If you haven’t visited French Park in Plymouth, I highly recommend checking it out sometime – while it’s still fun to be outside and the s-word (the white stuff from the sky) isn’t flying yet (quick – think warm, sunny thoughts again now).
I’ve taken my kids here a couple times and the pics here are from a visit with Thor in August (hence all the GREEN). It was a lovely day, Heidi was at Vacation Bible School, and Thor and I had some time to find some frugal fun to fill the time. So we checked out French Park, had a picnic lunch on the nice benches, and Thor burned off a bunch of energy on the creative play area.
French Park is part of the Three Rivers Park District, and it’s located on the north side of Medicine Lake. In the summer the beach is a must – the lake is big enough for boats to race around but also makes a great swimming beach on hot days.
There’s a beautiful visitor center here complete with concessions (open seasonally) and event spaces you can book. I played keyboard actually for a CD release party here a few years ago and the space worked great.
The creative play area consists of large, connected wooden structures and nets, plus of course all the usual playground musts including slides but also ropes and monkey bars. Much of it is for bigger and adventurous kiddos, but some can be mastered by the younger ones (there are a couple of baby swings and a sand digger).
There are a number of nice, shaded picnic tables where families can enjoy a meal as we did. I visited on a weekday this time, which wasn’t very crowded, but I imagine weekends can get pretty busy on nice, sunny days.
A SPECIAL MONEY-SAVING PERK
When visiting the French Park Visitor Center, I discovered coupon books for businesses in Hennepin County in a free book you can pick up called the “Choose to Reuse” coupon book. It’s available from www.hennepin.us/choosetoreuse and is filled with coupons from local reuse retailers including thrift shops like Arc’s Value Village & secondhand shops like Once Upon a Child. The coupons are good through October 31st, 2014 so be sure to pick up a copy soon!
French Park is located at 2605 Rockford Road, Plymouth, MN 55441.