Springtime in Maryland…. Temps can be 80 one day and freezing the next! Some days it feels as if we get all 4 seasons over the course of one day. On one of the warmer Saturdays in March, warm enough that the kids were wearing shorts, we packed a picnic lunch and set off for Downs Park in Pasadena, MD. Downs Park is one of the four official county parks in Anne Arundel County, and requires an admission fee of $6. As I mentioned in my post on Fort Smallwood, our family had purchased the Anne Arundel County Park Pass for 2022, and Downs Park was why I’d made that purchase. We’d visited this park twice last summer, and it has since become one of our favorite parks, even more so than Kinder Farm Park. Rainbow, especially, begs to visit Downs. (And yes, I just realized I forgot to blog about it last summer, oops!)
The playground at Downs Park was renovated in late 2020 and early 2021, during the pandemic. There are two major structures, one for the older and one for the younger set, plus swings, a tunnel, climbing pods, a turtle, and a spinner. The park was hopping on this warm spring day, everyone taking advantage of the weather. My girls all made a beeline to the structure for the older kiddos, which is amazing! It is several stories high, and completely enclosed so children can’t fall out. There are two slides at the highest level, one at the middle level, and one on the lowest level. Children climb up the levels via rope ladders. Last summer, Pebble needed the occasional boost from her sisters, but this year she was fine! All 3 girls loved coming down the tube slides from the highest level, giggling the whole way! Rainbow realized that the structure also had a scavenger hunt, and she spent a lot of time scrambling under, up, over, and around hunting for a carrot, butterfly, apple, clock, etc.
One of the other big hits of this playground for my crew was the spinner. It reminded me a bit of the merry-go-rounds we had on playgrounds when I was a kid, the ones that have since been torn out for not being safe. The spinner here was smaller, though, and shaped differently. Little ones can sit in a well in the middle, and safely be spun around. Pebble would have sat there all day! Older kids can sit on one of the flat sections or hang onto the sloped areas, while someone, usually a parent keeps it going.
My girls didn’t go on the younger kids’ equipment much, although Pebble checked out the music board. For the most part, they rotated between the swings, the giant playset, and the spinner. When they had worked up an appetite, we walked the path toward the fishing pier and the dog beach. Before reaching them, though, we made a right turn and took a path out to a small beach area used by people launching canoes and kayaks. This strip of beach isn’t too wide or too long, but it is the perfect spot for a picnic lunch. Swimming isn’t permitted, but I do let my kids take their shoes and socks off to hunt for shells and rocks. As it was March, we told the girls to stay out of the water. Do you remember in past posts how I mentioned my kids weren’t good at staying out of the water or wading? Yeah, they started playing a game, “don’t let the waves get you,” and all 3 were soon sandy, soggy, chilly messes.
Wet feet and clothes, plus a stiff breeze, meant no one ate much lunch. We ended up changing the younger two kids into dry clothes, and letting them loose again on the playground. I took Stormy to the ladies’ room to change there. The restroom isn’t close to the beach or the playground, but there are bathrooms easily accessible outside the Visitor Center. Due to the distance from the playground to the Center, I did have the portable on deck for Pebble, just in case.
While Stormy was changing, I browsed the Mother’s Garden nearby. Flowers were just starting to bloom here, and it was a beautiful and peaceful spot compared to the chaos of the playground. Once Stormy was ready, we returned to that chaos, and let the kids play a bit longer. Pebble doesn’t nap anymore, but she was definitely spiraling down! It was time to head home, get a cold drink, and relax a bit.
We had a fun family outing, and I am looking forward to many more visits to Downs Park this coming summer. My fingers are crossed that I can convince all 3 of my children to give the bike trails a try at some point. I would also like to walk out on the fishing pier, something we haven’t done yet, to see the view. On the map of the park there is a section labeled Aviary, and I’d like to see what that is, too. So many summer plans bubbling in my head, so many places to visit, and this park is def worth a trip or two or three! Happy trails!
