The Trek To Boulevard Park
For years, I have always taken time out of my days to walk to some place. Whether that be around my neighborhood as a kid growing up, or downtown Minneapolis during my high school years. Since moving out to Bellingham, I have wandered aimlessly to countless destinations, but as I get more familiar with the area I find myself walking to Boulevard as my usual destination.
The Journey Begins
Every walk to Boulevard starts with the same meaningless inner argument, “Do I lock the door? Will I really be gone that long?”. I am fully aware that I will be gone for longer than intended, it seems impossible for me to make it a short trip. I walk out the front door of Mathes in hopes that one of the all day lounge dwellers will see me leave and question where I am going, I always reply with a shrug. I walk down the stairs under Mathes to the roundabout, I use the curb as a balance beam as I walk towards High St. in order to cross it to the small curved, sloped, gravel trail.
From there I run down the hill until I hit the staircase that seems to be constantly damp and moss covered. Every time I walk down them, I have a small daydream about falling down them, spilling onto the sidewalk of the ever-bustling State Street. I tend to struggle getting across state street, whose drivers seem oblivious to the existence of a cross walk. After playing first person frogger, I am finally on the gravel path that will take me the rest of the way to Boulevard Park.
The Aforementioned Gravel Path
When I step down onto the rugged trail, I feel as if I have wandered into a different world miles away from the one trying to avoid being the subject of vehicular manslaughter on State Street. The trail feels secluded and although devoid of curves or turns, an array of different scenery presents itself to me as I stroll down the path. The trails goes through bushes currently in bloom, large tree groves, and eroded rock (making me feel like I am in some kind of canyon) all while giving you glimpses of Bellingham Bay as you get closer and closer to Boulevard Park.
One negative thing I experience on the path is the people on it, whether it be the people walking vaguely faster than me and just float in my area for a long period of time or bikers that zoom by you and give you a heart attack, people are my express lane back into the real world. The path finally comes to an end when you cross the train tracks, the manmade threshold between a measly trail and the next chapter of the walk, Boulevard Park.
The Park Itself
By the time I make it to the actual park, my crippling caffeine addiction lures me directly to the Woods Coffee on the park grounds. Every time I come to the park I have to pep talk myself into not spending money on coffee, yet every adventure at Boulevard Parks starts with me rationalizing the $4.50 I am about to drop on a peppermint latte. I never claimed to be strong willed. The Woods Coffee itself has a cabin feel to it and has a patio that is perfect for viewing the sunset! (Thus the picture at the very top of this review.) The coffee shop quickly becomes overwhelming on nice days, there is no room for a line to form, so everyone tends to cluster at the door waiting to fuel themselves with espresso.
Coffee in hand, I am free to wander to the main attraction of the park, the boardwalk. The boardwalk is frequent to heavy foot traffic, the walking rules of the boardwalk function much like a two lane highway. Stick to the right, if you get stuck behind soccer moms pushing strollers, you can speed up in the left lane in order to pass them. I personally love the boardwalk because it puts you right over the water, the sloshing sound of the waves directly under your feet really accentuates that fact. At the end of the boardwalk there is a small boat landing pushing out into the bay. If it isn’t too crowded I like to take the time to go down and sit on it for a bit, just long enough to get sea sick from the waves lifting it up and then letting it drop.
The Journey back to Mathes.
The long trek back to Mathes Hall from Boulevard Park begins with with a classic game of “what parts of my coffee cup go into which bins?” This is a game that I have a disadvantage at due to the fact that I am not from the, justifiably so, recycle-obsessed Pacific Northwest. The journey back to campus takes approximately half an hour to complete and is a straight shot. Being dragged away from Boulevard Park is not something I view with much fondness. Instead of remaining in my place of sanctuary, I am walking away from it towards the onslaught of student life. The last leg of the journey back is always the toughest. The trail back is very flat and is easy to navigate but that damned trail from State St. up to Mathes Hall is one of the many banes of my existence. Whenever I reach the staircase that will bring me up to State St. I question whether or not I should just take a bus from here. The plan is always to keep walking the trail to the downtown station in order to grab a bus back to campus. Sure, the bus station a longer distance away than my dorm room, but the path there is not steeper than my tuition bills! I always shake that pipe dream, suck it up, and head up the hill. Halfway up the hill there is a cross street that is impossible to see oncoming traffic on, so much like my game of frogger on State St. on the way there, I take a leap of faith and walk across it. As I enter Mathes Hall, I pass the lounge dwellers. They always ask where I was for the last couple hours, “are you just now getting back?! Where did you go for that long?” they say. Once again, I shrug, and round the corner to the elevator up to my room.
Rhetorical Assessment
I wrote this review as open ended as I could, not trying to definitively say whether or not Boulevard Park is a good or bad place, I just wanted to open a dialogue about it and give a matter-of-fact account of what I think and feel when I go there. My audience is anybody who is looking for a new place to adventure to, whether that be an older person or a student. I did my best to come off as casual as I could in this review rather than rigid in my deliverance of information. I started writing this review as more direct informative until I read “I Stand Here Writing”, which inspired me to find my own casual voice in this piece to make it slightly more unique! Overall I love Boulevard Park and the walk there and I hope it came off in this medium.