The Creative Playground at Under the Oaks Park

Aurora on The Creative Playground

Of course I couldn't resist sharing an experience involving "creative" in the name, right?  Aurora and I were headed to Panama City Beach to meet up with some fellow vacationers from Tennessee this week when we ran across Under the Oaks Park just off the coast of Florida.  What drew us off the highway onto a detour was initially the massive amount of Spanish Moss dangling from the trees filling this waterfront park.  To our surprise, we also found The Creative Playground to run around and get some wonderful pictures!

In 1993, P.C. Juniors coordinated the construction of a 10,000 square foot “Creative Playground” at Under the Oaks Park on Tyndall Parkway in Callaway. It took more than three years to raise the $70,000 needed to construct the project.  The five-day barn-raising-style project resulted in a multi-level wooden structure of interconnecting tunnels, ramps, bridges, ladders and overhead rings. The designer, New York architects Robert Leathers and Associates, used suggestions of more than 1,800 Bay County elementary school children to shape the playground. As a result, it includes a pencil tower, pirate ship, and covered picnic area. In addition to the unusual elements included in the playground, it has two swing sets, four types of slides, a big sandbox and balance beams... Click HERE to read MORE at the Panama City Juniors' Website who organized this project!

It was a thrill to run around like kids in this maze-like structure with slides, shoots and room for your imagination to run wild.  I found it especially touching that the local community here came together to build such a joy which is free and open to the public. Here are several more pictures from the Park...

There's a wheel in there like you're steering a ship!

Our little friend followed us around harassing us for a tip after he gave his photo op!

More of the stunning Spanish Moss