On a beautiful, but somewhat chilly, Monday morning, Pebble and I set off for Columbia, MD to check out two newer parks that had been added up there. The first park we went to was Bailey Park on Lake Kittamaqundi, near the Whole Foods Market. The address is 10271 Wincopin Circle in Columbia, MD. Bailey Park is named after Vivian C. “Millie” Bailey, a 102 year old WWII veteran who calls Columbia, MD home.
We parked in the large parking lot that Whole Foods shares with lakefront visitors, and we walked toward the water to find the playground. I had read online that the park was small, but a lot of fun for kiddos who love to climb. It sounded perfect for Pebble! Bailey Park was nice and new, but it was also smaller than I’d expected, and I could see Pebble was a bit unsure about it. There is a long, green slide that kiddos can zoom down to reach the play area, with steps and a ramp nearby for adults. The main play area itself consists of one, very large, domed climber. Pebble loved that domed climber. She was up and down the ropes and ramps, through the hoops, climbing everywhere, checking everything out.
When she tired of the climber, we explored the park a bit. We found the enormous fountain that one can walk under, as well as around. Pebble liked the fountain from a distance, but something about the noise of the falling water scared her. She didn’t want anything to do with walking under the fountain. We tried walking down by the water, but Pebble consistently kept pointing out all of the garbage floating in the water, asking me over and over again why people litter, so we returned to the playground. Pebble played a bit longer on the domed climber, and she scrambled up the hill next to the slide to check out a music area near the top of the slide. Then she asked to try the other new park I had told her about. All in all, Pebble lasted about 30 minutes at Bailey Park. This park, while having a great piece of climbing equipment, is also so small that there isn’t room for other pieces of equipment, like a swingset. It is a great place to pop over to for a short while before going to Whole Foods with a carful of kids who need to burn energy.
We left the waterfront and Bailey Park behind, and drove over to Color Burst Park, 6100 Merriweather Drive, no more than 10 minutes from Bailey Park. The Merriweather District is a new development in Columbia, and construction is still being completed. The District consists of restaurants, some not yet open, a hotel, gyms, etc. There is even an ice cream shop called The Charmery, which looked super cute. Color Burst Park is located at the center of the district, covered in turf, with a stage at one end. The park hosts music festivals on the weekends, and is home to the Color Burst Park Fountain, which shoots jets of water into the air from 9am to 9pm every day of the summer season. Pebble was super excited when she saw the fountain. She loves splash pads! I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there is covered seating nearby for parents watching their kiddos. What I did not see, though, were bathrooms, other than port-a-potties in the lot we parked in. I was glad to have the portable toilet with me.
Once I helped Pebble get her suit on, she ran right into the nearest jet of water giggling. She loved to stand over the jets just a water sprayed upward, soaking her thoroughly! Due to the cooler temps, the water wasn’t as warm, and Pebble turned blue pretty quickly. She took a seat in the sun to warm up, and ate her goldfish for a bit. The fountain isn’t huge, and I don’t see it being able to handle a large crowd of kids in the summer months, especially older children. We were here on a Monday while school was still in session, and, by the time we left, there were a lot of younger children playing in the water. Compared to the splashpad at Millard Cooper park, which we attended a few months later, this is the type of splash pad that is good for younger kiddos.
Despite its smaller size, Pebble loved the splash pad, and would jump from fountain to fountain. She also laid down on top of the jets so that the water would hit her in the stomach instead of flying through the air. She played happily for close to an hour, dancing between the jets of water, stopping periodically to warm up in a sunny spot. I had to call it quits when her lips turned blue, and she couldn’t stop shivering, even out in the sun. We had a lot of fun on our mini-adventure, and Pebble worked up a good appetite for her lunch. Would I recommend these parks to others? If you have older kids, elementary school age, I’d say it would be fun to check these out, but only as part of a larger, park-hop through Columbia type day. These are smaller parks, and def not ones I’d be prepared to spend hours at, nor would my kids enjoy it for hours on end. Color Burst Park, especially, felt perfect for the smaller crowd. Happy trails!
https://merriweatherdistrict.com/
