I've always thought it would be great to live close enough to everything to walk to the post office or bank or farmers' market. How strange it seems at times to have to schedule walking time as if it were a chore!
We almost bought a house in downtown Anacortes just because it was near downtown and only a few doors from the farmers' market. The timing wasn't right, we let it go, and now every time I go past it I feel a pang. Because someone else is now living there and I can't impulsively decide it's time.
Chances are we will never live downtown, and so we'll always need to have the car with us for those inevitable errands. Town if four miles from home, and while that's not overly far to walk, it's hard to avoid the main busy street with its ferry traffic and lack of sidewalks.
But we can simulate living downtown: we can park at a central location and do all our errands on foot. We can begin to think of the car as a way to go from house to town, and then home again. Every other part of the journey is for walking.
So now we park at Safeway and walk to all our errands. (If we need groceries we get them right before going home so refrigeration isn't a problem.)
From Safeway it's 6 blocks to the post office, or 5 to the bank, double for round-trip. The circuit that covers both is 14. The farmers' market is about 9 blocks. Another grocery store is 5 blocks in another direction.
It takes a lot of errands to get enough steps to satisfy a good day's walking. My target is 10,000 steps. A trip downtown, counting time in grocery store trying to find things, can take as few as 2000 steps. Throw in an excursion over to the docks to watch the boats coming and going, though, and it can start to add up.
I've done errands in the rain. It feels virtuous. I've found that in our island town the cross streets are breezy, because the prevailing wind comes from the west. I've bumped into people I know. I've stopped in at stores I've only wondered about. I have gone beyond the norm to the library, which is only 6-7 blocks from the car but away from the other usual stops. I've walked further to the cinema to see what's playing. That is a full 9 blocks from the car. It's all quite pleasant compared to the usual day of errands. And fortunately right next to the Chamber of Commerce in the midst of it all is a pair of restrooms.
I'm always looking for steps, so park-and-walk works for me. It seems so much more sensible to park and walk then to drive to errands, then come home and try to find a time to get my steps in!
But it's a new habit for sure. The other day we drove from the market to the post office to the bank. It was a beautiful day. We just forgot to park-and-walk.
What about you? Would this work in your circumstances? Do you do it already? Does it sound worth trying? I'd love to hear about it. Please leave a comment.
