JP Howard

Awesome little neighborhood park. Literally a hidden gem, tucked away between houses. The neighborhood association and City do a great job of keeping it up. It is a bit small and crowds quickly.

The biggest thing to know is that there are a number of baby and toddler cars, scooters, walkers and such toys. Those have been left there by, I'm assuming, the neighborhood association. They are free to use. We definitely spent the first five minutes explaining to our toddler "not yours" without anyone mentioning the toys were park property, before noticing that no one was taking them as they left.

There was a swing set with and adult/older child swing next to a young child swing. A fun stegosaurus themed playset with dual slides aimed at younger children is set near the entrance. A larger play set with multiple climbing features, a couple steering wheels, and a corkscrew slide is opposite the stegosaurus and for older children. There are tons of benches and even a chess setup (bring your own pieces). We went during the winter, but during the summer there is a water feature that kids can activate that last for about 2 minutes and seems like it would be cool.

If you are with someone shopping at nearby stores like Warby Parker or the others around there, this little park is a great distraction for a bored child and only a block or two away. Check it out if you are around the lower U street/9th Street area.

This is a cool new playground that is a part of the Parks at Walter Reed development. Signage on the outside says for kids 2-12, and on the inside it says 5-12. There is not much for a two year old to do there. They can play in the sand pit and on the swings--even the small slide is built into an artificial hill that is too steep for a child that young to climb. There is a tunnel built into the hill that they would enjoy. Most of the other equipment incorporates ropes and climbing elements.

There are some good trees that provide shade for many of the benches, but not at all for the playground itself. On a day with the temperature at 76 degrees, it felt like it was in the 90's in the sun at the equipment. There is also some grassy area with shade that would make for a decent picnic spot.

That all said, this is a cool park that is probably better for 5 and up, though kids around 3 and up may have the coordination to take advantage of most of the equipment. The tiny Sunday Fresh Farm Farmers Market at the Parks is right next to it. And the parking is free plentiful for the time being. Not a bad park to check out.

This was a cool farmers' market to visit with family. While the balance tilts more toward prepared food, there is a great contingency of local regular, non-pesticide, and organic farm stalls offering a variety of produce. There were at least a couple Amish stalls, including dairy stalls. I saw two butchers present. One coffee shop and a small variety of brewers and a couple distillers.

Downtown Silver Spring is a pretty good melting pot too. You see a good variety of people in the crowd, from locals and Washingtonians to folks from the surrounding counties, all kinds of cultures, and humorous new-to-the-area yuppies who seem periodically upset/sad that they couldn't use Apple Pay at all the stalls. Immediately surrounding the market is all that Downtown Silver Spring has had to offer since it was finished in the early 2000's.

It's a cool scene and compares very favorably to most other pop-up farmers' markets that are actually in DC. Most of those are smaller and have less options and much less produce and actual whole foods, and are focused on craft items and food.

Shepherd Park is a wonderful little park with playsets for multiple age ranges of children. We took our son here and he had a ball. The small child equipment in the rear from the entrance was a lot of fun for him and the placement keeps young children far from where they could wander into serious trouble.

There are concrete rock areas and rope areas set up, a larger playset, covered picnic area, and benches. There is a large soccer field with synthetic turf set up adjacent to the play area, with a track around it. The Park is open from sun up to sun down and is popular.

It is part of a block sized development with a community center and Shepherd elementary. The children's subpark is on the Jonquil St. side, closest to 16th St., at the bottom of a hill. Very cool park to check out.

Beautiful park with a good track of uncertain distance. Gentle terrain that could give you some slight up and down hill. Cool pedestrian bridge over looking the train tracks. Two net tennis court, quarter basketball court, full basketball court (missing one rim 7-6-20). Play set for kids with mulch. Water fountain with kid level and dog level. Grass soccer field with goals (missing nets 7-6-20). Historic Blair House, many picnic tables, and otherwise just a large great grassy area. Another even more child oriented park is across Blair Rd. from the tennis court area, it has sand as the base. Great park.