Best Park
Penguin Park
Penguin Park looks like it was built from a child's imagination. The playground is filled with gigantic statues of exotic animals that can be climbed: a 20-foot-tall kangaroo with an internal staircase that lets kids look out of it's pouch, an oversized penguin with a small slide at its base, and a towering elephant holding up a raised gangplank that connects to a tube slide. There are also smaller elephant statues for kids to climb. The water fountain is shaped like a penguin. The play area has all the necessities of a traditional park -- barbecue grills, picnic tables, merry-go-rounds, swing sets, open-grass fields -- but it's been designed smarter, with playground equipment grouped according to age; more inclusive, with a hand-propelled swing set for use by wheelchair-bound children; and safer, with a padded, rubbery turf that lets kids who fall down get up even faster.