Take a Walk in the Park
Shiba Inu Kindness
Bill and I hopped the Coaster train for a 1 hour mostly scenic ride from Oceanside to the Santa Fe Depot, then took bus #215 from downtown to Balboa Park.
Balboa Park
Balboa Park is one of the country’s most amazing urban parks. It’s 1,200 acres - 65 miles of walking trails, a 12 acre Japanese Friendship garden in partnership with Yokohama, 18 world class museums, and the famous San Diego Zoo. It’s larger than New York’s Central Park and Chicago’s Millennium Park combined. It’s big.
Our goal for the day? The San Diego Air and Space Museum and the Japanese Friendship Garden…and maybe, time permitting, the Railroad Museum. (We are train buffs 🚂)
No problem. The bus dropped us near the zoo and we planned to walk to the Air and Space Museum, then work our way back up. On the map of the park it looked like a hop, skip, and a jump. Even for two old people.
We were lost within 5 minutes. (I will say, park signage could use improvement….or maybe my map reading skills…). Yes, we were those two people standing in one spot looking lost.
And then these four showed up….
Oh ya, they had a guy in tow, too, wearing a sleeveless t-shirt, army fatigue pants and a tan ball cap.
As they got close, I took a chance and turned toward the pack leader. “Hi. Do you walk your dogs often in the park?”
“Yes, I do,” he said, coming to a stop. Every dog sat down.
“Any chance you could tell us how to get to the Air and Space Museum? We’re a little lost.” I tried to look pathetic. Not hard.
He turned and pointed into the distance over the trees. “See that blue building? That’s where it is. You could just walk down through that parking lot over there and then…. Oh, you know what. I’m out walking my dogs for a couple of hours, so I’ll just take you there.” (It was the way he had just come from, so we were pretty sure it wasn’t the way he was planning on going. Yes we are masters of deduction.)
“Really? Oh, that’s so nice of you. Thank you so much.”
We all chatted along the way. Cliff was a native of San Diego, born in 1961, worked from home, his wife had encouraged getting the dogs, Japanese Shiba Inus, he’d been to 66 dog training classes….We laughed. We stopped for a ‘doggie rest spot’. A couple of times. We exchanged names. After 20 minutes we said ‘thank you’ (for about the 20th time), shook hands and went our separate ways. I wish I had asked to take their picture. All five. I forgot. Sorry. You would have liked them.
Turns out we didn’t have time for the Japanese Friendship Garden that day. But Cherry Blossom season is coming up soon. Might be time for another train and bus ride. Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll see Cliff and his 4 friends again.
We boarded bus #215 to head back to the Santa Fe Depot. At the first stop an elderly (easy for me to say) man was struggling to hoist his backpack up. I grabbed it at the bottom and lifted it up for him. He smiled and said ‘thank you.’ I smiled. I was feeling a little buoyed from our encounter with Cliff. Kindness seems to ripple that way.
Thanks for reading. We appreciate you being here. 😊
See you next week.
Heather and Bill
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COMMENTS:
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In the photo of the dogs, see the expression on the white dog's face? That is just how I feel every time I read the Kindness Magnet. Thank you, Heather for a fine start to my morning.
Kind people and dogs are almost everywhere. It’s just splendid to see them lifted up where everyone can see them. Thank you, Heather, for doing the heavy lifting.