MAKING A SPLASH

July 12, 2008
Who: Arts writer Joanna Weiss and her (almost) 4-year-old daughter, Ava
What: Playing in the fountain
Where: North End Parks at the Rose Kennedy Greenway

I've never understood why people rag on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Even if the place were filled with scrubby grass and tumbleweeds, it would be a vast improvement on what was there before. As it happens, Boston's newest landmark is much better than that - especially for kids. And the best feature of all is the long, low fountain that extends across the North End Parks, stretching along either side of Hanover Street.
The centerpiece is made of flat, grooved granite pavement, perfect for avoiding slippage and dotted with jets of water that shoot high into the air. It operates all summer, from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. And on a weekend afternoon, it's bound to be filled with kids of different ages, splashing around in glee. Ava (right) was cautious the first time she saw it, but before long she was sticking her head directly into the jets, then dancing across them like a maniac.
If you don't feel like getting soaked yourself, you can monitor the fun from a grassy lawn - preferably with a picnic lunch - or watch more regally from tables and chairs set beneath an adjacent pergola. It's the perfect urban setting, in the shadow of the Union Oyster House and the Zakim Bridge. (And the TD Banknorth Garden, but that can't be helped.) And best of all, it's free - unless your child, like mine, demands a balloon animal from the street vendors at nearby Faneuil Hall. On a sunny summer day, who could say no?
[Joanna Weiss]

Copyright © 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

Contact:

Nancy Brennan
Rose Fitzgerald Kenney Greenway Conservancy
617-292-0020
info@rosekennedygreenway.org