Since my blog last week about the ground-breaking for Flagler Grove Park I have written about one park each day until I covered all seven of them. I was and am excited about another new park coming to Pinecrest because parks are so vital to any community and add so much to the quality of life of this already dynamic, highly sought after community, already well known for it’s schools and recognized as one of the most beautiful communities in South Florida. My children are grown; and my grandchildren are far away; but I still love to see the happy children and families and hear the happy sounds that nice parks produce and see and experience the calm and peacefulness of the more passive areas. We can never have too much green space or too many parks.
Each of the current parks have their own special uniqueness that draws families to them:
Flagler Grove Park 7551 SW 104 Street across the street from Kendall United Methodist Church, where the 
patch will be coming October 18.
This special three acres will have lighted soccer fields, a playground,
a nice building, restrooms, parking spaces and wondrous green space for everyone to enjoy. Judging by the number of children wearing soccer uniforms that attended the ground-breaking ceremony, this park will be hosting a lot of soccer games.
Coral Pine Park 6955 SW 104 Street
One of the three original parks present when Pinecrest was
incorporated in in 1996, it is sometimes referred to as Coral Pine Park and Tennis Center because of it’s very heavily used six lighted tennis courts. The lush nine acres also has a playground, natural area, large all-purpose field and a great recreation center. An extremely popular park for children’s parties, nearly every week end you will see vendors there with bounce houses, pony rides, train rides and all sorts of children’s party equipment.
Veterans Wayside Park US 1 and SW 112 Street
Another of the three original parks present when Village of Pinecrest
was incorporated in 1996, this 4.5 acre respite is a passive park with a small fresh water lake, open recreation areas and picnic tables scattered throughout. Wonderful improvements are presently in progress. A water fountain, a flag pole and a real Veterans Memorial are being put in place. A memorial service is already planned for Veterans Day, November 11, 2007 at 11:00
Suniland Park 12855 S. Dixie Highway 
This is the third park already present when Village of Pinecrest was
incorporated. This incredibly busy park has been renovated and rebuilt since being deeded to Village of Pinecrest. It features multipurpose athletic fields, basketball courts, great lighting, batting cages, a recreation center and gazebo with WI-FI, a tot lot and a jogging /walking path. It’s the location for many Khoury League baseball games and Pop Warner Football games plus numerous other athletic activities – even roller hockey.
Evelyn Greer Park SW 124 Street 
This 10 acre beautiful gem sits on the site of a previous unattractive
trailer park. It’s a very active park with athletic fields for softball and soccer, batting cages, a covered tot lot, and a recreation center and community gazebo with a WI-FI-SPOT. Parenting Magazine highlighted this park in 2005 as having “one of South Florida’s Best Playgrounds.”
Red Road Linear Park E. side of Red Rd, SW 88 to SW 111 St.
When I wrote about this park I said it was the only park in Village of 
Pinecrest that doesn’t have a sign. I was wrong. All the other parks have big attractive signs clearly visible from the road. Actually, this very unique park has a small dedication marker sitting low on one of the low coral rock walls at the south entrance. I guess it is more in keeping with the low profile of this park. It’s 2.5 miles long, very skinny, since it is between Red Road and the Snapper Creek Canal and is used for walking, jogging, biking or as a place to just hum a happy tune.
Pinecrest Gardens (11000 Red Road)
Although this is Pinecrest’s newest park, the site has been a major
tourist attraction since the 1930’s when the world famous Parrot Jungle was founded. It’s unique and breathtakingly beautiful tropical grounds with winding paths, caves, natural streams and hammocks, as well as the numerous activities – Splash-n-Play, petting zoo, butterfly garden, playground, fun and enrichment classes for all ages, other special programs, and community events, to name just a few – truly make this the crown jewel of the of Pinecrest park system.
These parks all together offer so much to all those who use them, richly improving the quality of life in this already high quality, very desirable community. It’s no wonder that everyone wants to live here!
Tomorrow I’ll tell you about construction going on adjacent to Pinecrest Gardens; and the following day I’ll write about how the parks are managed.