Lately our weather has been very hit and miss, gray and ugly one day, clear and pleasant the next. This past Saturday was one of those clear and pleasant days. The temperature was right with just the lightest breeze and a clear sunny sky. I decided to visit Artesian Park in downtown Corpus Christi. I’d driven by this park many times and always wanted to stop, but never took the chance.
I drove downtown and since it was such it was such a nice day, I parked several blocks away from the park. I thought I would have a nice walk too. I parked across the street from the Executive Surf Club, a restaurant and bar sometimes with a live band playing in the courtyard, and started walking down the street. There weren’t a lot of shops open, but still had a few people out. I realized that I didn’t think I had been out and about downtown during the day much or at all. I had gone out downtown to meet friends at restaurants, bars or clubs, but otherwise I’d never spent much time there. To me downtown was always just a run down, shuttered place with nothing to offer, just bars, restaurants and a tattoo shop. While this is mostly true, there is an obvious attempt to change that. And when I took the time to look around, there was a beauty there too.
On the way to Artesian Park, I passed alley ways and storefronts (mostly closed on the weekend) and cross streets. Yes, I did have a destination but I also didn’t want to be so concerned with seeing everything or getting where I was going that I saw or experienced nothing. I had the time so I didn’t limit my trek so while I did continue on to the park but I stopped and checked out what I could along the way.
I finally made it to Artesian Park. Its supposed to be the first park in Corpus Christi created when Corpus Christi’s founder, Henry Kinney, donated the land to the city as a park in 1854. The first thing I did when I got there was to check out the commemorative stone to General Zachary Taylor’s army, they camped here from 1845 to 1846. Then I walked into the rest of the park. It was a nice green space within the concrete, brick and glass of downtown. I sat down on a bench and listened to the birds twitter and watched the squirrels run. The tree tops were home to a handful of grackle nests. One even ran off a mocking bird.
Next to the park was a boutique. In the past, I had always thought the building was a children’s home. I was half right as it was a house, but it contained a clothing boutique. They were having a pop up fair, there were vendors on the front lawn and porch. I walked around all the vendors and wandered around inside for a while before buying some jewelry. I probably shouldn’t have bought anything, but I could afford it and I really liked the pieces.
I took a different route back to my car. There are some really cute views of downtown, who would’ve thought. I found more street art than I thought there would be. And as I was walking, almost everyone I passed was staring at their phones. I was so curious, I peeked at someone’s phone as they passed me. They were playing Pokemon Go. I thought people had stopped playing that game a year ago. Shows me. I don’t know that everyone staring at their phones was playing Pokemon, but at least a few were.
The last place I stumbled across was the World War I memorial. I guess you could say I knew it was there, I’d driven by it before, but I don’t think I would have remembered it was there. It was just a large open green space on the hill leading from downtown to uptown. In Spohn Park, a wide open space before heading back to the car.
Iwentroaming 