Our three year old daughter has become a backstreet driver.
No, seriously.
We went splash padding the other day around the New Edinburgh area.
The first splash pad was Bordeleau Park beside the Chinese embassy. They had this cool red dumping bucket which was translucent so you could watch it fill up before it dumped water on you.
Our daughter, however, was more interested in running around the park. The splash pad gently slopes down and then eventually meanders into the river. Our little explorer had fun running around on the rocks… until she scraped her knee.
So much for that splashpad. All in all, it’s a pretty nice park. The start button is in the center of the splash pad, so it’s a giggle to turn the water on without getting wet.
[splashpad_headline_card id=422 ]
Next, we decided to hit the splash pad on the other side of the river at New Edinburgh Park. Daddy, in his infinite wisdom, decided to let the little munchkin hold the iPad to watch the little blue dot move 2.3 kilometers across the screen.
“Why aren’t we moving? It’s not moving.”
“Why is the dot moving into a different road! We’re still not on the blue line.”
The splash pad at New Edinburgh is hidden just behind the park building. It’s pretty small – just 4 sprinklers in the ground. On the other hand, the water pressure is pretty impressive. There are two really high water fountains, and two really, really high jet streams of water.
The three of us took turns running through the water park, trying to avoid the geysers. A moot point, since it was already raining.
We spent some time hanging out at the nearby play structures with the rest of the mommies, nannies, day care providers and their charges. (Our little girl served us timbits made from the finest playground sand. They were delicious.)
[splashpad_headline_card id=478]
Pushing our luck, we decided for one more splash pad adventure.
The splashpad at Sir Wilfred Laurier Park was a popular place. Mommy and our little girl snacked on some strawberries as Daddy drenched himself running through the three yellow rings. When those spray loops are going full blast, watch out!
Mommy thinks we could hit twenty splash pads in one day.
When that day comes, we won’t be needing Siri to give us play-by-play directions. I’m sure we can count on our little back seat driver to tell it like it is:
“Why aren’t we moving! The dot’s not moving!”
To enable our three-year old navigation system, we’ve added the GPS co-ordinates of all of the splash pads onto this site so it’s easy for our iPad to show us, er her, where to go.
Just click on the list of ottawa splash pads at the top of the site and then click “view map” beside any splash pad. The link should open up in Apple Maps (or Google Maps if you’re running Android.) Splashpad GPS co-ordinates are from the City of Ottawa open data catalogue.
We’ll see if we ever hit twenty splash pads in a single day. I think our toddler navigation system might lead us astray. (Or, to the closest Tim Horton’s.)
[splashpad_headline_card id=493]