ball diamonds, four soccer fields, a football field, five tennis courts (which usually have at least some use whenever the weather is nice), picnic areas, tons of parking, and restrooms with a concession stand that opens when ball games are in progress.

It's considered one of Sterling Heights' major parks, but there just isn't much for little kids to do at this park if they're not part of a baseball/softball/soccer team that's playing a game. The one play structure is off in the back, far away from the restrooms and the structure itself is not very large, made of metal and is missing a slide in one spot, making it dangerous for kids that might not be paying attention to that empty spot.

The ground is hard packed sand that tends to get picked up by the wind and there is no shade nearby. Some of the benches for parents to sit on are also not in the best of shape. There are swings near the play structure. We spent a total of about 15 minutes at this bummer of a park (again, as far as 'free play' is concerned) before moving on to our next stop.

In our opinion, Delia Park could use some serious upgrades in terms of play equipment, and probably more importantly it needs some safety attention as far as the missing slide and hard ground.

Links:

• City of Sterling Heights web site, list of parks

We'll start tonight with a visit we made to Grant Park in Utica, the first one we checked out this week. The boys had a great time here and are looking forward to return visits.

Date of visit: Monday, June 18 2007

Date review posted: Tuesday, June 19 2007

Rating: - Lots of fun, good place to visit

Located just east of Van Dyke and north of M-59 at 8201 Hahn Street in Utica (Google Map), Grant Park features ample easy parking, restrooms that are open through the summer months, and as a bonus it's walking distance to the Utica Dairy Queen when the desire for soft serve ice cream can't be denied.

For adults and older kids, there are fenced-in tennis courts and baskeball hoops, a couple volleyball courts, quite a few horseshoe pits, barbecue stands, picnic tables, two pavilions, and paved walking trails.

The park features many mature trees, offering plenty of shaded spots for escaping the sun. There are three playscapes in the park and when we were there on a late Monday morning and early afternoon, it wasn't very busy so the kids have plenty of opportunity to play without worrying about having to wait to use the equipment.

What looks to be the oldest playscape is also the smallest and provides what looks like an appropriate opportunity for most 2 and 3 year olds. There's also a small playhouse, swings and an older metal merry go-round nearby.

Our kids pretty much ignored this smaller playscape in favor of exploring the two newer and larger ones nearby.

The "medium" playscape is on the north side of the park and appears to be very new. There's a three-way side on one side and a looping slide on the other with a small climbing wall. This playscape looked fun for 3-5 year olds, but our 7 year old also enjoyed a few minutes on the slides and climbing wall. There's a nifty teeter-totter type thing that was of interest to many of the kids that ventured to this playscape.

At the time we visited Grant Park, near midday, there wasn't much shade at any of the playscapes so proper sun protection is definitely in order. Each of the playscapes are surrounded by a deep layer of wood mulch, making for a safe landing spot for kids that might hit the bottom of the slides with a bit too much speed.

Having restrooms nearby is a definite bonus for parents of kids that might 'forget' to go before leaving the house, but as is typical with this kind of setting it's a lot easier to have boys than girls. Plan on having some hand sanitizer available - the water in the sink was working, but the soap dispenser appeared to be empty when we paid a visit. The water fountains outside of the restroom building weren't all that great either - bringing bottled from home is definitely the way to go.

Grant Park has a definite "neighborhood park" feel to it - if you don't live in Utica, you've driven by on Van Dyke numerous times without even knowing it's there. Other than the businesses bordering Van Dkye, the park is surrounded by residences and appears to be a safe place to play with proper supervision.

The highlight of the visit for our kids to Grant Park was the huge, three-story playscape that is impossible not to notice as you drive up. Topped with an American flag, the structure was installed just recently as other parents reported that it was not in place last summer. It apparently replaced older metal equipment - a nice upgrade by the city of Utica.

The best part, according to both kids, was the three-story tube slide that requires a ladder climb between the second and third levels. Our four year old was a bit tentative about that last climb at first, but quickly built up his confidence and had very little trouble making it up. Some kids under four might have trouble with that climb, and we observed one grandmother climb up to give assistance to one of her charges. While safe, this playscape might not be something nervous parents might want to take on.

In all, we spent just over two hours at this park before both boys were ready to move on. Some of that had to do with the weather on that day, it was very sunny with the temperature a humid 90 degrees or so. The best compliment was paid to the park with the requests for a return visit.

Links:

• City of Utica web site, Parks and Recreation

As I've yet to return to work in the "real" world, it appears that I'll be spending the summer at home with our two boys, ages 7 and 4. Instead of having them in some type of summer camp, the three of us will be figuring out how to fill the hours that they had been spending in school.

We'll be balancing a bit of reading and writing with a lot of fun by visiting a bunch of area parks and creating some informal reviews of them. The boys are most interested in things like slides and swings, while I'll be on the look out for shade, restrooms, and parking.

Our primary focus is going to be in the city of Sterling Heights, but we're also going to venture into places like Troy, Utica, Shelby and Macomb Townships, and Rochester Hills. We'll probably also visit some of the area MetroParks, like Stoney Creek, Metro Beach, and Kensington.

After we visit, we'll review what we experience and I'll be putting this information here on the Blog in the 'Park Reviews' category.

Hopefully our experiences will save you some time when looking for someplace to go to spend an hour or two having fun at one of the area's many public parks.