Fort Steilacoom Playground (324 Good Days in Tacoma)

We saw actual sun today, for a little while anyway. A perfect day for hanging out at Fort Steilacoom with some mama friends and our posse of little ones. If you haven't been to Fort Steilacoom in a few years, it's worth taking a look again.In the past two years, they've installed a massive castle-style playground complex, and a fenced off-leash dog park. There are also signs of continued improvements, including the recent addition of a climbing rock and a promise of real bathrooms in the near future. (Presently it's a port-a-potty situation, but you can find real bathrooms nearby in the sports fields) The playground area sports plenty of picnic tables and benches to hang out on, a separate section for very little kids, and cool features like listening tubes and chimes.

It's still a great place to go for a quiet walk along the trails, on the loop around the lake, or past the spooky ruins of the old Western State Mental Hospital.

Update: A couple of quibbles with this park. 1) Bathrooms have never materialized. It's been a couple of years now, and there's bbq'ing going on, too. Bring lots of sanitizer before you handle raw meat at this park. 2) The playground contains many blind spots which make it difficult to watch multiple small children 3) on a related note, the playground is not fenced, which also makes toddle-wrangling difficult. It's a beautiful park, but be aware of these issues and plan accordingly.