A Good Day

Sunday was a good day.  We don't have a lot of those right now, and it was much needed.  As I mentioned in my last post, screens have become way too much of a thing around here, and no one ever seems excited to go anywhere.  It's like everyone's become willing introverts.  Except me, of course.  I mean, I don't miss the evening rush, but my runs and bike rides are necessary right now, and I have dreams of hikes and walks that no one else wants to do.  I think I need some other family to adopt me until this is over and take me on their hikes.  But this past weekend we made a plan to go out.  We originally thought about doing it Saturday, but it turned out to be a rather cool day, and Jacob ended up spending most of the afternoon playing basketball with a friend, so Sunday turned out to be the day!

After church and lunch (and a morning Wegmans run for me), we headed downtown.  Our first stop was to see the Black Lives Matter road mural.

It lined the road between an office building and a Martin Luther King Jr. Park.  It was actually right below the building where I took the kids to see the aerial performers at the Fringe Festival almost five years ago.

Hard to see, but the city put in their flower logo at the end

It was quite striking to see.  At the same time, it was hard to turn around and look at the broken windows to the bank on the ground floor of the building.  The city took a bit of a beating during the protests and riots a couple weeks ago.  Over the course of our day, we saw a lot of large glass windows still boarded up, and some precautionary boarding up of a building near where the original riot was (including Craig's old office) and a CVS just outside of the downtown core.  It's sad to see, but understandably not as sad as what caused it.  But seeing your city looking a tiny bit like a war zone isn't a great feeling.

We walked across the street to the park, which I have been trying to get to for years because they fixed a unique fountain in the park three years ago (after it had been broken for about 30 years) and I wanted to see it working.  Sunday was not that day, however, as the fountain wasn't on.  Instead, we saw this:

The quote up top is a permanent part of the park, and the quote at the bottom perfectly captures our current time.

The walls in the fountain/amphitheater area had been painted with black chalkboard paint, and people have left their messages.  There was a wide variety, from someone wanting to give their white privilege to their black nephew, to proclaiming the value of gay black lives, to a large John 3:16.  It was actually a really cool thing to see and talk to the kids about.

There was a play area nearby that is a spray park during the summer.  I went there once with an instructor from my old gym and had to run laps up and down the ramps.  Carter liked running around, and he and I eventually raced down the giant slides.

My view at the top of the slide

This park is actually just outside the Strong National Museum of Play, and there are some cool sculptures and structures nearby.  If you look closely just to the left of center in the picture below, there are two metal cymbal-shaped sculpture pieces, and if you stand directly between them, your voice echoes really crazily!

Our next stop (after glimpsing the beginning of construction at the arena--crazy to see the old patio and planters outside our old office gone!) was Warner Castle, which was built in the style of an old Scottish Castle.  I've wanted to go here for at least a year, since I found out it existed, and it just so happened to be right where we pulled in as we tried to figure out where to park for our next stop.  So, we got out and checked it out!

Look at that iron work.  It was very grand from the front.

Around back, with a little balcony

The most notable feature of the house is its Sunken Garden.

The grass on the ground needs some work, but the stonework was amazing.

We wondered if the wrought iron gates down below were original, or if they were added to keep drifters out.

This is looking across from the other side.  Notice the planter on the wall across the top patio.  The area beneath it is a bit overgrown but I saw an old picture where that once was very elegant, too.

There was a very pretty garden on the property up above, and there was even a local graduate taking pictures there.  You know me and flowers!

Guessing this is some sort of coleus

Tons of flowers!

This was about twice the size of my fist!

I had no idea what this plant was (thanks to Google, looks like spiderwort), but I've never seen anything like it.  Small purple flowers with giant single leaves extending out.  Zoom in on the photo...the flowers are really cool.

Our ultimate destination for the day was Mt. Hope Cemetery, a very historical spot in Rochester.  Neither Craig nor I had ever been there.  Jacob had, however, because he would go on walks there with his summer camp since it was right across the street.  We parked by a very old chapel and crematory, which was adjacent to this beautiful fountain.

It took us a bit to get our bearings, but eventually we did figure out where we needed to go to find our first destination--the grave of suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony:

The grave is a favorite for locals to stop by on election day (particularly in 2016 after their first vote for a female president) and stick their "I voted" stickers on the headstone--though it's now discouraged as to not damage the stone.  

As we walked through the cemetery looking for another prominent local leader, we happened by this very cool headstone with a cannon engraved on it.  Craig did a little researching and found out the guy died of diphtheria while on the ship mentioned on the stone.  

A couple times as we were walking, I noticed chipmunks on top of grave stones.  But of course, I was walking with boys so they always managed to scare them off before I could get a picture.  I did get a shot of this little guy who peeked around the corner after his first scare!

We passed by this area called Sylvan Waters, which had a really cool fountain in the middle.  It was a very peaceful spot, and I liked that some people had bench monuments erected down near it.

We finally swung around to our second destination, the grave of abolitionist Frederick Douglass.  It felt especially important to be there given all that's been happening lately and with what we had seen earlier in the day.  Craig did a little researching while we were there, partly about his kids and partly because there were two wives buried there with him.  I don't think I ever knew that his second wife was not only 20 years younger than him, but also white!  I guess it was a bit of big deal back then (not surprisingly)--although (who knew) he was actually half white.

It's neat to have this kind of history in our local cemetery.  I really want to go back, ideally for a guided tour in the fall.  There's so many amazing monuments to see, so many famous Rochester names, and a lovely, peaceful setting.

I just liked the look of this pretty statue.

This tree was giant.  I should have had Carter stand near it or something.  The smooth, gnarled trunk was amazing.

It was pretty to look up into, too, but even this pic doesn't do its giant expanse justice!

The boys were ready to go by the time we got through Frederick Douglass' grave, so after that we headed back to the car.  We stopped for a couple snacks on the way home--we had promised Carter a slushie to ease his sore loose tooth, but Burger King only had Coke Icees so Craig and Jacob opted for Tim Horton's options.  The snacks were a fun way to wrap up a really great day out!

It was so nice to have a day where we were doing something aside from desperately trying to stay occupied at home and constantly fighting the screen time battles.  The boys barely fought, we learned some history, and enjoyed some nice weather.  It really was an awesome day, particularly compared to what most of our days have looked like for the last three months.  I want to do more of these, especially with all the time off I have coming up.  It's just a matter of finding destinations that are safe and that we can agree on.  I have a few in mind, and we even talked about where we might be able to do a quick getaway.  I'm hopeful we can work something out since this summer is looking pretty dull without parties, trips, festivals, or even a readily accessible mini golf location!  We wait all year for this time of year, and right now it looks pretty underwhelming.  The kids will probably be fine, because they're happy staying home, close to the hoop and pool and especially not having to get up and rush off to camp.  I loved my free summers of TV, toys, and bike riding, and this is probably their one shot--well, Carter's one shot, at least.  Jacob will probably have summers like this for quite a few years now that he's aging out of camp  But it'll at least be a first for him this year.  Hopefully Carter will be back to activities next year--if not by the end of this summer if we get especially desperate--so hopefully he enjoys his freedom while he has it.  They probably won't miss the activities the same way Craig and I will, but I still want it to be a memorable summer in good ways.  Give me a bunch more days like this, and I hope it will be.