McDonald Park

McDonald Park is a small quiet park that features a lake right in the middle, and a tiny water park inside too. From what I’ve seen the water park is well taken care of and is great for the kids. There is a lot of history here, and I’m not going to get into it since Cid P. did a excellent job of covering all those details in his review. I enjoy stopping by this park for a walk every once in a while, or when I’m on a jog around the neighborhood. It’s mostly not that busy, and the only people that really hang out during the weekdays are the locals across the apartments. The park does get busy, and pretty packed if you do come by on a Saturday or Sunday every pavilion will be packed with people celebrating birthdays, and such.

Oaky park. Doesn’t really have a lot of space but it is good to walk around in. They close pretty early.

This is an amazing park that I’m surprised nobody has Unilocaled yet. The waterpark? That’s on Unilocal already. But the park itself is beautiful. «Technically,» however, not a different entity but, I can see how that got Unilocaloed separately. It’s amazing, but, we’ll get to that later since I’ve only seen it from afar.
Right in the middle of this park, a pretty large body of water that is not accessible to the public is there. It’s fenced in. Honestly? I don’t blame them. By now someone would have drowned already. Probably someone already has.
I can’t compare this park to any other. It’s quite unique in its own right. I guess if you’re looking for trees, yes there are trees, but, you don’t come here for shade. You come here for their pavilions. Anytime I have been at this park is because someone I know reserved one for their party. At least in my case, it has always been for a cumpleaños of a youth.
Surrounding the park are some government buildings, that are surrounded by low income housing, that are surrounded by the nicer larger Hialeah lakefront homes, that is walking distance to the more expensive neighborhood to our north named, Town of Miami Lakes.
I’m going to go on a mission to find the date it was built and who it’s named after. Acquiring that information has always interested me but, I rarely think about it since I rarely drive around here. This area isn’t relatively close to where I live. So, unless passing through, it’s rare that I’m in this area.
For as far back as I can remember, it has always been surrounded by low income housing. Which, may explain why one of the government buildings surrounding this park is a police precinct. Also, within my lifetime, this area got rather sketchy for a while. Again, possibly explaining the newly built precinct for our much loved Hialeah Five-​O.
See, this entire park got a very much needed overhaul. I wasn’t living in Hialeah when it happened. I was living somewhere else, can’t remember where, then, I moved to Texas. When I came back, I was invited to some festivity here. Oh darn it, I haven’t been here just for cumpleaños. I was here for a Baby Shower too. Oh well, I don’t feel like deleting anything I typed already.
Anyway, before then the park was starting to look forgotten. I, too, will try to gather the information on who was responsible for the overhaul. It’s a politician I’m sure. This is Hialeah. Historically, everything in Hialeah is tied to a politician. So, I don’t even have to ask that. Just the «who,» though. But in case one of them reads my Unilocal,I don’t know what you’re talking about.
One thing I noticed today was how busy this park is during the day. I was here on a Wednesday a little bit after 3:00 p.m. and except for the tennis courts, there was someone here using one of the things this park has to offer. Mostly, the trail that surrounds the lake that was being used by sweaty overweight pedestrians and bicyclists thinking they were on a mountain because there is a slight incline here or there.
Then for the first time, I looked inside that water park. Which, is only accessible from inside this park. I have no information about it other than if I was a kid, I would be in Heaven here. You know those «I think I am a real river rafting body of water ‘things?’ «Well, it’s like that but for kids yet large enough for a parent to go inside with their little one who is still fresh on Planet Earth. Very nice and surprisingly clean.
and, that’s all I have to say about that.
Things to note and blah, blah, blahs:
* Parking — You have a small parking area, you have curbside parking and, you have «I’m going to park aquí mismo porque yo soy de Hialeah y me sale de la pinga parquear aquí.» What I’m trying to say is, good luck when this park is really being used, don’t block anyone and most importantly, remember, the Po-​Po is like right there. Also, this is still considered a sketchy area, don’t leave anything valuable visible to any passerby and lock your doors. Sorry, I ain’t gonna lie to you. At the park or walking? You «shouldn’t» have any problems with that. With the parked vehicle showing a possible valuable? Yeah, better safe than sorry even if the Po-​Po is like, right there.
* This park is a local favorite and although they don’t like to admit it, used by residents that live in the more expensive «Town» to our north.
* From friends that have used this park, a reservation for one of the pavilions is a must.
Fun Fact: Back in the 80s while in High School, I used to go to some projects near this park to buy Cannabis from someone I knew that was getting it for free from the government. She had some disease or «something.» I didn’t care at the time what she had. I was young. I just wanted her Cannabis. She ended-​up passing away. We LOLed quite a bit while under the influence of her «you know what.» I made her crack-​up with my silliness.
May you R.I.P. Very nice lady she was.