Favorite Places x2: The Adventure Playground and Fourth Street in Berkeley, California

These two favorite places go together beautifully, with something for everybody!  If you are visiting the San Francisco Bay Area and don't know about the Adventure Playground over in Berkeley, you should - there aren't too many of these parks and this is a great one.  It was created in 1979 and still has that old 70s feeling, where kids run (relatively) wild and build their own world.  

By helping with a bit of cleanup, kids may earn hammers or paintbrushes, which they may use to make their own mark on the place.  They may also simply play - there's lots to climb on, in and through.  There's a zipline (for ages six and up), which my son's favorite part.  He also loves rolling down the small hill tucked inside a plastic barrel.  To each his own!

One of the excellent things about this park is it's location. It's right down by the water, with wonderful views in all directions, a little beach right next to the entrance, and plenty of places for walking and exploring.  It's a beautiful spot.  It also happens to be a few minutes drive from one of the best shopping districts around: Fourth Street in Berkeley. While Fourth Street is home to some chain stores, you will also find a large number of small and beautiful independent stores - The Gardener,  The Builders Booksource, Rabat (shoes), Castle in the Air, Miki's Paper... There are also several wonderful places to eat - I love Tacubaya, Bettie's To Go (I love eating a slice of their pizza out on the sidewalk), and O'Chame.

Back to the Adventure Playground: as a city park, admission to the Adventure Playground is free. However, for a small fee (a $10 flat fee as of this writing), kids aged seven and older maybe left here for up to three hours. Can you see where I am going with this?

Here's what you do: After registering at the office (a few steps from the Playground), drop the kids (remember, they must be at least seven) at the Adventure Playground. Then head up to Fourth Street for  lunch a bit of shopping.  When you're ready, pick up the kids... but don't leave yet.  Take a walk together down to the pier, or around Cesar Chavez Park.  It's a wonderful way to experience the bay - the views are fabulous, the air is bracing, and there's just so much to see.  

P.S. On April 18, the merchants of Fourth Street are hosting a sidewalk sale, with deals ranging from 40-60% off. Wish I could be there!

On the Web: PlayGroundology and Magical Urbanism

From Playgroundology, who found it on Architektur fur Kinder

I'd like to introduce you to a couple of my favorite websites - PlayGroundology and Magical Urbanism. These sites are not travel sites, exactly, but they are a terrific resource for the traveler nonetheless - and I think they're particularly terrific for the traveler with children.

PlayGroundology is a rich compendium of all things playground, from all over the world. The site looks at not only the nicest playgrounds, but also simply interesting ones, wherever they are found.  However, the site's primary focus is really play itself. There are posts on films, art exhibits and installations, playground news, old photographs, and other fascinating tidbits, all related to play and playgrounds. You can search by country - the U.S. and Canada are heavily represented (the writer is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia), but there are also posts from Tunisia, Hungary, Sweden, and beyond.

From a recent post on Singaporean playgrounds and new stamps celebrating play - the Toa Payoh Dragon Head Playground

The other site that has recently grabbed my attention is Magical Urbanism.  This one's a bit difficult to search by country, but get lost in it anyway - you may discover the inspiration for your next trip. This site catalogues the moments of urban life that take you by surprise, inject a little joy into the environment, or simply brighten your day when you encounter them... the kind of things I want my child to experience wherever we are. These aren't necessarily big destination places, but primarily everyday sites, made better by art.  In one post he points out the fabulous Toledo Metro Station in Naples, designed by architect Oscar Tusquets Blanca and involving a number of artists including Robert Wilson and Francesco Clemente. What child (or parent, for that matter) wouldn't thrill to a subway ride beginning here?

These benches, created by the Danish artist Jeppe Hein, would be so fun to encounter on a walk through De Haan, in Belgium, if that's on your itinerary... They hold an obvious appeal for children.

And look, look, at the amazing "Slinky Slings Bridge" in Oberhausen, Germany (by Tobias Rehberger and Schlaich Bergermann and Partner) - my son would love it.

I love these sites because they aren't travel sites - they don't tell me what famous sites we "must" visit - but they do inspire the explorer in me. They make me want to get out there and look around. They don't highlight "adult" places or "kid" places, but rather human places - places that are good - inspiring - for people, period. And more than anything, when I travel with my kid, I want him to be inspired, along with me.

The Delightful Cephalopodic Playgrounds of Japan

I’m not sure I would plan an entire trip around playgrounds - especially a major trip to a faraway land like Japan.  However, it’s one of the first things I look into whenever we go anywhere - it’s just good to know where we can go blow off steam and run around if we need to.  

