Long Walks On Leafy Streets

6/1/2015 C & O canal towpath, Harper's Ferry, WV
Summer seems to have finally started, and off with a bang. Nicole was saying that it was like we went straight from winter to spring. It was cool one day and hot the next. Tuesday was one such day. In the morning we had to go to get a checkup for Nicole. Hopefully that would be the last before the little one comes out. For now he seems to be very comfortable with the care his mother’s body is giving him! We are waiting with bated breath.

So I couldn’t go running in the morning on Tuesday and instead went in the afternoon, around 4pm. Although the temperature was only in the eighties, with the humidity it felt much hotter. Add to it the fact that it was only in the low seventies during the preceding days. I ran on my four mile route through Takoma Park, going through Elm Ave, Sligo Creek trail and coming back on Maple Ave.
I was sweating profusely and the breathing was hard. I could only run very slowly. Nevertheless I was glad I went running because it always feels good when you run, no matter what. I was also grateful for all the trees in Takoma Park for keeping it bearable. One could tell the difference when one is in an open area without tree cover. It was like being baked in an oven.

On Thursday morning we drove to Sligo Creek. I ran while Nicole walked. She really enjoyed being out an about in the shady, cool woods surrounding the trail. I enjoyed eating some mulberries from a tree at the parking lot, much to her disapproval. I am very happy to note that we have some mulberries ripening right in our backyard. I have always wanted some but never could get one. Instead I have planted a cranberry and a blueberry bush in our backyard. They are coming along nicely, as well, although I should be watering them more often. But then that morning when I went out to bring in the recycling bin I noticed several ripe mulberries in the bush that grows around our back fence. I always prune it, although I thought it was a weed bush. I am so glad I hadn’t just uprooted and gotten rid of it. It was such a pleasant surprise to find out that it was indeed a mulberry bush, although I had long suspected that from the shape of its leaves. I also took it as a good sign that all these plants around our house are blooming, just as we are expecting our own child to come into this world.

This afternoon we walked around our neighborhood. We have been walking more in the past few days because apparently it is helpful in the last days of pregnancy. We walked past the Capitol city charter school and around Fort Slocum park. This park is one of the many parks maintained by the Rock Creek Park division of the National Park Service that is the location of a civil war fort. I have led a hike through this and other civil war fort turned parks in the area. As we were walking up Kansas ave around the park it started raining. Nicole wanted to keep walking. Soon the rain turned into a driving storm and we had to seek shelter at a nearby 7-eleven. I was a bit annoyed that we got wet but later I felt happy that Nicole enjoyed the experience. It was nice to get wet together. We will probably remember it a long time.

Directory Previous