Thursday, September 8, 2011

Labor Day at Gray's Lake

So far, we've spent most of our time in Des Moines getting our house in order, so it was a pleasant change to take some time off on Labor Day to explore our new city.

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Spaghetti Works in the Court Avenue distric was family-friendly and affordable.
We started out by looking downtown for a family-friendly place to eat.  We discovered that several places were closed for the holiday, but finally ended up at Spaghetti Works in the Court Avenue District.  We could see kids all at nearly every table as we walked in, so we were thrilled to find a place where we wouldn't have to continually try to keep our kids quiet and sitting.  We also found that kids eat free on Mondays -- double bonus!

Next, we headed to Gray's Lake to see what was there and just to enjoy the absolutely gorgeous weather.  The lake is beautiful and has a hiking trail that includes a bridge over the water, a boat and bike rental facility, lovely shaded picnic areas, and an impressive playground.  Of course, the first thing we had to do was stop at the playground so Henry could play while George and I hung out under a shady tree.

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George had fun at the lake even though he was too small for the playground.


Once Henry was satisfied with the playground, we hiked over the bridge and had ice cream at the boat house. 

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The bridge offers a nice view of downtown Des Moines.


Overall, it was a beautiful way to spend an afternoon, and now I want to get a bike so we can spend some time on the trails. I'll just need to figure out how to take George on a bike ride. Let me know if you have any ideas for safely transporting a baby on a bike.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, it is quite beautiful there!

    Hmm, about the baby and bicycle question, it seems to me the only one that looks safe are those carriers that get pulled along behind the bicycle.

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  2. George is such a mini-Brenda!

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