Adventure Playground: Forts, Mudslides & Rafting

 

FORT BUILDING

 

THE MUD SLIDE

RAFTING

Adventure Playgrounds has been around since the 1930s. Starting in Europe, they were imagined by an architect who noticed that city children liked to play everywhere -- except in the playgrounds he built. So he imagined playgrounds where children would build forts, play in mud and in wide open spaces that would allow city kids to play like children who live in the countryside. Today, there are more than 1000 Adventure Playgrounds spread across Europe and in Japan. In the United States, there are two such playgrounds; both are located in California: Berkeley and Huntington Beach. Berkeley's location is open year-round, but the Huntington Beach location opens from mid-June to mid-August annually.

Sixty miles from home, traveling along one of the world's busiest freeways -- and even then, the playground is worth the trip. When I asked Alex if he liked it, he replied. "No (in that 'ah --duh' sort of tone). I LOVE IT!" There aren't many places where kids can practice rafting on pallets like Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn, or build their own tree house forts. At Adventure Playground, kids are encouraged to get wet and dirty. Safety is monitored strictly. This simple 'boy-scout-like-camp' experience blows away all the kid museums we've visited by allowing the kids the freedom to create and experience fun 'the old-fashioned way.'  When I win the lottery, I'm going to build 1000 in the U.S. 

Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn?

Alex is part Tom Sawyer and part Huckleberry Finn. He's got Tom's innocence, immaturity and imagination alongside Huck's mischievous and recalcitrant nature. Like Huck, he sometimes provocatively leads his friends into trouble with silly games and little pranks. But he is also the kid that believes in fairy tales and wants to play all day long with his cousins and his friends. Its hard to stay ahead of his social calendar.

These days, he loves to hike. Give him a stick, a stream, some trees and tall grass and he'll hunt for bad guys, practice ninja moves and find ways to save the world from destruction from mutants and aliens, maybe even a few robbers. The name Alexander means "defender of humanity." His middle name means "calm and peaceful." In these times when people are doing so much to harm others in the world, may my son grow into a  "calm, peaceful defender of humanity."  And in the meantime, may he have the space to just have fun being a kid -- swinging on ropes, splashing in streams and hunting down bad guys with his friends in the woods.