Nelson Mandela Park

We liked this park. We didn’t like the parkING.
Gah.
Everytime we go to this area we circle and circle, and then get a parking ticket anyways. *sob*
So, I wish you luck, because this park is almost worth the aggravation.

It was just me and the little one for the morning, but he enjoyed both play areas, dipped his paws in the water of the splash pad, and ran around the cool 4-season sports field.
The older kids’ playground has a large GameTime play structure with a ton of metal rungs and ladders, a rock climbing wall, chain ladder wall, slides and sky wheels. Just beside is a large rope climber as well as four adult swings. This area is open to the rest of the park, and is adjacent to the small splash pad.

Featuring products from Vortex, the splash pad has spill buckets (which weren’t working when we were there but should now be fixed!), a trio of gentle misters, ground jets, and some cute arching sprays which the toddler enjoyed. A lot. 
There’s no fencing, but you will find lots of benches and some picnic tables (including one which is accessible). We visited around 10am and there was shade over the water area, which is a rarity!

Then onward to the toddler playground. Fully fenced, but with NO gates, this part also had great shade. There are two small play structures which were easy to climb, some old-school spring riders, baby and adult swings. There were a ton of daycare kids playing at the same time, so the pictures aren’t the best, but the play structures have some ground-level bits, a tic-tac-toe panel, slides, and a crawl tube. This area is all on sand and has a few picnic tables within the fencing. 

We had a “pee-mergency”, so we held our breath that the fancy new pavilion would be open, and it was! Phew. 
There’s a nice bathroom that’s open from the outside, but there are NO posted hours. We were at the park mid-morning during the week and it was open, so it *should* have decent hours. 
Note that the Pavilion has programs for teens, young families and seniors. You can read more about it HERE. 

p.s. I ended up parking at the end of Rue Lemieux. There were so many parking signs it may or may not have been legal. Got back to the car, and no ticket. Yeah!

Nelson Mandela Park – CDN–NDG from StrollerMom on Vimeo.