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Rico, Family, and a Great Walk (3/7/24-3/9/24)

Bob and I arrived at our housesit in St. Louis Park, MN, (suburb of the Twin Cities) at 4:30 pm on Thursday for a walk through before our homeowners left for a week-long Arizona vacation. We’re caring for the sweet Rico, who is blind but has managed to teach himself to get around his two story house.

Rico chilling on the windowseat

Yesterday afternoon, after Bob and I got back from a short neighborhood walk, Bob’s uncle who lives in the area reached out. We ended up meeting up with him and his wife for happy hour sushi. We had a great visit.

Jeff, Debby, and Bob

Today, we decided to do a longer walk to start getting ready for a walking trip that we will be doing in England in April. We headed to Westwood Hills Nature Preserve, which ended up being about 7 miles there and back and around the lake at the preserve. We’ll definitely need to get more mileage in, but it was a lovely park and a nice winter walk with temps in the low 30s but the wind making it feel cooler.

Walking over a bridge by a St. Louis Park water tower
on the way to the park
The sign at the entrance to the preserve
The interpretive center
Helpful trail signage
The view from the lookout deck near the upper picnic area
Stairs connected the lake trail to the upper picnic area
Looking across Westwood Lake at lake level
Parts of the lake trail were on land but much of it was boardwalk due to the lake and surrounding marsh
Some of the flora along the boardwalk
Canoe rentals are available
Another area of the boardwalk
A collage by local artist Emily Lavalier
called Waterfall Observation Deck inside the interpretive center
The exhibit area in the 2020-built center
Passing through Lamplighter Park on the way back to the house
Crossing a pedestrian only bridge over a railroad
as part of the North Cedar Lake Regional Trail

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