La Jolla Recreation Center

Like most other public parks in San Diego County, La Jolla Recreation Center is a well placed and thought out space. This is such a great park! The playground is divided between one for the smaller ones, a swing area, and a bigger playground for the big kids. They have monkey bars, climbing walls, tire swings and about every other thing you need to keep a kid busy.
They also have a place to play racquetball, baseball/​kick ball, tennis, basketball, tetherball and more than enough space to fly a kite! They also have an auditorium and public (clean) bathrooms to use. We feel really safe allowing our daughter to play here. The «big» kids playground has fencing around three sides, giving you a little ease of mind if you are watching them from the outside.
We have been to birthday parties held at the park. There is plenty of space to host a whole party.
Parking has never really been an issue for us. There is always plenty of parking on either side of the park, even on busy days. Worse case, you have to walk a block. You are going to a park. I would hope this would not be an inconvenience.

Great recreation center in La Jolla. I love that it’s gated. There is always plenty of street parking available. They keep the grounds and restrooms clean. You can borrow sports equipment for use in the center, such as basketballs. There are 2 full courts for basketball, a large grass field (great for soccer practice), and 3 playgrounds– 1 for toddlers and the other 2 for older kids. Several picnic tables and benches line the playground area for plenty of spots to sit and watch the kids burn off a ton of energy. All in all, a great place!

The facility is great but the staff that sits on their behinds In the office has got to be the rudest group ever. If you hate kids and are so inconvenienced you have to get up to give sweet children balls to play with, why on Earth work at a rec center??? Go work at the DMV

this is a very clean, modest rec center. Great place to take your kids, they are sure to find and make a new friend while you shoot a few hoops, or work out in the gym. The gym equipment is all older, used, etc… but it all works the same as brand new equipment. Short walk to the Cove and the Seal Pool… aka the former Children’s Pool. Plenty of eats and drinks within a short walk. Relaxing place to hang out on a summer afternoon or after school with the kids.

FUN!
My boyfriend and I went here to use the restroom and kill time while waiting for our friends to show up for snorkeling at La Jolla Coves. Despite being a park bathroom, especially one that is near to the beach, the bathrooms were fairly clean. We also saw that there was a bin with basketballs and shot hoops for a little bit. There was also a tennis court, but we just stuck to basketball.
Seems like a nice, relaxing, family-​friendly place… and we did see some parents playing with their kids there. I’m a fan! :]

Great weekday place for the kids. This center makes it easy to relax and play with your kids.

Outdoor bball courts open till 10pm
Outdoor basketball courts open to the public

:-/​
Registering for 5k!
Yes, the La Jolla 5K…
I wasn’t so impressed with this place…
Were there areas to play with your kids?
Nothing stood out. And I felt caged in.
I guess I better get used to it.
cause I’ll be here again next year registering for the same event.
2 Woofs… Definitely experienced better.

Came by to pick up my race packet for the LJ5K.
Felt confined in the midst of downtown LJ. The building is dated, but suits the needs for the kids to play and adults to mingle.
Playground, basketball hoops, grassy area and room to roam. There is ample street parking along the neighboring streets. Next to the Tennis Club and not to far from the Museum.

This place rocks. It’s got everything you need to play with your kids, play a pick up game of ball, run around, etc. It’s even got a gym where you can do cardio and lift weights, if you’re so inclined. The gym is rather old and the machines aren’t brand new, but if you’re just looking for a good straight forward workout of cardio and strength training, you can’t beat this place and it’s cheaper than any other gym ($ 10 a month).
There’s usually a game of basketball going on and you’ll see the kids running around. Very family friendly and great community.

I had not been on a playground in many years, but my grandmotherly duty took me to the nearest playground during this Christmas season.
As far as free playgrounds go, this one is great. It is completely fenced in, but can be entered through different side gates. Parking is on the street, and there is usually a spot near the rec center unless the tennis club has a tournament, in which case it can be tricky to find parking nearby.
It has all the wonderful equipment to climb on, hang from, slide down, crawl through, swing on, and more.
There is the section for babies and toddlers with the baby-​sized swings and a structure with steps and slides and a tube to crawl through. The bigger section is for kids between 3 and 11. It has a large structure that consists of steps and stairs, bridges, towers, monkeybars, and slides. There are also separate swings. What more could a child wish for?
For the really big kids (and adults) there are basketball courts.
The first couple of times I visited this playground, it was quite busy. Must have been grandparent week, because the majority of the adults were grandparents. Yesterday it was mostly SAH moms talking on their cell phones and nannies with their charges in tow. Somehow made me think of the Nanny Diaries.
This rec center is an excellent use of taxpayer money. It is obviously well-​used and enjoyed.

Something about being in the atmosphere of wealth in La Jolla is conducive to a sort of internal transformation. A person who leads a comfortable lifestyle in reasonable prosperity, may begin to believe that he is underprivileged, and perhaps feel a slight resentment toward these opulent surroundings.
This phenomenon can be used to the advantage of a pickup basketball player. During those times when you’ve lost your swagger, and all those bullies, egos and trash talk at a typical playground have got you down, there can be no better remedy than a couple games amongst opponents who may possibly be perceived as «softer» than you. The experience can really provide that chip on the shoulder that has been missing from your game.
The basketball courts at the La Jolla Recreation Center are therefore worthy of mention. It begins before you even get out of your car. Maneuvering into a parking space between a Bentley and a Maserati, your perspective on life changes: Suppose that you departed from your home in a freshly washed Saturn, still under the manufacturer’s warranty. Well, you’ve now arrived in La Jolla, driving a vehicle that you may simply refer to as your «hooptie» (a large older automobile, often in poor condition).
«NO GOLF» is the message of the sign attached to a rugged chain link fence, overlooking the facility. These forbidding words are driven home, so to speak, by the image of a golf ball, overladen in red with the international symbol for «No». If there could be an opposite to a graffiti covered «No Hanging on the Rims» sign, this is it. Golf must be the main game here, most likely followed by tennis, with basketball pretty far down the list — after shuffle board and croquet. There is presumably little risk that the rims here will be bent by ferocious dunking in the absence of a prominent «no dunking» sign.
So even if you don’t have a lot of experience, you can be pretty bold on these courts. Start working on some of your still-​in-​development moves: Dribble through your legs, dribble through the defender’s legs, work on your off-​the-​backboard passing.
Best of all, there is a very real chance that you will break some rules while playing basketball here. «Pushing» is prohibited, according to the sign posted at center-​court, and sportsmanship must be maintained «at ALL Times», so it’s not out of the question that a generally law-​abiding person, with no criminal record, could get to experience rebellion against oppressive rules from The Man.
New experiences like this are invaluable in the formation of the playground basketball player, and hopefully, when it’s all over and you climb into your Saturn hooptie, your newly acquired rugged, rebellious edge will carry over to your home court. Just to be safe though, leave the off-​the-​backboard passing in La Jolla.