On Saturday, we went for our weekend family walk at the Kirkland Watershed. This inaugural walk from the Urban Trails guidebook got us all just a little excited.

The guidebook said the freeway noise was a “background hum” (or words to that effect), but the trail we started on paralleled the freeway closely. We enjoyed more of a steady auditory background roar, but you wouldn’t know how close the freeway was just from the scenery.

Eventually we wound our way away from the freeway and down a hill that led us to a very nice little creek, where Benji enjoyed launching leaf boats and barraging them with handfuls of mud.

The rather brisk climb back up the hill had 2/3 of us demanding a rest, and conveniently, there stood a bench ready for the job. Something tells me other people have had the same thought in that very location.

We walked back (the short, flat way) and agreed that a good time was had by all. Benji got to play with mud in a creek and risk getting his shoes super wet; Ian and I got to enjoy scenery we haven’t seen a million times before. All in all, a successful first Urban Trails-inspired outing.