Leakin Park

I cannot believe that I have lived here almost my entire life and I had never before yesterday, explored Leakin Park. When I was a child, Leakin Park was where stolen cars and dead bodies were disposed of. No one I knew ever went there for anything. I thought it was silly when they stopped the I-70 highway from plowing through the park to connect to the city. It would have been such a qucik easy commute downtown. I had never been there. I was making judgements on it when I had never been there.

So yesterday NJG was reading about a few events available for our enjoyment on a picture perfect Sunday. He came across this performance happening at the Gwynns Falls trail, traihead #2. Not beign from the area, he had no idea that this was a dangerous place to go. I warned him, that although I had heard they were trying to improve the park and I had heard they have a bike trail and a nature preserve, I still wasn't convinced that we could go there without seeing stolen cars and dead bodies. The event was art related. It sounded like it could be really, really awful or really cool. They talked about the performances as experiments in sound. There was also visual art in the woods.

So I threw together a picnic lunch and we headed off, DD3, NJG, and I. At first I wasn't even sure how to get there. I knew one road for sure that went past this park, but the bridge is out so we had to find another route. We drove into another area and there were about 6 pristine tennis courts sitting empty. There was a great playground. There was a mansion back there. We determined that we should park there and hike in.

We found the spot, which to me looked like we were invading a family picnic. The crowd was small. The art was spread all over, some in the woods. There was a picnic table available for us. There was a large grassy area for DD3 to explore and make friends. The performaces were very cool and unique. The park is beautiful, with trails to explore, a mansion where they give tours. It is clean. There is no vandalism. We will be back and will be glad to have the place to ourselves. As long as everyone else thinks about the reputation the park once had, it will remain a pristine gem for a few of us to enjoy.

I encourage any readers to look for gems like this in your own back yard.

Today we are going to visit DD1 at the university. She wants her siblings to see where she lives. More later.