A walk around Downtown Bellevue with Mom and Dad

This morning/early afternoon, I took my parents on a modified version of my daily walk in Downtown Bellevue. When I say "modified", I mean that we started by walking to Top Pot Donut Shop, having a donut, walking to the mall, walking around Crate & Barrel, walking through the mall (which I sometimes have done on my walk), around Downtown Bellevue Park, across to and down to Meydenbauer Beach Park, and back again. I usually walk around Downtown Bellevue Park 2 extra loops (1/2-mile each loop). We also stopped for lunch at Cactus at the mall once we realized that we had been out strolling so long and that it had become lunch time. :)

All in all, we got in almost 5 miles (and more than 6.5 miles by the end of the day) and over 12,000 steps. GO, Mom and Dad!!!

The highlight of the walk was when we spotted a family of ducks swimming in the Meydenbauer Bay. NINE ducklings and their Mama Duck. They were all swimming together in a very tight line. The duckling closest to the Mom was actually sitting on her back, with the rest right behind them. It was SO cute. I've never seen anything like it before! Curious to know what kind of ducks they are.

It was really nice sharing the walk with them, and taking it leisurely. We were out much longer than we had originally planned, but we all had a great time.


Dad and Mom at Downtown Bellevue Park


Of course, I brought them down and up some good flights of stairs. They were troopers!


on the pier at Meydenbauer Beach Park


The family of Ducks - one mama and her NINE ducklings! My parents got a great close-up photo with their camera!


taking photos of the duck family

When we had just about finished walking around the park, we met a couple near the sculpture. Turns out that the man, Bill Vielehr, is the sculpture himself! He and his wife live in Boulder, CO, and had come to Bellevue to see another one of his sculptures installed at Downtown Bellevue Park this week. This was the first time they have had the chance to see this sculpture at Meydenbauer Beach Park since it had been installed. It was really nice having a chance to talk with them about his art.


Jim and Kitty Vielehr, standing by Jim's sculpture in Meydenbauer Beach Park