Walking downtown from home is a usual event. Have dinner and walk home. It's one of the things I love about where I live -- walkability.
One night last week we wanted to get one of our park walks in before dinner. We could do the west side, but what about the parks in the greater downtown area? That became our task for the evening's walk. We looked at the list and found we had our hands full: as surprised as we were about how many parks there are in the city, we were wowed to find out how many are in and around the downtown area. I love it!
Off we headed to our first two: Sculpture Plaza and the Farmers Market. A familiar spot across from Argiero's (great pizza,by the way, and spaghetti and meatballs just the way mom makes it!). The plaza includes a bricked area with tables and chairs with metal umbrellas, a large statue, artistic bike racks (though I understand most people do not realize these are bike racks), artistic trash cans, and a center garden whose growth this time of year with the variety of grasses is mammoth. Does a park need grass -- the green turf type -- to be considered a park? Maybe a park is any place that invites people to gather and hang out.
Wheeler Park was dotted with young couples in love. It's also the first park with a track that we've visited. It's obviously a “sports park,” with its track and basketball courts along with the picnic and play area. I tried out the track before we left.
Next we headed west on Depot to Main to look for Depot Park, which the city website claims can be found on this corner -- and though there was some green grass there, with lots of overgrown bushes, the little patch was not identified anywhere as a park. We nosed around trying to find a sign -- or something -- but found nothing else.
We headed farther north, ducking down behind the buildings along the east side of Main Street and finding what we thought at first was another park we hadn't uncovered during our pre-walk preparation. It turned out, however, that though it wasn't an actual park there was a spot with a grassy area near a bridge over a dam, with a man fishing on one side and looking across the Huron River at a couple of crew teams going through their practice rituals.
We ventured across the bridge and saw a dirt path leading into a wooded area. A posted map identified it as a bike bath that leads from Bandemeer Park (still a stretch north of us) all the way to Fuller Park on the east side of town. Randy was already planning to incorporate this newly discovered bike path as part of his ride the next day.
We continued to walk along the river on a nicely manicured path that led us to the entrance of Bandeemer Park. This area also serves as the launch for the U-M and area high school teams -- as well as other rowing teams and associations. There's a sizable parking lot, an area for boat storage, and some very clean bathrooms. A group of high school kids who just finished practice were milling around on a beautiful night before heading home. Farther north the wiking/biking path narrows into a wooded area and winds around various hiking trails and a well-shaded disc golf course before emptying into the park's north end vehicle lot.
We headed back south by following the cars onto and across Main to check out Bluffs Nature Area. A sign and a narrow pathway led us into a steep uphill climb until we reached another sign indicating that this area is heavily used by bicyclists, runners, and hikers -- and that all should be aware of and respectful of one another. We headed to the top, where we met a bicyclist who let us know our best bet getting back down to Main Street would be to go back the way we came as he was not sure where we 
could come out. The sun was slanting out of sight and we thought it best not to be wandering around up there in the darkness -- another reason we should get that compass.
We hiked back down to Main for our much needed dinner, and the remainder of the parks we visited on our way home, in the dark. First was Liberty Plaza, which most Thursdays during the summer is host to luchtime concerts featuring local artists (called Sonic Lunches) -- and by night it houses a mixed group of the seemingly restless and homeless. And right next door is the Kempf House.
The last two parks of the night might not strictly fit within the "downtown" designation -- but our most direct walk back home took us right by them: south on Division is Hanover Square, at the corner of Packard -- a small grassy area with a sculpture, a bench, and a flower garden; and, adjacent to Jack's Hardware and an always-busy laundramat is Forsythe Park, another "sports park," I suppose, since it is mostly cement, with basketball hoops surrounded by several benches.
We set out at 6:00 pm and were home by about 10:00, with pride in our accomplishment:11 parks (Sculpture Plaza, Farmers Market, North Main, Wheeler, Depot, Bandemeer, Bluffs Nature Area, Liberty Plaza, Kempf House, Hanover Square, and Forsythe) in one evening. Also a little bit in awe of a city with parks along a riverbank, within its business center, and mingled within neighborhoods -- all beckoning us to play, relax, and engage with our envirnoment and our community.Patti
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