elmwood roy lynch park.

I want to practice photography more this summer, and in the past I’ve been spectacularly terrible about taking my camera out and about. Most of that is because I’m picky about taking photos: I want it to be a cloudy day, and I don’t like photographing indoors. But I’m trying to stretch myself by showing you some of our favorite haunts around Columbia.

Before we bought our house, we rented an adorable and decrepit 1930’s bungalow a couple miles away in Elmwood Park. We adored that neighborhood, particularly the fact that we could walk to the neighborhood playground — although back then it was sort of a sad hodge-podge of dirty sand (the kids loved to “treasure hunt” in it), broken playground equipment, and a little sprinkler splash pad that never turned on. Elmwood is a beautiful historic neighborhood, and so its park always seemed a bit incongruous.

However, this year the park was completely remodeled, and it couldn’t be more different. There’s a sprawling playground, trees that provide patches of shade, flowers, and a wide expanse of grass. And a splash pad! Ironically enough the splash pad was closed for maintenance when I brought my camera, but the kids still loved playing in the early morning cool.

I can’t describe how restful it feels to have this peaceful, green oasis right downtown. I’m sure we’ll log many hours in our new park.