Watch Hill Walk - July 22, 2011

My Challenge is to Walk - Your Challenge is here
Terrain: Road
Path: Larkin - Ocean View Hwy - Shore - Watch Hill Rd - Bay St
Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
Mileage: 4.8 miles

Friday nights are good for winding down from a long work week. People will do it a number of ways. We walked.

Becky and Baby A came down after feeding the horses, and I met Jill at our parents’ house. They had provided dinner.

Again it was a hot summer day. We decided to walk Watch Hill. Becky followed us down and we searched for parking.

Friday night on a clear summer night - parking is a premium in Watch Hill. Just an FYI. We found a few spots just off Larkin. After loading up the stroller we took off up Larkin toward Bluff Ave.

People passed us on the sidewalk after a day at the beach and the Ocean House bustled. Fancy cars and streams of people moved about. We walked on.

Baby A began playing games. Drop the Toy is one of her favorites, where she tosses the closest object and hope it lands outside of the stroller. If it lands in the footwell, she kicks at it until it’s out. Another favorite is Pass the Bottle. Baby A takes a few sips of her drink and puts in the cupholder. Then she takes a few more and passes it to whomever is near. That person is expected to hold the sippy cup until she whines for more. This kept on through most of the walk.

Dusk settled The bugs threatened us. We all had bug spray in our cars, but didn’t think to put it on. Fortunately they weren’t much of a problem. I think the sweat and pace kept them away.

As the sun set further, we were rounding Shore Road from Ocean View Highway making our way back to the car. Becky mentioned a flashlight. Another forgotten item.

Half way down Shore Road toward Watch Hill Road and after some cars came a bit too close, I remembered I had a flashlight on my phone. Albeit it’s a dinky light, but a dinky light is better than no light.

I kept the light on and pointed downward. It swung with my hand in the arm closest to traffic. I’d like to hope it made us more visible. We didn’t get hit.

But that fortune may also be a result of Becky’s serenading to soothe Baby A and keep the cars away. Watch Hill Road is busy and blinding at night.

For a tourist village there weren’t many sidewalks. The majority of our walk was on the road itself. When we could crossover to the sidewalks, they were crowded. Crowded either with bushes that wouldn’t yield, or people who also wouldn’t yield.

The moon reflected off the bay and the illuminated the ships in harbor. We came down Bay St. in hopes of the Public Restrooms still being open. They weren’t. But the ice cream parlor was busy and tempting.

It was past 9 at night and we were tired. Rather than unwinding and relaxing, we were exhausted and beat. We made our way up the rest of Larkin Hill to our cars and said our goodbyes.

I went home and slept the rest of my night away.