Jacob Park

After a disappointing trip to the Sunken Garden Park we needed to find a park to play at for the day.  We headed to Jacob Park (N. Virginia and W. Leland) only to be disappointed again.  I don't like "talking badly" about parks.  I completely understand that there is most likely a group of people who are fond of Jacob Park, whether it be a park they visited while growing up or because it is their neighborhood park of today.  Unfortunately, part of my job as a park reviewer is to voice my honest opinion about a park and this one was lacking.

The first thing that was tough was the wood chipped ground.  My 4-year-old kept getting wood chips stuck in her sandals and my almost 2-year-old struggled to keep his little body upright.  I know that not all parks can be renovated and new, but wood chips are the worst.

The park is very small and looked very sad with a broken swing hanging from one chain.  We honestly didn't stay very long because my older kid didn't think it was very fun, she wanted to know where all the things were to play on.  Bummer.  Of course my youngest was having a good time, running as fast as he could across a bridge that I could have sworn he was going to fall off of.

Love:  lot's of trees, nestled right next to the river (no access however), cute neighborhood, plenty of street parking.

Hate:  small, limited equipment, no bathrooms, wood chips, unsafe areas (broken swing, uneven ground).

Special feature:  Cute little boat to play on.

My pictures did not come out very well due to the shade of all of the trees:

Sunken Garden Park

I pick our weekly park outings very randomly.  Sometimes I target a specific area, while other times I go by special features (water spouts, sandboxes etc.).  For this park I chose it based on the name alone.  Sunken Garden Park sounds really cool. I imagined a park slightly lower than the rest of the ground creating a sunken area to play in, maybe some really nice natural elements such as rocks for climbing and beautiful, gardened landscaping. I really felt we were going on a great adventure as we headed to our destination.  THIS is the Sunken Garden Park:

Located at N. Virginia and W. Sunnyside in the Ravenswood Garden neighborhood you will find this TINY green space, complete with 4 benches.  Not quite the Sunken Gardens I thought we were going to find.  The best part is that the Chicago Park District website describes this park as one meant for "passive recreation."

We were so passive we decided to skip it.