Saturday, March 21, 2009

Parks and Bricks

Today I took the kids to Alum Creek Park. Lynda had to spend time working on stuff that had to be mailed by 4 pm and she needed some quiet time to think. So, the girls and I headed out.

We were going to go to a different park a bit closer to our house, but it is in the midst of being reconstructed so it wasn't an option.

Actually, my original plan was to take everyone to the zoo but somehow that idea changed during Hannah's nap. I wasn't privy to all of the options given between Lynda and Sarah and Grace, but our destination changed. At least I found out about it before I was halfway down the Interstate. It's too bad really, because I like taking the kids to the zoo. It allows us to walk around more than we do at the parks, which--for me at least--tend to be more stationary affairs.

Still and all, Alum Creek is a nice park. It's open, wide, and has lots of play options for the girls--sand pits, slides, things that spin, things to climb on. Along with plenty of trees, a baseball field, a volleyball court, grills, swings. Its on the edge of the Otterbein College campus and has a ice atmosphere. Even Hannah had a train to play on.

Beside the park, on the other side of the parking road is a spillway for the titular creek. After we played for around an hour or an hour-and-a-half we started back to the van to head home. But the girls wanted to took at the spillway and stare down into the water. While they looked, I was looking at the brick and concrete pathway/wall that formed a border to the footpath beside the creek bed.

I don't know how old the bricks are but the concrete holding much of it together was crumbling. It exposed some of the bricks and I could see interesting names on them. I thought I'd take a few pictures.









I did a quick Google search and found this interesting article on the history of decorative paving blocks in Ohio. With a quick skim of the article, I didn't see specific mention of the "Townsend Block 7" or the "Hocking Valley Block" but there is a very nice picture matching the "Nelsonville Block."

It seems that these pavers have been here for quite a while.

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