Local Exploration
Topic: Day to Day
I had to take the car to the shop today to have a smog problem diagnosed. Fortunately, my mechanic is only a ten minute walk up the street from me. However, today is stormy, so I put on the rain gear I bought for my 2002 New Zealand trip in expectation of mother nature truing to soak me.
However, the rain let up right after I dropped off the car, and it was lunchtime, so I decided to risk an excursion to find lunch over on Piedmont Ave. I've lived in this area for six and a half years and I've come to realize that while I've biked through and driven along many of the streets in the area, I've never walked on many of them. As such, I decided to just follow my nose and see where it would lead me, talking an indirect course to my destination.
CLICK HERE for a map of my walk
Walking this route gave me a very different perspective on the neighborhoods through which I passed. I saw buildings I'd never noticed before, realized just what an ear-numbing roar there in on streets along the freeway, discovered a stair walk connecting two streets mid-block, and walked along a bit of one of the creeks that feeds into Lake Merritt (most of which now goes underground because of all the urban development. I also noticed that some streets that I thought looked like unappealing places to live where actually nicer than I realized, pointing out what a skewed view you can get of a place when you whiz by at driving speeds.
It was a refreshing walk, about 3 miles in total, with a big lunch at the midpoint, and makes we want to explore my neighborhood even more.
Mother Nature kindly smiled on me, as it only rained while I was safely in the restaurant eating lunch, and after I got home. Then, as I was getting ready to walk back to get my car, the rain started really coming down, and suddenly for several minutes it was hailing! Once it stopped, I decided to make a run for it, and the sun broke through the clouds. Luck-y!
Posted by molyneaux
at 3:25 PM PST
Updated: Wednesday, 20 May 2009 12:39 AM PDT