One of the things I like about Vancouver is the historical element. Most of Vancouver is pretty flat, so when my training schedule calls for a hill run, I need to head downtown to effectively work in more than one hill. I park at the Grand Central Fred Meyer store, then head up the Grand hill. It is a good feeling that my town has the state Deaf School and the state Blind school - I passed both of them on my Sunday run. I am still working on the Brandt Road hill - I don't know whether it is actually steeper or longer than other roads on my run, or if it is just where it falls in my route, but I find it to be a real challenge.
On Sunday's run, there was a mix of history-history and my personal history to think about. I ran down Mill Plain past the main branch of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library; this was the scene of many homeschool outings in the years that we were a homeschool family - some of the best years of my life. The library is getting ready to relocate to a great new location down the street. I'm sure this is needed, but I will miss the familiarity of my "home" library since 1986.
I ran through Vancouver Barracks - a military post from around Civil War times through World War 2, and still going. This week I didn't run through Officers' Row, but I ran past this beautiful street and row of Civil War-era homes. I ran down to 5th Street to get to the path that meets up with our infamous land bridge.
To get to the land bridge, I had to pass by Pearson Field, an active airfield and also home to a small flight museum. My grandson Cody and I took an opportunity to visit the museum a few years ago. I also got to jog by the Fort Vancouver national historic site - the reconstructed fort. Then on to the land bridge. 
The land bridge is landscaped with native plants and "decorated" with historic photos and information spanning the decades and centuries. Sunday when I noticed the photo of the Kaiser Shipyards during WWII, I realized based on a recent conversation with my parents, that it's possible my grandfather could be in the photo.
The land bridge is landscaped with native plants and "decorated" with historic photos and information spanning the decades and centuries. Sunday when I noticed the photo of the Kaiser Shipyards during WWII, I realized based on a recent conversation with my parents, that it's possible my grandfather could be in the photo. 
The land bridge is a safe walkway from the Fort Vancouver side of state highway 14 to the Columbia River side. Coming down on the river side, it looks like a finish line (but it wasn't mine on this particular day!), and comes out by the Old Apple Tree (grown from seed planted in 1826).
I do love the Renaissance Trail along the river. It evokes a lot of good memories from childhood about the times I spent with my immediate family and with my grandfathers - on or along the Columbia River.
I can see that I am not capturing in words the feelings that I get when "running through time;" the sense that "it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people doesn't add up to a hill of beans in this crazy world." And yet the value of each person living their humble life against the panorama of history.
