Picture Walk for Ash

My Friend Ash begged asked me to take her on a walk through my neighborhood with pictures. So here we go, a post full of pictures of our walks. (Hope you enjoy this walk too Brooke!)

We live on a little street called Flemington, I say little because it is one of the narrowest streets EVER!!! It really should be a one way street. Only one car can drive down it at a time. So if you are driving on it and another car comes the other direction you have to cross your fingers that there is an open spot to pull off the side to pass each other. I have seen many a cars driving in reverse to get to a spot where one car can pull over to let the other pass. Even though it is narrow and tightly pack with houses, I love it. It just feels so homey to me.

Here is a shot of our street if you were to walk out our front door and turn right up the street. Check out how close the houses are to each other. I swear there are two to three houses in Pittsburgh to every one house on a street in Utah. The summer is the best because almost every house has a porch in my neighborhood and people just sit out on their porch and hang out. I really need to take more advantage of this and get to know my neighbors better. Maybe I'll be ambitious this summer and plan a block party or something... maybe...

But it is fun for our walks getting talked to all along the way.

 Our street is shaped like a boomerang and here is the bend, to the left is where Flemington continues on and straight ahead is Monteiro street (that steep hill that I talked about HERE). We almost always take a left and continue on Flemington.

 Here is the rest of the street, it is a little hill that gets our walks started right, with a good sweat! Sarah used to always just run up this hill the whole way because she was so excited to be out on a walk. But now she has learn that it is tiring and usually asks to ride in the stroller (or on Daddy's shoulders) until we reach the top and then she runs down to her favorite spot...

at the bottom of the hill is where she climbs on the wall. 

See Sarah walking on it HERE... or HERE.

This is also where we hit...

Off to the left is Kennebec Street and straight a head we hit Greenfield Avenue.

A picture of the neighborhood from this street. Don't you just love it! I do. 

What a close community little Greenfield is!

To get to our two favorite parks we turn right and head down Greenfield Ave.

Down this street is a little four-way stop. The cross street is McCaslin. When I am really feeling like a need a good, sweaty workout I hit this street. You can't really tell from the picture but the street takes off straight up for about half a mile! It is a tough hill! And when you are pushing a stroller with two kids in it, you really get a work out!

Also at this intersection you'll find the cute little Greenfield Rec Center/Senior Center.

It has a little gym in it that residents can use for free. And in the back is...

A playground (not a very good one), pool, basketball court and...

A baseball field. I really need to go to a game sometime. I know some of my neighbors have stickers on their car windows for the Greenfield team. It would be fun to go and watch them play. 

At the very far left of the stands there is a staircase that meets up with Monteiro Street, it is a little shortcut we could take if we didn't have two kids in a stroller, and if we wanted to walk up a hundred stairs or so. 

Lets keep going on Greenfield Ave. 

Here is a set of stairs off to the left. Pittsburgh has the most city owned stairs in the country. This set is about 60-70 steps, which really isn't much compared to other ones I have seen. 

At the bottom of the hill we have Rialto's pizza and meet up with Beechwood Blvd. There used to be a great little ice cream shop called Bruster's on the corner, but it closed right after we moved here. Bummer. Off to the left is this really neat looking Catholic church and sometime I plan on going to mass there, I've always wanted to go to mass, but never have. 

We go through the intersection and cross...

Beechwood Blvd Bridge to enter Schenley Park. 

This is where the walk gets really BEAUTIFUL!!!

I love all of the trees.

Especially the ones with the really wide, bumpy trunks.

We come around the bend to this on the left...

and this on the right.

Most days we stop and play here at the Barlett playground. 

But today we decide to go down this little trail to another playground.

Breathtaking isn't it?

So lush and green, I just love it.

This is a great trail and it is always filled with walkers, runners and bikers.

We take a small exit on the trail to bring us up to Panther bridge. 

The park is off to the left, but if we turned right on to Panther Bridge we would head towards Phipps and then the Carnegie Main Library where the Summer reading festival was. 

Here is Anderson park, known by the locals as Dinosaur Park. 

Why you ask? Well because of this giant dinosaur. 

 This is a really awesome playground, and huge. I really like it, but it can be hard to keep an eye on your kiddos. Plus, because of the bigger slides and things it attracts older kids, so we usually just go to Barlett, but on special days we come here to have our playground fun!

The ice cream truck comes and waits on the street by the park... so Daddy spoiled Sarah.

Here is Sarah's first treat ever from the ice cream man.

YUM!

Abby loved watching the other kids, crawling after her big sister, eating sticks, rocks and whatever else she could get her hands on, and going down the slide!

So there you have it. A walk with us. Hope it wasn't a total photo overload and that you got a better feel of this amazing city we live in.