Kohlmann Park - Waverly, IA

Since I was set on playing at a park, and it was still a long time until supper, we got Emily's shorts changed and headed to Kohlmann Park (aka "The Music Park").  Kohlmann Park is located on the west bank of the Cedar River and spans 4 blocks starting at Bremer Avenue.  It is considered the "town square" of Waverly and holds many city events and festivals including the Summer Concert Series featuring the Greater Waverly Municipal Band.  They apparently create an ice rink in the winter there, too.

We've been to Kohlmann Park several times, but I haven't documented it before.  There are a couple reasons why Emily refers to it as "The Music Park."  One is because of the painted grand piano underneath one of the shelters.  Although it is missing some black keys, the foot pedals don't move and the extreme ranges are quite out of tune, it still plays pretty well.  I can even bang out recognizable versions of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (Var. D), Honeybee and Go Tell Aunt Rhody from way back in my Suzuki piano days. :o)

The original reason Emily dubbed it "The Music Park" was because of the bells on the play equipment. Those suckers are loud! There is a video in the video player.

Emily also likes playing "store" at the counter below the bells and using the rocks as money.

Kohlmann Park has nice, brand new play equipment, shelters, benches and winding walking paths along the river because everything was flooded in 2008.

This is Lincoln ready to dig a hole to China!

The views along the river are spectacular.  The water was pretty high today.  The old railroad bridge going across the river has been incorporated into the Waverly Rail Trail, which is a paved walk/bike path that runs all the way to Denver.  I hope to bike it someday when the kids are a little older and I actually own a bike!

I tried to get a cute picture of the kids sitting on a bench by the river, but Emily refused to look at the camera and Lincoln wouldn't sit still.  Surprise, surprise!

Check out Emily's park prowess climbing the rock wall in flower flip-flops and a khaki skirt!

And her stunning hair-do courtesy of many trips down the slide (the bottoms were all dry, but we took an old towel along just in case).

Emily also made two new friends, twin girls named Gabby & Gracie.  They live just down the street, so if we go back to Kohlmann Park often enough we'll probably meet them again. :o)

 

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