I Go Out Walkin'

But not after Midnight because that would be dangerous what with all sorts of nefarious characters afoot although it would be kind of interesting because if I'm out walking after midnight the odds are good I'm sleepwalking because I'm a 10:00pm bedtime type of gal because I like my sleep.  A Lot.  And I got all that "Stay Up Until the Cows Come Home" stuff out of my system a decade or so ago, not that I knew any cows that came home when the sun came up because I've pretty much lived in the suburbs my entire life where there aren't any cows to come home to and where was I going with this nice run on sentence that started with the title of a song by the Late Miss Patsy Cline?  

Oh yes, I remember.  I'm walking.  Yes indeed I'm walking.  Ok, who's feeling musical today?  That'd be Me.

ANYWAY.

Miss Gracie Lou requires exercise to get her tuckered out because otherwise, an unexercised (nonexercised?) Gracie Lou is a hyper, bored and possibly destructive Gracie Lou so we go on a good walk in the morning and another walk in the afternoon.  During the week we do these walks at a park a couple of miles away that's on the way to and from Thing 2's school so it's not like I'm going out of my way but on the weekends, we walk from our house.  We had been just walking straight up the road about a mile and then coming back but that got a bit boring so now Gracie Lou and I have decided to start walking through the various neighborhoods in the vicinity.  I have lived in my house in the Prestigious Plaza area of Long Beach almost 15 years and this is after spending almost every weekend and vacation in this house while growing up so you'd assume I'd know these neighborhoods like the back of my hand but you'd be wrong there with that assumption.

This has been a very interesting experience I'm enjoying seeing more of my hometown, even if it's just within a few miles from my door.  I love looking at houses and our walks give me the opportunity to look, admire AND critique and lemme tell you, people have done some interesting "remuddling" of their basic 1950's California Ranch houses.  There have been more than a few that I've stood there, gaping, and I'm all What. The. Fuck?  and have thanked my lucky stars that I'm not their neighbor and are forced to look at that every day.

So anyway, yesterday I was over at my seester's new house and it was time to take the dogs for a good walk. This is my seester's dog Coco.  She's a Labradoodle but I think she looks like one of the Flying Monkeys.  Coco is one of the best dogs and is a wonderful Role Model for Gracie Lou.

So Gracie Lou and I are taken for a walk and I am shown a place I never knew existed in my own town.

This was a beautiful Nature Preserve that goes along the Northeast end of Marine Stadium.  

It's filled with native plants and flowers and the Golden Poppies, which I neglected to take pictures of, were in full bloom and there were benches to sit down on and take in the view and it just amazes me how many things there are in Long Beach that I don't know about.


So we enjoyed a lovely walk along the waterfront and through this nature preserve and then trekked back to the house through another neighborhood I had never been in and by the time we got back to the house, Gracie Lou wasn't the only one who was completely tuckered out (raises hand).


So our walks are serving two purposes:  health and exercise and experiencing previously unknown parts.  And you know what that tells me?


I gotta get out more often.