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Exploring Fox Park In Oak Park, Illinois

August 21, 2012 by 4 Comments

If you’ve been keeping up with the blog, by now you know that we have finally made our move and landed in the Chicago area.  After three trips looking for a home that would meet our needs, we finally settled on a property in the Oak Park area.  The area is amazing and there is so much to do, I’m a bit overwhelmed.  You see, I moved from a city with a handful of parks and not a lot of activities for kids or adults.  Since I now have all these wonderful resources, I have made it my personal mission to take my daughter to every park in the Oak Park district.  Our first stop – Fox Park.

The park district has an excellent website that shows you where each park is in relation to the city. It also lists the features of each park such as the size, if there is a tot park, softball fields, splash pads, etc.  What it doesn’t give you is the anecdotal information about the location of the park, the condition of the equipment or how comfortable a person new to the area might feel.  I realize that everyone has a difference of opinion and that’s important to take into account when reading this post.  My experiences are just one of many.

Fox Park is located at 640 S Oak Park Ave. It’s definitely a small park with a true neighborhood feel. I could tell by the conversations from the parents, they live in the area and meet here quite frequently.  Aside from the wheelchair accessible ramp, the park is completely enclosed with aluminum fencing, which gives this mom a sense of security. Most of the families visiting came by the way of strollers, wagons and bicycles.
The equipment consists of two playground sets, a small splash pad and a sand pit.  One playground set is for kids ages 2-5 and the other set for ages 5-12.  The set for the younger kids has two side-by-side slides and the other set has 2 slides along with many different climbing structures.  In my personal opinion, kids any older than 7 probably aren’t going to enjoy playing on the equipment for more than a few minutes.  My 3-year old was completely comfortable playing on the equipment geared for older children and ran back and forth between the two playsets.  The splash pad is very small with limited fountains. If you’re main reason for going to the park is to play in a splash pad, I would probably recommend going some place else.  As much as I despise sand (or the mess that it makes), my daughter loves it so I was happy to see she could actually manuever the sand dozers (what I call them, I’m sure it’s not the official name).
What I probably loved most about the park was I felt safe.  Since I am still learning the area, it was nice to see diversity without diversity being a bad word.  In the past two weeks when dealing with real estate agents, I’ve learned when they mention an area is diverse, it usually means it’s not a place that I would feel safe living.  While this part of town might not be as diverse as others, we were happy to see Hispanic and African-American families, as well as a same-sex couple all with their beautiful children.
Will I go back to Fox Park?  Definitely.  It’s close to where I live, parking is easy to come by and because the park is small and fenced in, I can go there with my daughter by myself and not feel like my dander has to be up 100% of the time.
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About Sarah

Sarah is a wanna-be DIYer who lives in the Chicago area with her spunky 3-year old daughter and her two crazy canines. Currently attending graduate school pursuing her MHA, she works FT in the healthcare industry. Join her as she manages corporate life, being a corporate wife and the best mommy she can be!

Comments

  1. Emily T says:
    August 21, 2012 at 9:43 am

    Yay! You are already exploring the area. Is the splash pad in one of those photos? I wasn’t sure what a splash pad was. Funny how playground equipment (and the surface it rests on) has changed since we were kids.

    Reply
    • Sarah says:
      August 21, 2012 at 10:42 am

      No, I couldn’t take a picture of it because there were kids all around and I try not to have other people’s kids in pictures I’m using in a blog post. A splash pad is basically a few fountains that come up from the ground. This one had a whale and the water I believe shot out of it’s spout.

      Reply
  2. CinnyBBS
    Twitter:
    says:
    August 22, 2012 at 2:52 pm

    Oohh, looks like you guys have some fun parks in your area!

    Reply
  3. Laila says:
    August 26, 2012 at 8:45 pm

    That’s not far from me! Glad you enjoyed the park.

    Reply

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