New Playgrounds, Old Spirits

It was such a nice day we couldn't pass up an opportunity to check out the new Goodwin Playspace that opened this week at Deering Oaks. Lotsa munny and planning went into the playground which dons the name of the engineer of great city parks, but at first sight I was like "????" My eyes were wide and ready for a warm woodsy wonderland, but instead were forced into a pinchy wince from the visual likeness of a prehistoric rock quarry.










I was a bit disappointed, it just didn't look finished. I'd driven by several times on 295 thinking that it was a matter of time before they filled in the gray with woodsery and greenery, but $325,000 later it looks like they chose not to. Ohhhhh well, it's not like Jimmy doesn't like digging into dirt so we made the best of it.
After some smiles I decided the playground wasn't so bad afterall.







On the way out we revisited the woodsiness that we love about Deering Oaks.









We fed ducks. They did this:



Foolishly I figured our closest route home would be to follow the duckpond through the wading pool but Jimmy wasn't having any drive-bys so it was Off with the shirt and Off with the pants. No swimtrunks, no problem, we don't leave the house without sunblock and extra dipeys, or pants.





Once he was out I took this photo to retract myself from the PANTS WHINING.





And of course, we waved 'hi' to Slugger when we passed him on the way home.



In fact, we walked by a lot of great Portland designs today and it is well appreciated that the Goodwin Playspace sign, at least, pays tribute to the spirits behind this great city.