Maddy's Guide to Playgrounds in Burlington - TRW Park

 

Basics:

Date of visit: September 8th, 2024

Where can I find it? Visible, but not accessible from Burlington Mall Road.

Bathrooms? nope

Parking? Plenty

When open? Daylight hours. 

Review:

It is said that sometimes the journey can be just as important as the destination itself. There is no truer manifestation of this adage than our trip to visit TRW park. Access to the park must be made by way of Stony Brook Road. Most navigation apps do not realize this, given that it has a Burlington Mall Road address. Moreover, access from Stony Brook is the last left turn before you reach the intersection, and you do not see it until you are already there. If you miss it, you must loop around yet again. My father forbade me from repeating what he said when we missed it the second time, but it involved a deity constructing a wall to hold back the waters. Of his tears, I think? 

Once you do reach the park, a good twenty minutes later than planned, you are greeted with a place seeking to serve two different audiences. One is the classic small child wanting swings to swing on, 

Check!

and slides to slide on. 

Double check!

The other is childless twenty somethings looking to add some pizzazz to their daily walking or jogging routines. 

I suppose a third would be dog walkers. You can walk your dog here. 

While enjoyable, the design of the play structures at TRW does not break any new ground, and sadly brings back the sadly inaccurate solar system map seen before. 

A geocentric model, clearly designed by Copernicus deniers

Much more attention was paid to the FITNESS COURT(TM), a name they really want you to use describing this place. 

It doesn't have flashing lights around the letters, but you can picture it with them, can't you?

Along the wall are a series of metal fixtures with diagrams showing ways to leverage body weight exercises to build and strengthen core muscles. I was too small to use any of it properly, but that didn't stop me!

Feel the burn!

I really worked off those fruit gummies we brought for a snack!

My father observed that the park is built directly across from the Lahey Medical Center. After observing this, he got quiet for a few minutes, and then began exercising on the fixtures too. It is almost as if the hospital was emanating waves of shame that he was not living his best, most active lifestyle self!

While the exercise fixtures were interesting, the real highlight of the FITNESS COURT(TM) are the raised stones. I am not entirely sure what they are intended for, but they are great for anyone who is a passionate aficionado of the Floor is Lava game, like I happen to be. 

Don't fall in!

There is also a general-purpose field for people who want to practice baseball or lose golf balls.

Joy, I have your golf ball, if you want it back.

Do exercise caution if running around the field. As I mentioned, there are dogs being walked, and sometimes the owner doesn't always clean everything up!

You didn't think I'd actually put a picture of that on here, did you? Gross!

Overall, while I enjoyed myself, I do not see myself returning to TRW park anytime soon. That is mostly because my father, frustrated with finding his way there, declared that he is never bringing me there again.

I give TRW 4 lava floor tiles:

Madelyn Hope Lewis is the senior playground tester of Lewis Developments, and a connoisseur of playtime activities. When she's not exploring Massachusetts fun time architecture, she can be found scouting out where is exactly "the line" with her parents. 

Maddy's Guide to Playgrounds in Burlington - Regan Park

Basics:

Date of visit: September 2nd, 2024

Where can I find it? Hiding at the end of Sumpter Road.

Bathrooms? 1 standard port-a-potty

Parking? Plenty

When open? Daylight hours.

Review:

Regan Park is a playground designed around the idea of, "There is a lot of space available here, and we want to keep it that way!" It is a setup that emphasizes openness and provides an opportunity for parents and kids to inhabit their own spheres of influence and minimize potential frictions. 

These are the time out swings

 Aside from the solitary swing set, the rest of the playgrounds structures are densely consolidated in a single patch of ground padding, with lots of open space around it for children to run, for parents to talk out of earshot, or for parents to chase down children who don't want to leave just yet.

Same place as previous photo, just 180 degrees. As you can see, it is pretty easy to take in.

The playground structure itself is a clever piece, with plenty of creative challenges for children to test their balance, and parents to test their anxiety attacks. 

The blue climbing piece to the right is a regular 4-dimensional chess set

My brother could navigate the platforms to the left. I could not. Thankfully, the padding below is soft.

Sadly, the park presented yet another one of those chicken fighting pens. I have expressed my grievances to my father, who strangely resists bringing them up at town hall. It makes me wonder where his allegiances truly lie!

It is NOT a finger licking good time!

The most unique aspect of Regan Park is its spider web. Unlike the black widow mesh of Rahanis, this utilizes a more conventional orb web like that of a corn spider. As a structure, it is interesting enough to climb upon, but it also generates one of the more interesting challenges to parents with kids who do not want to leave. It is sufficiently large that you can reach through and grab a child who is running away, but not large enough to pull the child through. It is also big enough that you cannot simply reach around, meaning the parent must let go, and continue chasing around and around. The game is lost if there are two parents, so children take heed of your strategy in advance!

Look at me, dad! I'm a Argiope aurantia!

As a mainstay playground, Regan park's options are sadly limited. But, it does make for a nice change of pace, especially if one has a lot of energy to burn in a game of keep away. I give Regan Park 4 spider webs. 

Madelyn Hope Lewis is the senior playground tester of Lewis Developments, and a connoisseur of playtime activities. When she's not exploring Massachusetts fun time architecture, she can be found scouting out where is exactly "the line" with her parents. 

Maddy's Guide to Playgrounds in Burlington - Fox Hill

 

Basics:

Date of visit: June 8th, 2024

Where can I find it? Behind the school.

Bathrooms? nope

Parking? Plenty

When open? Weekends or when school is not in session. 

Review:

A tale of two playgrounds. It was the best of slides, it was the worst of slides. In a world that argues for unification, this playground sits in strong contrast! The two setups sit on either side of a large expanse of concrete, the purposes of which evade me. My father says it is for playing basketball and hopscotch, but I think we all know by now how unreliable a narrator he can be!

This system clearly believes in separating the haves and have nots. Those that have a signifcant number of inches in their height, 

Look at these foot holds. I practically have to bend myself in half to reach them!

How is a 3 year old supposed to master this!?

and those that do not!

This is more my speed, but I'll never admit it.

What are they afraid of? That the small ones running around will trip up and injure the big kids? Are they so fragile that a small child knocking them over will bring them to tears? Maybe they should be tripped up! A scratched up knee never hurt anyone? Well, except for the one who scratched up there knee. I did that once, and it hurt a lot. But I think my point stands!

Architecturally, there is not much to the setup that makes it stand out. One of the greater points of creativity I've seen in these systems come from the designers of the hand holds for climbing, and here I am not dissapointed. 

They're like little faces, both smiling at me and piercing my soul.

Conversely, the slide designers have mostly given up and resorted to clever wordplay.

A play on a short range air to air missile used by the US Airforce since 1956

All in all, Fox Hill presented a fun, if conflicted time. 

I give it 4 Charles Dickens covers:

Madelyn Hope Lewis is the senior playground tester of Lewis Developments, and a connoisseur of playtime activities. When she's not exploring Massachusetts fun time architecture, she can be found scouting out where is exactly "the line" with her parents.