77 School St, South Portland, ME 04106

Even using GPS, I kept turning onto the small narrow wrong streets but eventually found my way. Parking is street and typically in front of someone’s house as this is a neighborhood park. Parts of it are shaded and there are three benches in three of the three four corners of this fenced in playground. Outside of the fence is a small grassy area with two big trees covering it. There are no bathrooms and the fence has three ways of entering and exiting and a couple of unnoticeable unfenced spaces in the corners of the back of the playground. We came around eleven or so in the morning and there were three other kids there.

There are a few stand alone pieces of equipment and one main playground structure. The first, my kids will always notice one of these right off the bat, is a merry go round. This one is different from one’s I’ve recently seen. There’s four seats, facing inwards to a pole with a circular table on top. Kids strong enough can use this to maneuver the merry-go-round around as fast as they can push and pull or parents can push them. I say let them have at it and wear themselves out but that’s just me. Kidding mostly but my 4y loves to push others from the ground usually but liked to do it from the seat as well. The next piece of equipment is also something different that I haven’t seen before at a play ground. It was two colorful boards, with small finger holes on the insides of the boards. The boards are mostly parallel to each other. The idea is kids use one foot in each and walk their way across. Another way it can be used is using two hands one and feet on the other and shimmy across this way. My daughter used it by holding the top of one board with her hands and her feet below her scooting her way across. Another stand alone climbing structure, which again I’ve never seen before, is a structure with two climbing nets on the sides and a rock wall in the middle. Attached and above this is a set of monkey bars to grab into from the top of either the rock wall or nets. There is a swingset with two regular swings and a locking chair swing. The lock mechanism is tough, or atleast it was for me and maybe it’s because I did something to my shoulder recently but you basically pull the front of the lock up on a spring and push it into a hole on the chair swing. If this pinches your child, it will hurt. A lot. To release again pull up and pull it out of the hole. A three piece balance beam on springs is the last stand alone piece of equipment.

The main structure has a few various funky was up. One way is the easiest and it’s the steps followed by a small platform. From the platform, you can go left to a holey rock wall. To the right there are more steps. These couple of steps will come to a opening on the left with a spiral wavey ladder. It reminded me of that game at fairs where you try to move a metal circle down a spinning metal spiral and you cant touch the sides. I’ve never seen this climbing structure before and my daughter was eager to give it a try. On the right, across from that cool climbing ladder, is a medium double slide. I was able to follow my kids up and down this slide. Another way up is another ladder, with squares going in a circle to the very top. This comes to the tallest slide on this playground. You can also reach this steep slide by skipping the double slide and climbing a few more stairs. On the opposite side of the playground, near the cool twisty spiral climber is another smaller square ladder circling up to the first platform, where you can choose the hole rock wall or the steps to the double slide. There is a swinging metal climbing net. It’s pretty far spaced from the playground, despite being attached to it. There is a stepping stool that comes to a platform to reach up to either regular handle bars or circle shaped bars. The regular bars end the structure while the circle bars come to another stool with a circular wheel above for kids to spin on connected to the metal net climber. Again oddly spaced out.

I really liked this playground. I saw a lot of new unique pieces of equipment that I haven’t seen before. My kids enjoyed the new things too. It’s pretty well shaded and the benches around the perimeter so guardians can sit back and watch is a plus. A fenced in playground with always hold extra bonus points and I overlook the disadvantages sometimes. I don’t think that’s the case here though because even without the fence this is an awesome playground. The colors are lime green and orange, reminding me of old nickelodeon colors. We spent about an hour here but definitely could’ve stayed longer. Both of my kids were able to use the equipment and easily climb the main structure. The slides were fine with both of my kids, they went down both a handful of times. This playground, with no name only an address, is suitable for toddlers up to roughly age 7 or so. If you’re already in South Portland definitely check it out. If you have plans else where and just need to waste some time before or after, check this playground out. We drove about 40m for music time at the library and this playground and it was worth the drive.