6060 Hefley St, Westminster, CA 92683
Hours: Sunday-Thursday (6 AM-10 PM) Friday (5:30 AM-12:30 AM) Saturday (6 AM-10:30 PM)
Restrooms? Yes. Located in the grassy area behind playground
Playground Surface: Rubber
Parking Lot? No. Street parking only
Gated/Fenced? No
Overview
The rather small, Margie L. Rice Park, makes up for what it lacks in size with the incredible details that make its playground so great. Located in the city of Westminster, this park is one of the best fire fighter themed playgrounds one will ever find. Another neat, additional aspect of this park, is that the local fire station is located directly across the street.
Although by no means large, there is however, a reasonable amount of lawn space for visitors to stretch their legs. The fire truck playground is the shining light of this park and has enough interesting areas to keep kids busy for some time. Outside of the small size of the park, the only other downfall here is the constant sights and noise from the highway in the near distance. Overall, this is a really fun park that kids and families are especially sure to love.
Features
Fire Department themed playground directly across the street from Fire Station No. 65
- Fire department play structure with a fire truck pulling out of it
- Fireman’s extension ladder leading to play structure, a snake arch ladder climber, and a fireman’s pole
- 3 slides including a spiral slide
- Rock wall with a rope chain, bubble climbing wall and a spider-web net climber
- Dalmation dog with sensory toys and fire hydrant with sensory toys as well as musical sensory toys
- Fire truck spring jumper (with 2 seats), spinner and play bench underneath main structure
- 2 baby (bucket) swing and 1 bench swing
Other Amenities
- Reasonably sized lawn area. Picnic Shelter and picnic tables
Scout’s Story
Today would be another day of my wife and I attempting to get our daughter, Scout, outside to play while limiting her contact with others. As I have written about so many times now, Scout has been battling stage 4 cancer (germ cell neoplasm) for nearly 4 months now.
We are currently at a stand still in Scout’s treatment as we await P.E.T scans on her tumors to determine our next steps in her treatment. The difficult part has been getting the scans as we are having to go to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the waiting period was originally 6 weeks. On our first attempt to get the scans Scout’s blood sugar was too low (most likely from fasting) so they couldn’t do the scans and we had to reschedule and wait another 5 weeks to get in. That is currently where we are in this process and we are very anxious to just move forward in this battle.
As our lives are currently centered around Scout’s battle and ridding her of these cancerous tumors, normal daily activities have become a bit of a foreign activity to us. Luckily, Scout was now more than a month removed from her last chemo treatment and her blood counts and levels were steady enough that we felt comfortable taking her outside. On this day, we would be meeting up with Scout’s Grandma and Grandpa, who would be visiting from Arizona. On our drive to meet them we elected to stop at a few parks and let Scout play as if she were a normal, healthy kid.
Scout’s Day at Margie L. Rice Park
After a few early morning stops to let Scout play, we had finally reached the tail end of our morning excursions. Next stop would be to meet up with grandma and grandpa. But before heading their way, we would make one last stop at the fire truck playground at Margie L. Rice Park. After making our way over to the playground, Scout crawled her way up to the main structure. She made her way across the walkways but surprisingly wanted nothing to do with the slide. Then, again, she surprisingly wanted nothing to do with the fire truck spring jumper.
Finally, Scout darted towards the one thing she loves most. The baby swings. We pushed her for what seemed to be an eternity until we reached that moment that every parent dreads. We reached down and attempted to remove Scout from the baby swing.
She wrapped her legs and hooked her ankles like an mma fighter. The screaming began and I gave in and let her swing for another few minutes. While this doesn’t happen a lot, it hurts my heart when it does. Eventually, my wife made it clear that enough was enough and I calmly attempted to extract Scout from the swing, coercing her to the lawn area to play before heading to the car.
At last, we were on our way to meet up with grandma and grandpa and spend a few relaxing days letting them hang out with Scout.
December 7, 2022
