Mini Road Trip: Centennial Park
/On a recent sunny afternoon – I headed out on a mini road trip to Centennial Park. Others had the same idea; the first parking lot I went to was full; there were plenty of spots at the second lot I checked. There were more people than I expected; most – but no all – were masked. This mini road trip was the trial of wearing a KF94 mask with a second mask on top for me; I’d put the masks on before I left the house. I walked across the street after my pace was halted by a young woman stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to coax her reluctant dog to walk; I took a picture looking up the trunk of a gingko tree; the long buds with a rounded tip look like they’ll have tiny green leaves emerging soon.
I went back to the sidewalk intending to take it to the main trail around the lake but that seemed like what everyone was doing and I was not keen to walk at the pace of the crowd to keep the distancing between groups. I was more interesting is finding at least one photographic opportunity which I saw almost immediately…under some pine trees near where I parked: pine cones in the grass and needles!
I found one that I photographed with my normal settings…then with special filters: art bold and water painting.
Before I turned back toward my car I took a picture of an empty picnic table. It was too cool for sitting around….people were out moving about and enjoying the sunshine.
It was too crowded for me to spend more time at the park. I accomplished my goal for the mini road trip: get used to the mask configuration and re-familiarize myself with driving my car! I’ll be doing more of these short outtings over the next 6 weeks or so as one step toward a new normal I’ll have post-vaccine.
