I went to Linwood Park yesterday for the "LOVE Rally" in response to the horrible events in…read moreCharlottesville. I arrived at the park a few minutes before the event started and was able to experience it's beauty. First, there is no playground or basketball courts, but it is rather more of a community park where people can get together. For example, they had a Little Free Library, benches where people were taking and a large open area where you can have catch! Many kids were having a catch or climbing their large trees. Around the entire park is a long, well-maintained cement trail! It is great to just walk on it and see the beautiful park, which has tons of flowers and statues! You can even use the trail at night as it has lights in it! One statue showed a boy and girl sitting on a bench together. That pretty much represents what the park is! There is also a reflexology walk. Though, you have to take your shoes off to properly use it. The rally itself was very nice and showed hope for America. U.S. Congressman Dwight Evans as well as State Representatives Daylin Leach and Mary Jo Daley spoke! This park is also run by a group called Friend's of Linwood Park who keeps it clean and up to date. They also host tons of events including Movie Nights and a day where exotic animals came! Altogether, this is an amazing park to have fun at!

While suburbia certainly has its fair share of parks and hiking places, one of the key things that…read morebeen missing is the communal city style parks; whether it be on the larger scale like Rittenhouse Square, or on the smaller scale like Filter Square. While it certainly isn't anywhere near the size of Rittenhouse, Linwood Park has been the one to deliver that type of atmosphere the best. Inside you'll find plenty of cozy spots to relax and read a book in, interesting statues hidden in gardens, and spots for kids to play in. But you'll also find a newspaper box re-purposed as a take a book leave a book station, a bike station with a built in tire pump, ramp style walls that make it skater friendly, and a pathway that illuminates at night. Toos in local activities like a farmers market and movies night, and you have a tiny spot that brings plenty to the Ardmore community.

I love this playground! It's about 20 minutes from me but I don't mind. Even when there are a lot…read moreof kids it doesn't feel crowded. It's well kept and the equipment is in good condition. It's tree themed and allows kids to not only play but discover, finding different insects on parts of the play sets. In addition to the playground there's a basketball and tennis court, and a little path to walk around, some bench's. It's just a quaint area.

NO TENNIS COURTS LIGHTS! I went there on friday night to see if the tennis courts lights were on…read moreand they were not! In many pictures it shows that they were turned on so why were they not now!

I found this place by accident and at first thought it was just a playground. But it's so much…read moremore! There's actually a trail and other things like volleyball nets and I'm just in love with this spot. The wooden castle is adorable for the kids I haven't really seen something like that until here. Great use of space, AND it's dog friendly!

We came here on a Sunday afternoon and it wasn't too crowded. I love that the outdoorsy vibe that…read morethis playground gives off. You feel like you are in the middle of the woods, if not for the fact that it is part of a school. The construction materials and ground covering are brown and the theme is fun throughout. There is everything from monkey bars to swings, to rope challenges, to huge climbing structures. We spent only about 30 minutes here and the kids did not want to leave. Everything is in good condition and the crowd here was engaged with their kids and friendly. Such a gem in the middle of Chestnut Hill. Street parking is easy on the main drag or one block off behind the school.

Jenk's playground is attached to the John Story Jenks public elementary school in the heart of…read moreChestnut Hill. The playground is open to everyone in the afternoon. It is a fairly large, mostly wooden playground. The thing I like about it is that there are usually lots of local kids there with their parents, so your kids will usually have someone to play with, and there are lots of parents present to head off any trouble. You might think that it would be hard to park in this popular area of town, but it usually isn't too much of a problem.

Such an amazing place to spend a sunny afternoon. Safe for kids, great for outdoor run, etc.read more

Great local park that (for now) doesn't usually get too crowded, and has some nice trails to walk…read morearound. They have a butterfly garden in one section, and some trails that go through the forest and through some old farmland. It's a fun place to walk around, and there's also a big field where you can play some sports. There's also a playground and a pavilion that's available for rent. Overall, pretty nice spot for a morning or afternoon walk on a nice day. Also nice for outdoor gatherings with friends during this pandemic!

I've been able to check out some of the outdoor exercise equipment a handful of times in the…read moremorning, when it's not too crowded there. I've also brought the toddler over to play around a bit in the morning, and it's been a fun spot to check out. The playground has a small kid area, which I appreciate. The exercise equipment is in two separate spots in the park (that I'm aware of), which makes for a nice workout - run to the one by the baseball fields, do some exercise, then run back around to the one near the memorial and do some exercises and stretches there. It's closer to home than the longer route I usually run, so I like doing this shorter route with some additional workouts if I'm a little more crunched on time in the morning.

Awesome. Play areas for toddlers to twelve year olds. Actually, adult exercise equipment and…read morebasketball courts too. A working clean water fountain and bathroom facilities. Hooray. Free parking. Picnic tables. Vending machines. This is a hidden gem of a playground.

beautiful trails, beware of large coyote spotted July 12th. Surprised to come in close contact with…read morea coyote. Be mindful and don't let your dog run off leash or out of sight .

You grow up in an area, you think "I know all the great places to go". Then, thanks to a friend,…read moreyou discover McKaig Nature Center, which happens to be right down the actual road from a place you used to work at. You are happily humbled. Lion and I were looking for a different place to go 'stretch our legs', and were recommended McKaig. So, we plugged the address in the GPS, because, like I said, I've worked on Croton Road and never ever saw this place. Once we got there, I understand why - the 'entrance' on Croton is a small frontage, basically wedged between some houses, a creek and an elementary school. There is a visitor board, a monument and such but if you're not looking carefully it's easy to miss. It's also the entrance where there is one trail, as the trails are laid out kind of like lungs - the "north entrance" is your windpipe, which goes south and splits into two 'lobes". What's different from anatomy is that each lobe has an entrance 'southeast' and 'southwest' on Brower Road. We didn't realize more of the trailheads were in the southeast and southwest entrance, and unfortunately the day we were there the trail map bin was empty. We pulled up a map on our phone and figured it out. The trails are themselves well marked, well maintained and have a number of trail markers, along with some educational plaques. There are different degrees of difficulty, some are relatively flat trails and others have medium to steep grading so there's a variety of hiking experiences. We took a trail that is somewhat challenging, looping around to the west, along the back of the elementary school and some houses, then meeting up with a junction of several trails and a bridge. We took some time sitting at a bench, watching the groups of people on their hikes - families, people walking their dogs, etc. It's a lovely place and one we'll be visiting again. Next time we'll see about accessing from one of the Brewer Road entrances, though our friend tells us parking by those is a little more haphazard as there's no lot. For the Croton Road entrance the elementary school parking lot is directly adjacent and on a weekend day very easy to use.

They say it's two miles of walking trails but I couldn't find much of trail at all, let alone two…read moremiles worth. I can see this as being a nice place to take kids to play on the playground or have a picnic. It looked like the back portion of the park was marshy and flooded so beware of that. The pond looked a little dirty, but there was someone fishing so maybe there's some catchable fish in there. Overall okay. Not the most thrilling park but it serves a purpose.

Why is it, that everytime my kids ask me to do something with them, and I don't want to," Cats in…read morethe Cradle" starts playing in my head? I lost the great Crabapple Battle of 2009 here today. Look for the monument dedicated to the battle, of me doubled over in pain. " my boy was just like me! My boy was just like me!"