Sunday Parkways started again, woohoo!

Last year we missed the first one.  This year we almost did too. Sunday was Mother’s Day. My mom made the most incredible brunch for her mom, my grandma. My aunt Barb was there too. It was so yummy. I ate roughly 10 lbs of food.  We definitely needed to walk that off.

When I got to my parent’s house, I had no idea where we were going to hike. We needed something close and easy because we were making dinner at my place for the parents. We had to fit our hike in between a Mother’s day festivity sandwich. The first thing my dad said was, “So are you guys doing the Sunday Parkways thing today?”

That was it. He saved us. Not only was it perfect, but we had vowed to walk every Sunday Parkways. Plus, it was the East route. It started 20 blocks from my house! The whole loop was 7 miles. The majority of it was on the Springwater corridor, but it also wound through many neighborhoods. It was very different from every other route we have been on before. One, it was in sketchy-ish neighborhoods. As we have used to describe other things, it was more methy. Usually, when we walk Sunday Parkways, we see beautiful neighborhoods that we wish we could live in. That was not the case this time. Two, they only closed half of the road. This left traffic on the other side which was almost always moving too fast, and it left a very small route for two way traffic to get through. I very much hope this is just because it was the methy, east route and not a new trend in Sunday Parkways. The best part of Sunday Parkways is the absolutely car free environment.

It was warm on Sunday. We got hot for sure. Neither of us had any chapstick with us. My sister was complaining about her chapped lips when suddenly we happened upon a tube of her favorite, Burt’s Bees, in the street. She looked right at me and earnestly said, “You can’t use street chappy.”  She said this like I needed to hear it. Ummmm, of course you don’t.

My sister was breaking in her new hiking boots on this walk. That was a bad idea. She got crazy awful blisters and couldn’t finish. The route was closing anyway since we got a late start, so I left her in a park and finished on my own. I returned with the car and saved the day. Then we made delicious tacos and watched Real Time with Bill Maher after lying in the sun with Remington. All in all, it was a lovely day.

For information about Sunday Parkways click here.