Japan looks to have some awfully neat playgrounds worth keeping an eye out for - and a surprising number of them incorporate one of my favorite cephalopods - the octopus!  The play structures, most of which were built by the Maeda Environmental Art Co., are common and are typically found in neighborhood parks - nothing spectacular about these sites.  But sometimes a little stop at a neighborhood playground is just what you need when you’re on the way to something more spectacular!

There's a lot to love about these structures. The organic, amorphous shapes are very conducive to sliding, climbing, and slithering.  The faces of some these creatures are alternately slightly scary, poignant, or goofy.  While clearly octopi, the structures do not demand that the nature of your play be aquatic - they're suggestive but open-ended.  For more examples (and there are many, many more), click here.

Upcoming LiveStream: Century of the Child from NYC MOMA

A while back I posted about the exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000.  The exhibit runs for a few more weeks, through November 5.

This Friday afternoon (U.S. Eastern Time), the Museum is hosting a symposium entitled The Child in the City of Play, which will be livestreamed. While not directly related to travel, the symposium will touch on themes that should be inspiring to travelers with children, including the intersection of Cities and Play.  I plan to listen to at least part of it - join me!

Monstrum: Inspiring Playground Design

The Cod at Vejlebro School near Copenhagen

I absolutely love the Danish playground design team known as Monstrum (meaning behemoth or monster).  They are responsible for a gaggle of gorgeous playgrounds across Scandinavia (as well as in the UK), with many in the city of Copenhagen.  Their designs are uncomplicated, but totally inspiring - the colors and forms are beautiful and inviting, and the structures are elegant and solidly built. While they hold obvious appeal for a child, this kind of design is terribly alluring for adults too - I know I’m drawn in just looking at them.  It did not surprise me to learn that the founders - Ole B. Nielsen and Christian Jensen - have a background in theater design.

The Blue Whale in Gothenburg, Sweden

 Spider and Mushrooms in Hillerod, Denmark

The Pike in Annedals Park in Stockholm

We got to play in one of these when we visited Tivoli, in Copenhagen.  “Petzi’s World” (on Monstrum’s site they call it Rasmus Klump Land) nestles in a corner of the park and is filled with delightful structures drawn from the world of Comic Book favorite Petzi (or Rasmus Klump). While kids gave themselves over to play within the enchanted maritime landscape, adults chatted amiably amid sweetly painted structures and sculptural elements (we met a nice family from Greenland).

Rasmus Klump Land in Tivoli, in Copenhagen

At Fælledparken in Copenhagen, the newish playground by Monstrum (completed in late 2011) includes interpretations of five of Copenhagen’s most famous towers: City Hall’s tower, the tower of Our Saviour’s Church (Vor Frelsers Kirke), the Round Tower, the dome of the Marble Church (Marmorkirken), and the Stock Exchange (Borsen) Tower. I love the way real architectural ideas are incorporated into play buildings.

Fælledparken in Copenhagen

This unexpected playscape incorporates a giant roly-poly bug, in part because (in the words of the designers): “it is really a creature we don’t see enough.”  Here and there, interesting facts about roly poly bugs are carved into the wood.

The Roly Poly Playground in Gentofte, Denmark

One dramatic playground illustrates the perils of the Bermuda Triangle, complete with broken ships, airplanes, and a surfacing whale.  Just the place for a child to safely explore some dangerous situations...

The Bermuda Triangle in North Bridge Park (Norrebroparken) in Copenhagen

All of these photos are from Monstrum's own website; I encourage you to visit the site for more pictures and projects!

Taking Risks

I came across this wonderful video recently (produced by the Alliance for Childhood and KaBoom!), all about the importance of risk-taking in childhood.  While we want to keep our children safe, learning to feel and test risk is so important – it’s how kids gain confidence, learn about limits, and how to reasonably push those limits (of course, as they point out in the video, it's easier to accept risks when you have ready access to free or affordable heathcare).  Watch it and see what you think:

It struck me that you could talk in a similar way about travel (especially, I think, travel with children).  We take a risk everytime we step outside our door – and the farther away we go, the greater the risks.  When we travel, there are so many opportunities for mishap: we might be misunderstood, we might get lost, we might be robbed, we might lose our belongings – and on and on. 

Yet it is still critical that we GO. Just as children do, we need to explore the world, and find our place in it. We need to push the limits a little. I hope that by traveling with my little boy I am teaching him something about this - that it's OK to step outside your comfort zone, and see what's going on - and just participate.