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Zoom in on the Arboretum
Oct. 20th, 2003 11:48 amIt took two and a half hours to drive to the Arboretum from Magnolia -- a distance of about 3 miles -- but Alex still asked us 'Didn't you go before you left?' when we immediately headed for the bathroom.
The bathroom was at the top of a hill, past a very spiky tree, and across the busy street running through the heart of the park. It reminded me a lot of the main restroom/etc. building in a park -- Secor Park? -- that we used to go to a lot back in Toledo, with its wooden pillars and educational displays everywhere. It was more gardeny, though.
After that rest stop, my mother realized she'd forgotten to bring film for her camera, and wanted to put it back in the car, so we walked back down, crossed the street, and continued on in the opposite direction to the duck pond, which... well, it had a few ducks, but you couldn't really get close to the water because of the high, muddy bank/cliff.
There was a path continuing on, but Alex said that we should go the other way, to see some islands, instead, so after asking which direction to go and getting no response (I happened to be standing in front at that moment) I headed off in the only direction we hadn't tried yet. "This way?" I asked. There was still no response, but people were following, so I figured it must be.
Alex let me go on for a couple hundred feet before mentioning that it was the wrong direction. Or maybe it wasn't -- we certainly didn't see any islands after he had us turn back and go past the bathroom AGAIN to 'Azalea Way', a path of sorts paved with grass -- in other words, a pit of mud.
Eventually we got off the mud onto a pretty spiderwebby series of paths through the woods, though. I thought the wooden stairs, with lush growth on either side spilling over and crowding the path, reminded me of the path up to the shrine in 'My Neighbor Totoro'. Alex said that it looked a lot like the paths up mountains to shrines he and Anna had seen in China.
About this time Mikey (the dog) was getting tired, and dragging on his leash.
"Maybe we should put Mikey in the carrier, and let the baby run alongside," I suggested.
"The baby hasn't moved under his own volition more than -- how long would you say?" Alex asked.
"Seven inches?" Anna guessed.
"How is he ever going to learn to move on his own if you don't abandon him in the woods to find his way home?" I asked, indignantly.
"Okay, let's NOT have Aaron be our babysitter."
Apparently, we were heading for a gazebo, because when no gazebo appeared after a long trek past assorted exotic trees (exotic in origin and not in appearance, unfortunately) Alex started to get nervous that we'd gone the wrong way, and ran on ahead to check. No gazebo in sight. So we headed back, rejoining the muddy grass path much earlier for the return trip. I pretended to be playing a Mario Party minigame, jumping over the puddles.
The grass path was highly traveled, and we passed a bunch of people, including a big black dog that looked like a bear. Mikey was terrified of it, which was probably a good thing, since sometimes he leaps and attacks other dogs.
Then we went home and had dinner. It didn't take two and a half hours to get home, at least.
The bathroom was at the top of a hill, past a very spiky tree, and across the busy street running through the heart of the park. It reminded me a lot of the main restroom/etc. building in a park -- Secor Park? -- that we used to go to a lot back in Toledo, with its wooden pillars and educational displays everywhere. It was more gardeny, though.
After that rest stop, my mother realized she'd forgotten to bring film for her camera, and wanted to put it back in the car, so we walked back down, crossed the street, and continued on in the opposite direction to the duck pond, which... well, it had a few ducks, but you couldn't really get close to the water because of the high, muddy bank/cliff.
There was a path continuing on, but Alex said that we should go the other way, to see some islands, instead, so after asking which direction to go and getting no response (I happened to be standing in front at that moment) I headed off in the only direction we hadn't tried yet. "This way?" I asked. There was still no response, but people were following, so I figured it must be.
Alex let me go on for a couple hundred feet before mentioning that it was the wrong direction. Or maybe it wasn't -- we certainly didn't see any islands after he had us turn back and go past the bathroom AGAIN to 'Azalea Way', a path of sorts paved with grass -- in other words, a pit of mud.
Eventually we got off the mud onto a pretty spiderwebby series of paths through the woods, though. I thought the wooden stairs, with lush growth on either side spilling over and crowding the path, reminded me of the path up to the shrine in 'My Neighbor Totoro'. Alex said that it looked a lot like the paths up mountains to shrines he and Anna had seen in China.
About this time Mikey (the dog) was getting tired, and dragging on his leash.
"Maybe we should put Mikey in the carrier, and let the baby run alongside," I suggested.
"The baby hasn't moved under his own volition more than -- how long would you say?" Alex asked.
"Seven inches?" Anna guessed.
"How is he ever going to learn to move on his own if you don't abandon him in the woods to find his way home?" I asked, indignantly.
"Okay, let's NOT have Aaron be our babysitter."
Apparently, we were heading for a gazebo, because when no gazebo appeared after a long trek past assorted exotic trees (exotic in origin and not in appearance, unfortunately) Alex started to get nervous that we'd gone the wrong way, and ran on ahead to check. No gazebo in sight. So we headed back, rejoining the muddy grass path much earlier for the return trip. I pretended to be playing a Mario Party minigame, jumping over the puddles.
The grass path was highly traveled, and we passed a bunch of people, including a big black dog that looked like a bear. Mikey was terrified of it, which was probably a good thing, since sometimes he leaps and attacks other dogs.
Then we went home and had dinner. It didn't take two and a half hours to get home, at least.
