A late summer picnic in an Iowa state park

The last weekend of August, we decided to go for a dinner picnic at Kent State Park just northwest of Iowa City. We had been out there a couple times before. We found the ultimate playground with no fewer than 7 slides. We had it to ourselves the majority of the time we were there. Joel grilled up some hotdogs as we played. And we sat down and ate. Well, Wally sat down briefly now and then, but ate it all gone.

Like all state parks should have, there was a drinking fountain located in the middle of the nicely mowed grass.

Mmm...hotdogs!

After our picnic we drove to the beach in the park for some serious sand castle and pond building.

Hands made great claws for digging.

We had so much fun working to build ponds, only to break the dams and have the pond wash away.

Wally wondered a little further into the water to find the best sand.

And he wandered a little further...

I wish I had his energy!

Though the beach and play ground have nothing on the mountains, we had a great time. We do prefer the beach at Lake MacBride as this beach had a lot of the stinky black mud. We just wish we had discovered the beaches earlier in the summer. I can forsee what next summer will hold though!