“You wanna go where? Well sure, it’s just not a place a lot of tourists ask to go.” The driver of the tuk-tuk taxi was friendly, just surprised that a mom and her 3 year old wanted to go to a random park in the middle of a neighborhood of all places in Lisbon. Wynne and I had walked down the two stories of weathered wooden stairs from our apartment a couple hours before and wound up the hill through impossibly narrow cobblestone alleys with precariously close balconies overhead until we reached the Jardim da Cerca da Graça, a spot that had just happened to come up when I searched for “playground” in Google Maps. . As it turned out, it reminded me a lot of Dolores Park in San Francisco, both with its sweeping view of the city, mix of locals and their dogs lounging around in the grass and, as advertised, a great playground for kids. I’d texted Ann right away to come meet us. . Meanwhile, I boosted Wynne up to pick oranges from the high branches, the “low hanging fruit” have since been claimed on the 20 or 30 trees scattered around the playground, and when we needed something more substantial, we walked over to the kiosk cafe in the middle of the park. We shared a huge ham and cheese sandwich (with butter, of course) and I had a glass of homemade ice tea with mint and fresh orange slices, all for 3€. At the BiRite down the block from Dolores Park, I would have paid $10 minimum. . When Ann and Mae showed up, the girls played “Magic Treehouse” on the log-cabin style play tower before moving to the awesome water table while Ann and I went round and round in our usual discussions of the benefits of “home” vs spontaneous experiences like these. . #travelwithkids #familytravel #playgroundtourists #lisbon #portugal
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