The Great Bike Ride - Part 2

After leaving the baseball stadium, I thought we'd just continue along the river trail and visit some of the parks where you could play on swings, slides, etc. But we soon found out that springtime Saturdays in Davenport are filled with lots of things to do... the Quad Cities are quite family-friendly.

Just east of the stadium was the weekly outdoor Farmers' Market filled with hundreds of adults, kids, and -- you guessed it -- dogs inspecting the goods for sale. The whole area was just buzzing with activity. Soon we heard the sounds of a Dixieland jazz band approaching... it was a seven-piece band on parade through the middle of the market! We watched in awe as they marched right past us -- and the bandleader even draped a beaded necklace around your head!


Adjacent to the Farmers' Market was a pretty sweet playland that was just filled with little kids playing. You enjoyed climbing, swinging, and playing on what I'd describe as the most avant-garde children's playground I've ever seen.


A hand crank? A slide with no sides? Little toddler toadstools on giant springs? This was less a playground than a modern art exhibit. Score one for Iowa originality.


From the Farmers' Market and playground, we continued east to downtown and a huge lawn covered with ducks. A nice lady gave us bread and we chucked a bunch of it in the direction of a very sedate flock of ducks resting in the grass. I think they were already stuffed with bread as they hardly bothered to move for their free lunch. Nevertheless, you struck a very noble pose for the camera.


Another couple miles to the east and we took a break for an applesauce snack as the wind started to pick up a bit. The weather must've changed its mind a dozen times that morning and afternoon: sunny and calm, then overcast, then gale force winds, then back to sunny and calm... lather, rinse, repeat.

Daddy