Strollers

 
IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: I have been making it a point to get a walk in most days lately. Not every day, mind you, but at least 51 percent of the time.

Yesterday, we found ourselves up in the Sunset neighborhood of Renton. It's east of the 405 freeway, on a hilltop above the Renton airfield/Boeing operations.

There's a big new park in the neighborhood, Sunset Neighborhood Park. 

It's across the street from the nice, big Renton Highlands Library.

The kids checked out the library while the dogs and I walked circles in the park. I found a little library to check out, as well.

In fact, there were two Little Free Libraries in the park. Unfortunately, they were both chock full o' romance novels. 

So, my reading material was mainly signage, including this panel about how the park helps protect salmon in Lake Washington.

I was surprised when CJ and Annabelle walked out of the library empty handed. They both said they found the layout confusing. "They had 'A Clockwork Orange' next to a LEGO book," CJ noted. 

I would have to agree that's unexpected. ...

Today's walk started out with us parking by another library, this time the Skyway branch of King County Library System.

From there, we walked north, and soon encountered the neighborhood fire department and a regional fire training center. At the training center, there was a small plaza with a statue, a little smaller-than-life sized to my eye.

We also found a memorable signpost in the parking lot. 

We soon headed east, and found ourselves approaching a big middle school campus. It was nearly 3 p.m. and there was an ice cream truck parked directly in front of the school, ready for dismissal time. Smart!

All in all, a nice stroll, and it's good to get to know the neighborhood better.

UNICORNS R US: Every month we do a bulletin board for a local learning center. And every month, we have to come up with a new theme. We've been doing this a couple of years now, and sometimes it feels like we've already done everything possible. I mean, we've covered Dr. Seuss, Candyland, Pac-Man, a hedgehog camp out, bigfoot skiing, an ant farm, a sushi conveyor belt restaurant ... I could go on and on.

This month while casting about for ideas, I realized we hadn't done a unicorn themed one yet. It's shocking, really, given Annabelle spent about five years drawing mostly unicorns. 

Anyway, we decided to go with a Unicorn University theme this month, so the board is a snapshot of part of Unicorn U's college campus.

Here's a photo of the work-in-progress. Stay tuned for a finished shot, likely next Monday.