Margate Park

Margate Park is fantastic!  Located at 4921 N. Marine Dr. it is just a hop, skip and jump from Lake Shore Drive and the beach (and the dog beach and the dog park!).  The playground area of this park is pretty big with tons to do.  This is both wonderful and a little tricky.  Depending on the age of your kids it can be tough to keep an eye on everyone and I found myself doing a lot of chasing.  Big bonus here is that it is gated.

Margate Park playground has a great toddler area with four slides, a tunnel to climb through, a bridge to wobble across and block like stairs to climb over.  The big kid area has three or four bridges, slides, numerous things to climb and monkey bars among other things.  There was a huge game of tag going on the day we were there and it looked like the older kids were having a blast.

My only problem with the playground is one bridge on the big kid side that does not have much to keep a child from falling off of it.  One of the moms that I talked to said it was inevitable that every kid falls off that bridge at least once in their lifetime.  Well, that's reassuring!  

Love: parking lot (can be full, especially on Saturdays), picnic tables, grassy areas, bathrooms in the field house, rocks to climb on, lakefront breezes, huge space for running/jumping/chasing, tons of swings (2 handicapped), rubber surface, gated, drinking fountain, great decor (mosaic tiles, really cool stone animals, metal insects).

Hate:  hard to see all kids at once, flimsy bridge, hot slides in the summer, hard to get to all areas.

Special Feature:  1) Fire truck for the kids to play on. 2) An area that is intended to look like a pier in water with stone frog, turtle and snail, cute!

Big Kid side

Toddler side