Spy Pond Review

If Paul Bowles had written a playground into "The Sheltering Sky," the playground at Spy Pond Park might well be it.

No matter what time of day or what time of year, this playground is mercilessly hot, bright, and sunny. I suspect I could go to this playground in a heavy snowstorm and still end up sweaty, squinting and sunburned.

Perched on the eastern shore of Spy Pond, the playground is ablaze with afternoon sun…though as I recall, it's not exactly shady in the morning, either. Bring sunscreen, sun hats, and sunglasses.

The playground at Spy Pond is a popular place. As a parent, I've always considered its best feature to be its proximity to the bike path. You can make it a destination for a run with a jogging stroller, or you can bike there, or you can make it a stop on a long bike ride with kids. It's a great bribe (or salvation) if the child in your jogging stroller or bike trailer has Had Enough.

You can also stroll to the playground from Arlington Center, ice cream or coffee in hand, or—if pressed for time or not feeling active—you can drive there and park in the parking lot.

The playground has the usual playground accoutrements: climbing structures for toddlers (complete with a climb-through tunnel, which Max likes a lot), climbing structures for bigger kids (complete with a bumpy slide that Max loved dearly last year but now—as a big and busy two-year-old—he's not so interested in), other climbing structures, plenty of swings, and a hand-operated digger.

For those of you not up on your playground structures, the digger consists of two pull handles and a toothed scooper. By operating the handles just so, you can scoop up a load of gravel and then pour it back onto the ground. This particular digger is the best one I've ever seen.  It has a seat, for one thing, and it rotates, so you can swivel to dump your load of gravel wherever you like (within reach).

It's such a great digger, in fact, that on our most recent visit, there was always at least one, sometimes three, children waiting their turns to use it. Even the younger kids, like Max, who can't quite operate it without parental help, couldn't wait to use it and weren't easily persuaded to let other kids have a turn.

The playground is usually busy with children of all ages. For added entertainment, you can wander to the water's edge to look at the geese or watch rowers practicing their strokes out on the water. In late afternoon, you can see the rowers carrying their boats to and from the water, too ("Mommy, what that? Mommy, what that?  Why?").

If you're averse to the consumption of sugary snacks right before dinner, as I am, be aware that an ice cream truck visits the playground, playing its siren song. On our most recent visit, 5:30 p.m. arrived just as we were leaving. I delayed our departure until the truck was pulling away. Max is pretty reasonable, but sometimes the easier path is more desirable.

The adjacent Spy Pond Park is a beautiful, shaded, grassy place for a picnic before or after the playground, if you wanted to make a long outing out of it. Alas, as usual, there are no facilities except for a water fountain at the playground, so be prepared. And as I said, bring sun protection.