Thursday 5 miler

Have you ever had one of those mornings, where you wake up and lie about trying to come up with excuses for why you can't/shouldn't/won't do your training walk? That was NOT my experience on Thursday. You see, on Thursday morning, my house was completely without coffee beans.





Now, I appreciate that this is not a crisis in some households. My folks, Dave and Mary Kay, have probably not had 'real' coffee in their house since the Folgers days of 1973. Around the time they put away that stellar green glass ashtray the size of a Frisbee. (A fine murder weapon, that would have been. . .)





I, on the other hand, almost always have coffee in the house. When I don't, it's because I had an extra cup the night before and hadn't been planning properly.





As such, when the alarm when off at 6:00 a.m. on Thursday, I was up and ready to roll.

















I was already on the cusp of Irvine Park when I saw this sign. The 'Please' is awful faint, but you get the idea. . .















And here, the fountain in Irvine Park. No water flowing yet. There was a guy sitting on one of the benches who asked me, "Why'd you take a picture of the fountain?" Told him I thought it was pretty.











So I'm coming out of the park and I see this path cutting up to Kellogg. I was tempted to make a run at it. Then I remembered I am a grown up.









This fountain is in Mears Park. It is also on the way to Starbucks.

Post Starbucks, this Monument DOES have the water flowing. I'm not sure what the Monument is FOR. There are squares that say basically, "We landed on the shores." "We ate and slept near the natives." "We conquered the land." (No mention of how we destroyed a people and a way of life. . . )

If you squint, you can see a guy sitting on the bench on the right side of those stairs. He's just sitting there at 7 in the morning taking it all in. I'm not sure if he spent the night there, was from one of the boats in the marina, or walked down there. In any event, it occurred to me that watching the river for a while might be a really cool way to pass some time.

Back on my side of the river, I came across this wetland.

Here's another view of the wetland, which is on Plato between Robert and Wabasha.

My purple iris. This pic was taken pre - weeding with Mary and Bridget, of course.

If you'd like to donate to our walk, please go here:

http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/TwinCitiesEvent?px=3237566&pg=personal&fr_id=1302

Thank you for your support.