Greenways & Other Summer Fun: Greenways: House Creek Trail

Today we continued our "outdoor art appreciation week" by heading out to the North Carolina Museum of Art and walking the House Creek Trail (a one mile paved trail which connects the Reedy Creek trail to the Reedy Creek Pedestrian Bridge, but more on that later).

One of the things that makes The House Creek Trail so special is that when you come from the museum parking lot, around the first turn in the trail, you come out into this beautiful grassy field with huge pieces of art popping up out of the landscape. As you stroll the paved trail that cuts through the field you find yourself coming alongside various pieces of outdoor art, and it's pretty impressive! Following the trail you'll pass through a heavily wooded area that runs alongside Interstate 40 (Wade Avenue), although when you're on the trail you can hardly hear the traffic. You never forget you're close to the Museum of Art though, as the parts of the trail are painted in decorative patterns, and small billboard-like pictures and other pieces of art peek out though the trees to surprise you as you walk along. The trail comes out to a pedestrian bridge that crosses over I-440 where it meets Wade Avenue/I-40. The kids have seen that bridge forever, and we've driven under it hundreds of time. I told them our trail adventure today would "amaze and astound" them, and they were not disappointed to get the chance to walk across that bridge. If you live in Raleigh, you've got to take your kids on this trail. It will make your heart race, and it's the cheapest thrill in town! On the way back we took a detour on one of the other trails that cuts through the museum grounds (this one wood chips and gravel), continuing through the woods and then coming back into the grassy field on the other side.

Noah (left) and Nathan (right) peek through the fence while standing in the center of the 660 ft. long Reedy Creek Pedestrian Bridge, 55 ft. above the rushing traffic on Highway 440.

Mom's note on Noah: Noah was kind of low energy today, and I don't know why. Perhaps he's a little out of sorts because he had his first mouth piece (a spreader to fix his cross bite) put in on Wednesday, and maybe it's sore. Maybe it's all the heat and high humidity we've been having. Or maybe he hasn't been getting enough sleep (our summer has been pretty much go to bed late and get up early). Whatever it is, he wasn't the high energy kid he normally is, so I was a little concerned about him, especially when he wanted me to carry him the last half mile back to the car. (OK, I was a little concerned for myself too. I mean, come on, the kid is 64 lbs. and it's like 95 degrees . . . ) Making the sacrifice, as moms will do, I did end up carrying him on my back, but only because it was so out of character for him to ask. I mean, this is a kid who spent 5, 12-plus hour days at Disney and was still skipping out of the park at 11pm on the last night. That's the magic of Disney I guess. And while the greenways have been fun, perhaps magic might be a stretch. And so, all this to say, Noah won't be journaling about this particular adventure. He was trying to negotiate to just write 8 adjectives, and frankly, at this point in the summer, I would have been happy with that. When I asked him to sit down to do his journaling he burst into tears, crying about how he'd had such a hard time at the pool today, and he just wanted to come home and and relax and play by himself. Yes, it's a hard knock life for an 8-year-old.

Nathan: Today we went on the House Creek Trail. It's by the museum. It had a lot of art on the side of the trail. There were giant loops that looked like clay, and also, there was this piece that looked like redish corn. We walked through the woods a little bit and then we came to the pedestrian bridge that was over the highway. We've wanted to do that all the time. Then we went back to the car and left to go to McDonald's to get a McFlurry, two apple pies, and two smoothies for us to share.

Nathan taking a break and catching a cool breeze as he sits inside Mike Cindric and Vincent Petrarca's really impressive Lowe's Park Pavilion.

Left: Noah posing on the painted trail. Right: Noah & Nathan in front of Martha Jackson-Jarvis' Crossroads/Trickster I. Noah called it "the giant corn".