Natural City Hiking

So I took the kids for a "Nature Hike" today. Actually it was a "Its nice outside and you guys are driving me crazy" walk. So we loaded up the big red wagon, put on our cool shades, and went lookng for nature.

The problem is that we live in the city. How do you find this elusive "nature" when you only have 1/5 acre plots of grass surrounded by concrete and asphalt? There was a better than average chance we would see a Kestrel, as they live in the downtown buildings and frequently hunt these little 1/5 acre plots. Then it dawned on me! That is nature. The Kestrel hunts something natural, lets look for those! So we found grey squirrels and some chickadees and some dogs in peoples yards and a older lady still in her bathrobe.

Hey, its not what you and I think of when we think of nature... but to a 4 year old and a 2 year old it was pretty cool. Not as cool as Polar Bear poop. Really they just liked being pulled in the wagon.

I was about a block away when I realized I had left my coffee cup sitting on the counter. It was the classic middle-aged man's dilemma. Do I exert the energy to retrace my steps to go get the coffee... or do I just carry on without. Gamely, I proved to my children that man was capable of carrying on through great hardships as I continued my walk around the block sans coffee.