Belated

I've been going to parks and taking pictures, but just not posting.  It's inexcusable, but here's my excuse: the pictures are on my phone, and the cord to my phone is in the car.  

I know, right?  It's a very difficult situation.  At least if you are near-terminally lazy.  And now you know just how lazy I am.

I finally bit the bullet and got the blogger app, so I can at least I can do short posts of park things.

Like this pic of lovely tulips I saw today at pearl park:

I see random beautiful park-things all the time.  I will now picspam all and sundry with them.

Pearl Park

Pearl Park is just down the street for me, and it's a large local park, so this is an easy one to check off the list.  It's in South Minneapolis near 35W and Minnehaha Parkway:

As you see on the map, Pearl Park is also right across from Diamond Lake, which is a little lake with a somewhat hidden path around it. More on that later.


















Pearl Park is a very nice park.  On the end by Diamond Lake Road, there's a large rec center, with playgrounds and a wading pool. 

They renovated the rec center about fifteen years ago, so it's very nice.  This pic was from last summer (note the trees have leaves) - since then, they've added a Little Free Library by the rec center.
Little kids' playground:

 Big Kids' playground:

 Wading pool and playgrounds from afar:



On the west side of the rec center there are picnic tables, horseshoe pitches, and basketball/volleyball courts. 

Beyond that, as you go north (you can see on the other side of the courts), the park has several large fields - baseball and soccer.  A lot of team sports are played here.  The rec center also has an indoor gym.

In the winter, Pearl Park puts up a hockey rink, and people sled down the hills on the west side of the park. 

Across the street there is this little stair down to the Diamond Lake Path:

Some of the path is wood chips, some is asphalt.  It's slightly down a hill from the road, and wooded, so those walking on the path feel very removed.    It has a little dock that ends up entirely surrounded by reeds in the summer. 

This is the lake.  You wouldn't want to swim in it, but it's pretty.  There are a lot of turtles.  


 

Pearl Park is a well-rounded park with a lot of sports fields as well as the standard playgrounds and wading pool.  It's a good place to have a birthday party, and schools come here to have track and field days.  Personally, I especially like the lake with the lake path nearby.  And on the other end of the park, you're only a block from the Minnehaha creek, which has walking and bike paths. 

Rating for little kids: 4 out of 5
Rating for big kids: 5 out of 5
Rating for adults: 4 out of 5