The More the Merrier

Guest Post by Sam Milgrom

It was a perfect fall weekend. The crisp cold air was warmed only a bit by sporadic rays of sun when the clouds broke away—just as we had planned. Katie was in town visiting with me from Washington, D.C., and together with my parents we experienced everything Ann Arbor.

A Saturday morning walk through the Burns Park neighborhood gave way to the lazy living neighborhood of U-M students. We cut through campus via the Diag and made our way down Liberty (my favorite Ann Arbor street) and made a right on 5th to Kerrytown to duck in our heads in at my Mom’s favorite boutiques. We made it to “Market” (apparently the new name for what I had always thought was The Farmer’s Market) in time to see most of the stands before the farmers closed for the day and began their treks back to Tecumseh, Milan, and even Saline. On our way back home to watch the Badgers play on TV we made a quick stop at MilWrite Communications’ newly furnished digs for a brief respite and to pee—two of the main purposes my Dad rents the space above Real Seafood, I am certain.

The next day, Sunday, was an even more quintessential Midwest fall day than the one before, not only because of the weather but because of our activities as well.

“Mapped out and ready to go!” My Dad greeted me as I poured my Sunday morning coffee. “We have three options, it is up to you what you want to do—we can choose this area of town and hit up 11 parks, or this area and hit 9 parks or this area and hit up 4 or even 5 parks that are all pretty much connected to one another.” He was holding a map of Ann Arbor in one hand and the list of city parks chalked full of markings from his pen in the other.

“Looks great, Daddy-O.” I said. “Really, this is your hobby, let’s do whatever you want. I’m just along for the ride.”

When I heard my parents’ plan to walk all the parks in Ann Arbor, I thought it sounded like a great idea. What a fun hobby. When they told me they planned to blog about their park adventures I thought it was an even cooler undertaking. So cool that the next time I was in town I insisted that I accompany them on a park walk and write a guest piece for their blog. Unfortunately my eagerness to be included in their endeavor subsided for reasons I can’t explain further than that work and the swine flu proved to be effective road-blocks for me in completing my part of the deal.

After my Mom, Dad, Katie, and I decided which parks we were going to tackle we layered up and loaded into the Jeep and headed out to Huron River Drive (my second favorite Ann Arbor street) for a lovely meander between the river and the fall colors en route to the Dexter Cider Mill for hot cider and cinnamon sugar donuts—and, of course, the bees.

On our way back to Ann Arbor to commence our Park Walk, we made the obligatory stop at the Bloom Compound to check-in with the horses and the sprawling calm that lay just out of reach of Ann Arbor city limits, complete with a dirt road. We didn’t stay long and our hosts understood. We were on a mission. We needed to find some parks to walk in.

Within minutes we had reached our first park (Windmere). We parked on the street that lined it and all four of us appeared to have different intentions.

ran for the swings, my parents joined hands and headed for the play structure and I, well I lagged behind and hugged the grass perimeter, confused. I was under the impression that the plan was to walk the perimeter. My Mom quickly corrected me, saying that she and my Dad decided that they didn’t need to walk the perimeter of the park in order for their visit to count. This was contrary to their rules when they first began this hobby. So, without too much delay I ran to the monkey bars and then to the swings before we all decided to walk to the other end of the park and back to the car.

The next park (Greenbrier) was around the block. I had spent a fair amount of time in this park as a teenager. Once the sun goes down parks definitely cater to teenagers who a) do not have a car and/or b) don’t have a house without parents home to hang out in. At least that is how I spent many of my high school weekend nights when those two criteria were met.

Memories of late nights with groups of friends, girlfriends, and girls who I wanted to be my girlfriend spent at this and other parks in Ann Arbor flooded my mind as I explored the new age playground equipment alongside my current girlfriend and my beaming parents.

Both my Mom and Dad exuded gleefulness as we went from park to park. It was like they were letting me and Katie in on a secret of theirs—something only they have been doing, that they were only now sharing with other people. It was precious. And it warmed my heart that they were so happy to be sharing it with Katie and me.

Their gleefulness turned to frustration quickly when we found ourselves stopped at an intersection surrounded with private property in the place where our map indicated the location of the last park of the day (Glazier Hill). My Dad’s frustration morphed into bewilderment as he checked the map again. We were where we were supposed to be! Being a map-guy, my Dad’s confusion phased into determination as we continued to do circles around the connecting streets in a last ditch effort to find the elusive park. We never found the park.

Even though happiness turned to irritation and finally to disappointment I never saw the passion my parents’ possessed for their new hobby waver. It was all an adventure to them—finding the park, playing and walking in the park, and of course, blogging about the parks.

What made this weekend so special to me was to see my parents, who have resided in Ann Arbor nearly 20 years now and have been married for 25, finding new and exciting adventures to embark on together in their city and to be so happy and in love doing it.

I wish them the best of luck completing their goal of reaching all the many parks in Ann Arbor, big and small. And godspeed in getting the hang of BLOGSPOT.

Editor's note: Thanks, Sam! That day we also visited Glacier Highland (a neighborhood park deluxe); Folkstone (a nice little wooded area that reminds me the Oak Park woods of my childhood); and Baxter (a wide open space). All of these parks are on the near northeast side of town