A Walk in the Park

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day--one of the last three days of beautiful summery weather before it takes a turn early this week.  Craig took Jacob to his basketball game, and I decided Carter and I were going to make the most of the day by going for a little walk.  After some debate about where to go, I decided on Turning Point Park, which was actually (coincidentally) literally a couple minutes around the corner from Jacob's game.  The park runs along the Genesee River just south of where it empties into Lake Ontario.  I'd seen lots of intriguing pictures of it over the years and part of me had always hesitated to go by myself because it's technically in the city and I didn't know if there were more remote areas that might get unsafe at certain times of day.  But I figured on a day like this, there would have to be enough people around--even though that degree of safety might also mean we had to stay masked at times.

The fall color was pretty apparent right as we arrived.  There were a few trees like this one near the parking lot.

The path wound around high above the river before turning into a steep slope down.

The one section of trees across the way was gorgeous.

There is a long wooden walkway that meanders across the "turning point" section of the river.  It's hard to tell in this picture but it curves to the left before curving back to the right all the way to the edge of the picture to head back on land.

There were a couple round areas that boats could tie up to that made great photo spots.

The water near the walkway was full of algae and lily pads.  It was pretty gross but that area didn't get a lot of wake from boats so it was essentially standing water.  I've never been there to know if it's always like that or if this was more than usual.

The "turning point" is actually a large section of water that's big enough for big freighters to literally turn themselves around.  There is a giant concrete company barge that comes through this way frequently, and I've seen video of it turn here.  I guess maybe it can go backward up the river for a bit to get to this point, but then it's just better to turn it around here?  Regardless, it's quite the sight in the middle of an otherwise standard-looking river.  The area across the way had some pretty foliage, and up the hill beyond it was a big house.  

The walkway had sea grass or reeds of some sort on either side at one point, which made cool sounds in the wind and looked pretty neat when they appeared to stretch on forever.

We saw all sorts of interesting nooks along the way.  I liked this one that looked like a little portal to a wooded hideaway.

This giant fungi ball was probably the size of Carter's head.  A little creepy but cool.

As I was taking the fungus picture, Carter said, "Look, there's a snake!"  For a second I thought he was kidding since he'd been talking to squirrels and making up stories as we walked.  But no, there it was, a couple feet away from me!

We watched it slither up the hill away from us.  He wasn't that big but I wasn't about to get too close!

There were a couple dirt paths that veered off the paved path, and at one I noticed this interesting spot a few steps in.  Those are steel beams sticking out of a tree.  It was hard to tell what they were from.  There were train tracks just over a berm from here, so I wondered if there was some sort of railroad equipment here and somehow before whatever it was got dismantled, a tree grew around it.  I've seen trees do that with fences, but this was really amazing to see.

The path had some really pretty twists and turns, and with the leaves changing and the sun shining, it was really scenic.  

As we headed back there were a bunch of rocks right before the wooden walkway restarted, and I had Carter hop up.

I was excited about giving my new iPhone (Craig's hand-me-down) its first real test drive on this walk.  Turns out the zoom isn't really any better than my old phone, but the portrait mode is pretty fun. 

Note the new gap in Carter's teeth on the right side...another baby tooth down!

Since the zoom on the phone wasn't great, I was happy I brought my real camera (it's not obsolete yet!) when we started watching the birds.  There was a whole section of birds at the turning point that were just hanging out in the water.  

All those little dots in the water left of center are birds.  They seemed unphased by the boats passing by.

I caught this cool pic of what I think is a gray swan flapping its wings.

Pretty sure this one is a blue heron...

There were also a lot of white swans.  This one had its wings up in an interesting way as it swam. 

Off in the distance (but sadly behind the trees when we were further down the river) was this big boat.  It looked like it was once some sort of tour boat, like a booze cruise type of ship.  Now it looks basically abandoned, but it's interesting that it's still in the water rather than drydocked.

Just had to get a selfie with my boy, who was a trooper for the 2.5 mile walk...

This picture really doesn't do it justice, but this was the steep walk back up to the path that led to our car.  I know it just looks like a straight path curving off in the distance, but if you train your brain to see height here, it really was that high and steep.  I felt a little bad for the dad we saw at the top who was pushing a double wide stroller in the opposite direction.  I imagine it would be hard to keep control going down, and it would be a heck of a push to get it back up, even empty.  Carter and I were both huffing and puffing a bit when we were done!

Back at the top there was a nice overlook view as well...

The balls on the power lines were actually one of the first things Carter noticed when we pulled in the parking lot.  Sad to say there are enough helicopter searches for missing people along the river that those are a must-have.

We grabbed a treat on the way home (a $1 Freeze as usual) and headed back to meet up with Craig and Jacob, whose team won to earn a spot in the championship game next week.  We decided to do a free-for-all dinner pick-up (with a stop at a beer store for something Craig wanted), and this was the gorgeous sky while we waited at one of our pick-up stops.

Pretty as it was, the hot pink ball of setting sun just before it was probably even more spectacular.  I just never got to a good spot for a picture.

Anyway, even if Carter wasn't super excited about our outing, I had a great time with him and it was definitely the kind of afternoon I needed.  Nice weather, pretty leaves, and some new scenery can work wonders!