Bray Loves Parks: Local Park Reviews: September 2013

Annapolis City Playground

199 Green Street
Annapolis, MD 21401
4 out of 5 swings

After the disappointment at Truxton Park, we kept it moving to find another park for Bray to play. We came across a nice one down by the Annapolis Harbor on Green Street and Compromise Street. Tucked into a beautiful neighborhood and so close to the harbor, This playground is in such a great location. If you can find parking, your kid is sure to have fun. It is very well-maintained and the folks are friendly. I'm assuming most of the people who use this park live in the community. There are two sets of play areas, each designated to a certain age kid.

Bray enjoyed the toddler section where he could run back and forth, climb steps, play with the tic tac toe, numbers and shapes enclosure panels, look through the portholes and climb through the tunnels.

The ground was filled with wood chips... which I'm not a big fan of. Luckily my kid is not interested in eating the wood chips, though he used to try and put them in his mouth when he was younger... so to me that is a bit of a hazard... but most parks use this as it is cheaper and easy to maintain.The park beautiful and is surrounded by art and culture which I love. I do wish there were more swings on the swing set. There were a ton of kids at the park the day we went, and there are only 2 baby swings... which were taken the duration of the time we were at the park.

This park was pretty nice. All-in-all we give it a 4 out of 5 swings.

Lots of learn-and-play panels

Art hanging from the fences

Truxton Park: Pump House Road

Pump House Road
Annapolis, MD 21403
2 out of 5 swings

We were SO not impressed by this park. It was hard to find, and when we did find it I was almost leery about getting out of my car. It looked abandoned and scary. Something out of a horror movie. We went in mid day... maybe about 3pm and there was maybe 1 or 2 people in the park. I saw a couple of joggers run past me on the nature trails, which I walked only a little ways down, as it started getting secluded the deeper we got into it. The parking lot was surrounded by a small playground, a baseball field, wooded trails with no signage of where they lead and a closed-for-the-season pool.

A creepy looking man was sitting at the playground so I opted to skip over that, since I was already feeling a bit skeptical about this park anyway. The little bit of walking on the trail we did (before we made a bee-line for the car) brought us to an old rickety wooden bridge. The wood boards creaked and moved underneath my feet. It did not feel secure at all. I got back in my car and noted that down the street a little further, there is a boat ramp, a pavilion and a few tennis courts.

The reviews I read online about this park speak of a brand new recreation center, skate park and newer baseball fields, which I did NOT run across. There seems to be a bit of disconnect between the old section of Truxton Park and the new one? It may warrant a second visit to find this newer section of the park, in which I will rate as separate, because that seems to be the way they treated the park.

I promised Bray a nice day at the park and this certainly was not the location for it. We gave this park a 2 out of 5 only because we liked the view from the bridge. :)

Playground from a distance

A creepy summer camp map painted on an old building from 2004

Note the tire in the water

walking path

The closed pool

It did have a pretty view from the bridge

Pierce's Park

716 Eastern Blvd
Baltimore, MD 21202
5 out of 5 swings

Bray absolutely LOVED this park. We happened across it when we were headed into the Baltimore Aquarium this weekend. As we were walking by, we noticed this LUSH greenery and modern designed decorative metal fence surrounding a great open space for the kid of ours to run around in. The open space is surrounded by berms (Low hills high enough to keep the kids inside the park but low enough for parents to see over) There is also a very modern playground style merry-go-round and cool metal sculptures. I loved the relationship between hard metal and beautiful nature... symbolizing the unity of urban living and natural environment!

As we explored the park, It wasn't long before I looked down onto the path on which we were walking and saw the play on words engraved into the stone right underneath our feet. They were homophones, or words that are pronounced the same way, but have totally different meanings. "KERNEL" and "COLONEL". "HIRE" and "HIGHER". There are so many of them when you think about it ... our language is ridiculous sometimes. :) We found ourselves trying to think of some ourselves as we continued to run around the park.

The sounds of chimes filled the heir... er, I mean air --- oh, look a homophone! :D The fence is actually a musical instrument! Visitors can stop and play the fence with the connected mallets! Also in the park is a very cool willow tree tunnel... This was Bray's favorite part of the whole park. He ran in and out of the tunnel with such a smile on his face.

And to top it off, the park is a sustainable space, in line with Waterfront Partnership’s ‘Healthy Harbor’ Sustainability Initiative.
This park is soooo awesome. It is not just a patch of land where they slapped a swing set and slide (Though that would have been a nice addition to this park). It is a well designed/well thought out, beautiful park that invokes such imagination! We give it 5 out of 5 swings.

If you want to learn more about the park go to: http://www.piercespark.org/about-the-park