The next walk on that Saturday was in Beaverton. It was a 6 and change loop that seemed to us to be structured along the lines of "there is something interesting here and something interesting at the far end, so let's link it together, even if the middle is long and uneventful." Still, there were parts we liked and one fun-for-us surprise.
It was nice having all three of us to juggle things like the book, the dog and the camera. For whole stretches on Saturday, I didn't have to deal with either the book or Ranger wrangling.
Near the beginning of the walk, we went within a few blocks of the square where the Beaverton Farmer's Market was. We were wanting lunch, so we detoured over to see what we could find. Dogs were not allowed in the market area, so we took turns staying out with Ranger.
It turned out that we went right by the square at the end of the loop, but it's good we stopped when we did because, not only were there over 5 miles between this point and that, but the market was closed by the time we came back by.
Anyway, Davan and I each had a vegetable stuffed pastry which Anthony passed on due to not liking all the veggies in there. As you can see, though, Ranger would have been happy to have one.
We also bought some strawberries, but seem to have eaten them before they made it in front of the camera.
We walked for a bit on this bike path. There was a fair amount of time spent on multi-use paths like this on the walk.
Davan was rounding out her lunch from the market with crackers while Anthony lunched on the crackers and some peanuts while we were strolling along.
I remembered on the walk that I had a bruise I wanted documented. I got it sparing at Poekoelan. It did hurt, but looked much more impressive than it felt.
A close up.
We walked on this trail through a small forested area for a bit.
We emerged at this playground.
We hadn't taken a bowl for Ranger and it had been a while since we had found a place for her to drink, so I was giving her some water from the fountain here. She has to be pretty thirsty to do it, but she will drink some if I shoot it out of my mouth for her. She's not great at placement and usually ends up getting some up her nose, which is why I think she doesn't love this method of drinking, but it's funny to watch and it does wet her whistle.
Davan struck a few poses.
Anthony worked on his smile. He often looks grim in pictures, so he's been working on smiling more. He's got it here.
Ranger, taking a break while waiting for Davan to be done on the playground.
After the playground, it was time for another snack. Granola bars.
Here was our surprise. As we were coming up to this neighborhood and reading about it, we discovered that an architect called Rummer brought to Oregon the style of building created by an architect in California called Eichler. What's cool about this for us is that my grandmother lives in an Eichler house. To come across virtual clones of her house here in Oregon was a surprise and quite fun for us.
We took this picture because it's for sale. We though Tad-ku might want to move in there because he loves Eichlers so much. (Ahem.)
If you painted this one purple and put a carousel horse under the eaves to the left of the apex, you'd have my grandmother's house.
Rummer did a great thing with his neighborhood in my opinion. He made cul de sacs all backing up to an open area that he donated as a park to the city. So, each little pocket has their own small "forest."
There are grassy open spaces and paths.
Nearby there is also a large green space with several blocks worth of treed area to explore.
They even had this nature play area where you're encouraged to go ahead and climb trees, build forts and generally interact with nature in ways that are often not allowed in natural areas. I thought it was a great idea, although we didn't find much we wanted to interact with when we went through the area to be honest. No good climbing trees.
The above green space served as the turn around point on our walk.
On the way back, we went over Hill and Dale.
I forgot to mention earlier when talking about sharing the book and dog, we also shared the bag. It was sure nice to walk unencumbered for stretches of time.
Enjoying the day.
Davan is actually on the sidewalk between these patches of flowers, although it sort of looks like she's walking through a field.
As we came back toward the center of town, we found another playground.
Anthony and I were happy to sit on the bench for a while while Davan played...but not as long as she usually does. Then she came over for a picture.
At the other end of the park from the playground, near the Beaverton library, we found a small food stand that had Indian food. We shared an order of samosas with a side of chickpeas.
Davan gets really excited when we get to see the MAX train pass close by. Here she's looking askance at me because I was teasing her (just a little bit) about how excited she was.
It really makes her day, though.
After this crossing, I seem to have taken no more pictures before we got back to the car, even though I think there was close to a mile left, including going through some of downtown Beaverton. Oh well. This walk was okay. There were things we like for sure, but it all seemed kind of spread out, as opposed to some of the in town walks where there is stuff of interest all over the place. We had fun doing it all together, but our day wasn't over yet.
