A day's mission during Christmas break

Our mission: To walk downtown from the condo to a toy store on 23rd, not to buy anything, just to look. 

It was a cold, gray day, my friends. There was a bitter nip in the air.

It was so cold, in fact, that our normally nice-looking kid became what you see below. We feared the worst, but happily the effects wore off within minutes of being inside a heated home.

What felt like 19 miles in the beginning - did you not see how very far away downtown looks from our place? - turned out to only be slightly more than three walking, with an additional three-plus on the streetcar. Phew.

Of course, there were dangers. Overhead and underfoot. Literally. I mean, have you seen the shape of that bridge that's being replaced? We're lucky that thing didn't fall into the river when we crossed it. Were it not for clearly marked signs, we most surely would have perished.

And huge snow dumps? The threat felt imminent. We had no way of knowing just when the message was put on the reader board. What if? Think of it. What if that "tomorrow" was actually "today"? Thankfully, it didn't dump snow, and we continued our journey north.

We had spare time. So we used it to enjoy the blooms still on the trees,

and snap a son and mama shot*,

practice our bat flying,

and our bat sleeping,

and meet new friends, who were also enjoying winter break.

We were hungry by the time we happened upon a Little Big Burger. Fries and a drink seemed best. And would be unlikely to ruin dinner. Here is a picture of the little twerp, I mean, my son stealing, I mean, partaking of my, I mean, our fries.

Later, Hen showed me his disappearing bat wings while we waited for a rescue from papa. It was a good winter adventure.

*Fixed focal length and lack of a tripod help explain my chopped off head.