Raymond Park

Today we drove over to Raymond park to check it out. We heard it was pretty cool, with a water area, too! But it was a little too breezy to play in the water so we just hung out at the playground.

There are some fun springy toys; three car-type ones and one big birdie teeter toter.

I got an awesome shot of a little boy spinning. My son tried it for a minute but then got dizzy and wanted to do something else :)

So he gathered up wood chips and piled them in his lap and a little girl walked by and gave him a funny look. Haha.

After he was done playing on the bridge, he made up his own game that involved gathering pinecones and putting them on our blanket.

Here is the water feature... it is kind of small, but you can run through an awesome tunnel with water spraying at you. Fun stuff. Some boys were riding their bikes under the shower thing and drenching themselves. They are probably freezing cold now.

So overall this is a pretty nice park. Nothing looks old or broken. There is a big grass field, a basketball court, lots of trees for shade, a few picnic tables, and a paved walkway if you feel like walking around the park.

It is located at 118th Ave. and Raymond St. in Portland, Oregon. The closest exit off the 205 is Foster Blvd.

Happy Valley Park

This park has some great features, but there are also some things that could use work. The playground is sort of small, and is better for older kids. My 2 year old didn't have as much fun on the play structure. He had more fun running around and playing with the wood chips. There isn't a separate smaller kids area, which would have been nice. Also, there are only a couple benches right next to the playground and they are pretty old. One is breaking, even.

The feature that makes this park worth it, though, is the splash pad they just opened up! It has all these different water jets that shoot up out of the ground at different angles. I'm not sure what time they turn the water on, but the water turned off at 6pm when I was there during the week. There are nice bathrooms right next to the water area, with some covered picnic tables. Lots of grass to spread a blanket on and relax while your kids play.

And if your child is a little water-shy, they can always start out splashing in the big puddle next to the splash pad, then slowly work their way over to the water jets. Thats what my son did! I was there on one of the first days it opened, and a photographer from the Oregonian actually came up to me and asked me some questions. When I checked the Oregonian website the next day, my son's picture made it onto the site! Pretty cool :)

Address: 13770 SE. Ridgecrest Rd., Happy Valley, OR