Houde Park

This park was fun for my 3-year old in a few ways. There were some of his favourite little spring riders in the toddler section (a motorcycle! a plane! a firetruck!), there was a not-too-intimidating splash pad, and a police car was parked at the corner waiting for speeders. The excitement!

We easily found street parking, and moseyed (sashayed?) up to the toddler area where he then careened off to the firetruck while I snapped pictures.
“Do you want to try out something else?”
“Nope! FIRETRUCK! Weeee Woooo!”

So *I* climbed up the toddler structure, crawled through the tunnel (ow), and back down the slide. It’s a nice little climber from Landscape Structures and also has the curved Cozy Climber ladder, the colourful (but in rough shape) Climbing Blocks , and a tic-tac-toe panel which I played by myself. “I win!”
In the surrounding sand is a sand shovel and baby swings, and while there is fencing around most of the play areas, there are also open gates.

The big-kid section (also on sand) has another Landscape Structures climber with the same Climbing Blocks, some daunting ladders and rungs, slides, and wobbly pods to cross. There are also adult swings and a hang-on! spinner. (I’m going to trademark that name.)
You might not notice the splash pad here because there are no brightly coloured dumping buckets or rings to run through, but it’s right next to the chalet and consists of ground jets. I particularly liked the bubblers that come up just a few inches. Not too intimidating for little ones. You can hear my little one nattering on in the video about the rainbow that was reflected in the mist. My explanation was something along these lines: “Errrr, it’s light….refracting…from the rays…uh, and the curve of the earth….and…do you want to go in the swings?”
The water is on from 8:30am-9pm.

We were there quite early in the morning, and while there was shade over some of the play equipment, I’m guessing that it’s all in full sun in the afternoon. 

Tucked into the south-east corner is a wooden gazebo with picnic table, and there are benches surrounding the playgrounds as well as around the water area (and some more picnic tables). 

Weird note: MY favourite part of the park was the awesome retro “Parc Houde Park” sign on the chalet. 
Note that the chalet was locked when we were there and there were no posted hours. 

Houde Park – Saint-Laurent from StrollerMom on Vimeo.

Feature
Toddler park (2-5)
Fenced toddler park
Baby swings
Big kid park (5-12)
Big kid swings
Parking lot
Street parking
Shade
Water fountain
Picnic tables
Benches
Seasonal Bathrooms
Green space
Soccer fields
Baseball field
Tennis courts
Basketball
Splash pad
Pool
Reduced mobility swings
Dep nearby

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