Kew Gardens

I was very excited Friday afternoon, C and I were planning a trip to Riverside Park. A park that seems to get people pretty excited. But the best laid plans are no match for erratic weather. As I have some difficulty parking in the garage, I left my car out on the street, as I came into my apartment I heard a booming crack, and then a thud, as a huge branch hit the ground. That sealed the deal, C and I agreed that the combination of the black clouds overhead, and the powerful winds meant that Riverside Park was out of the question.

However, I owe you a park review, and it occurred to me that I never did post a review of our trip to Kew Gardens.

Kew Gardens is out in the east end. You'll see here that it has a gorgeous gazebo, they use this during the Beech Jazz festival too, the musicians are in the gazebo and they arrange chairs in front. You will see that Cadie escaped my grasp here, but this is technically not an off-leash zone.

This photo may be harder to see, but here you see a lawn bowling club, and beyond it the lake, what you may not see too well is the boardwalk, and sort of lost in the mix is the off leash area.

I don't know if you remember it, but the day Cadie ate a stick of butter she found a beach ball, and I hid it in the closet. I knew we were headed to the beach, and I wanted her to have something to play with when we got there. I'm glad that I kept it for her. This beach ball gave her minutes of fun...about 3. She chased it and lunged at it and grabbed at it, and then it deflated, so I threw it out, it was a no brainer.

The dog park is huge, at least as large as Sunnybrook, but, at least twice as spectacular. There is a lot of sandy space for dogs to run and catch balls, or wrestle with each other, but it's right on the lake, so more often than not we passed people sunbathing with their dogs. Cadie and I went with C, her brother D and of course Toby.


It was very windy that day too, so I was very worried that Cadie would want to go swimming, and I had forgotten her life jacket, so there was no way I was going to let her go in. Fortunately, as always, Cadie was far more interested in chasing after her ball then in going into the water.



It was a hot day, and truthfully both dogs were really struggling with this trip. It seems counter intuitive, but I don't think this park is really suitable for a hot day. The off leash area is completely sandy, while the grassy area is shady and cool, it is reserved for on leash dogs and people. Sand doesn't hold cooler temperatures as well as grass, and there were very few trees, and no water fountain that I could see, so it was even hotter there than our regular walk. We did stop on our way back to the car to enjoy the cool shade, we were all very pleased to sit for a minute on a park bench.

That being said, it was great to get out and play in a new park. I think we would definitely go back The cherry on the cake was the fabulous view!