bridges and fountains and sprayparks, oh my!
July 3rd, 2009
The Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge opened about a year ago, spanning the Missouri River between Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa. I guess it’s the first pedestrian bridge to connect two states, which is kinda cool. We decided to go check it out.
Annalie was thrilled to be there, can you tell? Mostly she was hot and impatient. There’s a really cool fountain for kids to play in at the base of the bridge, and she knew we were heading there after we walked out to the middle of the bridge.
I remember when I was in high school in the early 1990s there was a little walkway in this same area that just went out over the river a few yards, like a lookout point. I think they were even talking way back then about making it into a pedestrian bridge, which I thought was a great idea. When I was a kid, every time we drove across the Mormon Bridge I would think about how cool it would be if we could walk on it, but it was and is a cars-only bridge. I enjoyed the chance to finally walk over the Mighty Mo.
Annalie just enjoyed getting off the bridge and getting to the fountain!
Annalie loves playing in fountains and sprinklers. One of the things we missed most last summer, after we moved here from Maryland, was the sprayground in our town. So we were quite excited when we recently discovered a really nice park not far from our house with a FREE sprayground!
It’s a neat one, too, designed to look like an ocean filled with sea creatures. There are fish and dolphins and an octopus, and some of the poles and fountains and water guns are arranged so they look kind of like a pirate ship. My favorite, though, is the orca fountain. The fountain is the blowhole!
Spraygrounds: they make kids happy.
Which makes moms happy.
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Hopefully, Noah will figure out the walking thing this summer, and then we’ll come visit you and your sprayground!
I know what you mean about wanting to walk across bridges. I had always wanted to walk across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in MD… I got my wish back in 2006 when I did a 10k run across the bridge. They do a walk and a 10k run every year across the bridge, weather and security permitting.
Spray parks are always a hit with us too.
You are looking particularly foxy in that last photo, my dear ;)
The zoo in our town just renovated the kids area, it has a huge playground with “treehouse” (made of plastic), a bunch of ropes strung around that kids can play on like monkeys and a big log slide. Included in this renovation was a sprayground with big sea animals coming out of the ground. It rocks. It is the coolest thing ever. I am so jealous of the little kids!
That’s a cool bridge, makes for some nice photos.
Glad Annalie had fun at the sprayground! The fountain as the blowhole is a nice touch!
Great shades in the last pic!
Spraygrounds (I know them by the name “splashpad”) are awesome. There were several free ones in Phoenix when we visited there just a few weeks ago, and I was so thankful for them! (I bet the parents of Phoenix are too, esp. in the HOT HOT summers!)
Hi Bethany!
I’ve been following your blog for some time now. I once stumbled upon your recipe for vanilla extract and have been reading ever since. Just wanted to say: keep on writing and photographing!
Man, that sprayground is smokin’ hot!
Is Annalie going through a growth spurt? Her legs look so long!!
Also, that sprayground looks like so much fun. I wish they had cool stuff like this when I was a kid. Or that, if they did, I KNEW ABOUT IT.
My little guy LOVES water and I bet he’d enjoy a sprayground. I haven’t really found one near us yet (Univ City). How far is that one? (If I remember correctly you’re in a diff area of the county than we are.)
Is it just me, or is your child getting VERY TALL?
I love that last photo of you! Lookin’ good, girl!
I love the photo of you at the end – looking so pretty and sophisticated … and DRY!