Beautiful Day for a Walk

Tuesday was a glorious day! I looked out of our window to see blue skies dotted with puffy white clouds and a sun shining bright. There was no way we were going to stay inside all day. We headed out for the Sammamish Trail pretty much right after lunch. After filling up a water bottle and packing a few snacks and necessities, we were on our way.

The air was cool and crisp, and the sun was warm on my skin. My weather app on my phone told me it was 56 degrees. There's nothing like spring and summer in Seattle. I'm thankful to be living here for the time being. I knew of other friends who were complaining about the high temperatures elsewhere. =)

Last time we went for a walk, I pushed Ella in the stroller pretty much the whole time. She got out once while we were on a bridge, so I could take a few pictures, but that was it. I wanted to get a good workout, and I knew that if she were to walk, I would have to stop every second to wait for her to pick up a dandelion, a rock, or something else.

Pictures on the bridge on our first walk.

Trying to find a spider that was hiding.

Looking out over the river.

This time I decided that I would take it easy, and I knew that if she was allowed to walk, she would tire herself out, so that when we got back home, she would be ready for her nap. And if I was lucky, she would fall asleep on the way home. Well, I was right about Ella wanting to pick up stuff. She just had to blow each and every dandelion she saw. I was fine with it at first, but there were times when I had to chastise her for lagging too far behind. We weren't going to get far at all if I left her to her own ways.

It didn't take her long to find some dandelions to blow.

She found the mother of all dandelions later on.

We had a very pleasant walk all in all. The city of Redmond made sure there were no shortages of places to rest along the way. We found a very pleasant place not too long after we started our walk. There was a great big tree that provided shade over a bench that sat looking out over the water. There were even water fountains for the thirsty, which I used to re-fill my water bottle on the way back home.

Enjoying the bench.

Hanging out on the fence.

There were a few neat discoveries while on our walk. At one point, there was a garden just off the path, and they even had benches where you could rest awhile and enjoy the flowers and foliage. I had never seen anything like it. They sure do take pride in their landscaping around here. Ella and I decided to stop and take a closer look.

How inviting does this look?

These were so pretty! I wish my phone camera could have done them justice.

By the time we discovered a path that led down to the river's edge, Ella already had a collection of flowers and rocks. She saw the river as an opportunity to throw the rocks into the water, which she did right away. She then decided to release the buttercup and dandelion into the water, so that they could float gently down the river. It was actually quite sweet to watch her do so. She only kept one buttercup which she used to adorn her hair.

There were lots of other people out enjoying the sunshine as well. I had to constantly make sure that Ella was to the far right of our lane, so that cyclists wouldn't run into her. Unfortunately, someone almost did run over her at one point. I think she gave them quite a scare. Needless to say, she was confined to the stroller after that. That was towards the end of our walk anyway, so it was not that big a deal. I gave her a snack, and she was happy to eat it, and I was happy to be making our way back home. And just like I hoped, she fell asleep.

I'm so glad that we found a place to take walks that is so near to where we live. I'm looking forward to getting out more. Here are a few more pictures of some things we saw on our walk.

We passed some cool looking train tracks.

These cherry blossom trees were so beautiful!

It's kind of hard to see, but there's a bench that sits underneath this awesome willow tree. I would love to be able to sit there for hours and just write in my journal.