Monday, March 21, 2011

Railroad Park

A couple of Saturdays ago, we headed out to Railroad Park.  (it is downtown off of 1st Ave S) and was such a great incorporation of  green space in downtown!

It is very close to a railroad switchyard and our boys were fascinated by the trains coming in and out.
 There is a paved trail all around the circumference of the park and it was great for bike riding (or jogging to keep up with bike riders!)
 There are also some very unique playground and fitness items that our kids had a blast playing on.
Not every day you get to play on parallel bars at the park.  Abby showed us many fancy tricks, including the mermaid!

 I'm not sure what you call this little machine, we called it the "running man" and they thought it was hilarious to run on.  Their little legs ended up going all sorts of directions!

 This huge spider web was the highlight for every kid in the park.  It was packed full of kids!  They loved being able to climb all over it!


 When we left the park Nathan said his favorite part was seeing the trains and airplanes.  Because downtown is so close to the B'ham airport we saw 6 or 7 airplanes take off and fly right over the park.  This little boy with the enormous eyes was in heaven.  He paused mid-sentence and watched one fly overhead!
 This was another fun climbing adventure!
 We called these the "dip baby dips" and while plenty of kids were zooming in and out of these on their bicycles, we made ours settle for the big wheel!  I'm not quite ready for bike jumping and ramping!

 Pause to check out an airplane that is flying overhead!  These dips were pretty fun to run through, too!
 speaking of running, the park really is a little boy's dream b/c not only do you see trains and airplanes, but there are very fun and unusual surfaces to climb and run all over.  Our boys ran up and down these a ton- for the mother, it is a little unnerving, Jay is good at reminding me that these types of accidents waiting to happen adventures are good for little boys!
 coming down full speed ahead!!
 taking a break to see a train pull in!
 it really was so cute to see how almost every little boy (and a lot of their daddys) took off from whatever they were climbing on to run up and watch when the trains come by.  All of these boys were on that semi-circle climbing and took off in a long row when this train pulled out!


Our kids have already mentioned going back to this park, so if you haven't gone, I would definitely give it a try!

4 comments:

jessica said...

I'm so glad you posted this! We will have to try it.

Nana Patty said...

These pictures and your rundown of the park are wonderful. Who wouldn't want to visit it after seeing this?

Jennifer Phillips said...

Look - I am linked to your blog! (you have to click on the About Me and then the blogs show up). Anyway, I got here, I'm commenting - looks like such a fun day! I heard about this place and wish we could have gone before we left. The kids would have loved it. They look bigger already!

The Baughers said...

this park looks so fun!! we'll definitely have to try it when we're in town. and I LOVE the pic of Nathan looking up into the sky-precious!!!