Run 52: East Walnut Hills

I’m writing this recap on the patio, Memorial Day afternoon.  Donnie has been horizontal on the couch for the better part of two hours and has the nerve to glance up and say, “Are you taking a picture of yourself on your webcam?”  I truly was not and told him as much. “Well, are you looking at your reflection because you sure look like you’re mugging hard over there.”

He would know. Take a look at some of the pictures I got of him on our East Walnut Hills run today:

The best part of this story is that AFTER I had taken all of these—when we were headed back to the car after taking the last photo in the bunch (the sweaty selfie)—Donnie  says to me: “So I read this article online about how to look good in photos.  You’re supposed to tilt your face to one side.  And chuckle to yourself.”

Um okay.  I hope that technique gave him the results he was looking for.

So… back to East Walnut Hills.

The three day weekend gave us a good opportunity to try to make up some of our lost ground.  Donnie had already run a 5k in the morning, and this was really just his “shakeout run.” 

We started at Annwood Park, which is near the house we lived in on Cinnamon Street and one of Zola’s favorite places to walk.  I love the grotto that comes on about this time every year:

 

I mean, I really love it:

(Donnie very astutely observed that I look like a ghost in this picture.  It would have been great if my shorts were also white.)

After Donnie dragged me away from the grotto, we ran down Annwood and then back up Wold.  The thing to know about East Walnut Hills is that the homes are unbelievably gorgeous.  Maybe I’ve said that about homes in neighborhoods before, but these houses are on another level entirely. If you took one of them and put in on a Main Street in any other city it would be the one that tourists stopped to photograph.  East Walnut Hills has block after block after block of these treasures, each one more stately and significant than the next:

 

Just look at this:

 

The landscaping is also really nice:

 

We ran up Madison to DeSales Corner, which is best known in the running community as the place where the Flying Pig Marathon splits into the full and the half races.  This corner is also home to St. Francis de Sales Church, the mixed-use Residences at DeSales Plaza, and a lovely Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority building known as the San Marco:

 

(St. Francis de Sales)

 

(DeSales Plaza)

 

(San Marco and the fountain its garden patio)

The business district on Woodburn has an eclectic mix of new restaurants, shops, art galleries, a barbershop and a dry cleaner, a fitness studio, and a salon:

 

Woodburn meets McMillian at the Unity Church:

Just past Unity is St. Ursula Academy, where I pretended to get my senior portrait made:

 

Could this McDonald's sign get any bigger?  Although, is it just me or does it look sort of pretty under the blue sky?

We ran down Victory and did a quick loop through the Overlook at Eden Park.  This wasn’t originally on the route that Donnie had planned (he insists that it’s not technically in East Walnut Hills, but I really had to use the restroom and I knew that the park has a good one).

 

From there we ran down some of the secluded dead end streets.  Again, the houses and the views that they command make for some pretty impressive real estate:

 

On one of these side streets we came across this sign that reads, “Formerly Brunswick Pl. Renamed April 9, 1918 because of anti-German hysteria during WWI.”

 

Leaving East Walnut Hills, we stopped for this obligatory neighborhood sign shot.  From the looks of it, you might think I need to read the article that Donnie read about how to take flattering photos:
 

Except I don't think "chuckling to myself" would have helped this much.



P.S. Later, I asked Donnie to forward me the article, and this is what showed up in my inbox:
How To Take Flattering Photos of Yourself.

First, this is not even an "article", it's a wikihow, which means he must have been searching for it. Second, I don't see the part about "chucking to yourself."  Totally fabricated.  And finally, if you're going to click through to the link and read this gem, pay special attention to Step 7.  It's a real treat.