Our Neighborhood Walk

My boy wasn’t feeling well yesterday and didn’t have much energy. After playing inside the house all morning, by the early afternoon, he was ready for some fresh air. He asked to go on one of our favorite outings… a walk around the neighborhood.

We’ve put together several walks from our home over the past few years.  One option is to stay on the streets, making a 1/2 mile loop.  The other three options involve hiking into the Dublin Hills, located behind our development.  Considering his low energy levels yesterday, my boy chose to walk the short route.

My son has developed several rituals along this walk.  Our first stop is always the fire hydrant at the end of our block for a few minutes of fireman play.  Then we continue up the street to our next stop.  There is a 100 yard section where the street climbs up a hill, with a 4 foot wide rain gutter next to the street and a 7 foot brick retaining wall between the gutter and the hill.  This is the highlight of the walk.  On a good day, my boy can spend an hour in this section, searching in all the crannies of the wall for millipedes and spiders and watching ants and rollie pollies in the gutter.  When he’s ready to move on, we quickly walk through the neighborhood at the top of the hill and begin the return to our home via a long quiet road in the back of our development.  This section of the road backs up to the forest, and this is the other highlight of the walk.  Of course, my boy doesn’t walk on the road.  He climbs up and over the brick retaining walls that line the street.  That’s what he’s doing in the picture.  Our final destination is always the bike racks in front of the swimming pool for 5-10 minutes or so of swinging.  Then a quick run the rest of the way home!

A perfect one hour outing on a beautiful, warm day for a little boy who wasn’t feeling well and for the mom who was home taking care of him.