Sunday - on and off road

I headed out early to meet up with the running group this morning. We ran a hilly route that took us into nearby Woodway. Woodway is a small town tucked in between Edmonds and Shoreline, and it lives up to its town logo of "The Quiet Place".

The area is heavily wooded, and it feels like you have stepped into the quiet country as soon as you reach its borders. The town has deed restrictions that set home parcels at a two-acre minimum, so though the town is filled with many extravagant homes, they are far enough away from each other so it still retains a little rural feel. Running through the streets is the only way this riff-raff belongs there.

We headed back to the store to have some coffee cake and sing Happy Birthday in honor of David's 50th birthday. He quipped "If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of my body". I'm assuming it was a bit tongue-in-cheek as he is a pretty fit 50.

Back home the morning and early afternoon were filled with typical Sunday morning fare. I took the time to make pancakes and eggs for breakfast, enjoyed reading the Sunday paper, checked e-mail and blogs, did a load of laundry, did the dishes and tidied up a bit. While I was leaning against the counter in the kitchen, contemplating my next move, our pooch perked up her ears and looked at me expectantly. Time for her Sunday afternoon adventure.

After much dancing around (her not me) we loaded up in the car to go and check out the new off-leash park in Mountlake Terrace which had just opened on March 16th. The park is near the community pool and baseball fields with easy access from the freeway and a decent amount of parking. It is a smaller park, probably a little over an acre, but is a little unique in its own way. Rather than being an open field, it is pretty heavily wooded. Volunteers cleared out the brush but left all the trees. After fencing in the area, they spread out wood chips along the ground to help keep it from getting too muddy.

It has been a while since we've taken our pooch to an off-leash park. She has definitely lost a step or two, and didn't go chasing off after any of the dogs running around the park. She spent her time wandering around the trails and trees, taking in all the good smells and checking out the dogs she happened to come across. She seems content to have moved into the 'stop and smell the flowers' portion of her life. Let all those young pups come to her.