Cordelia Park

Was here on a hike on Thursday and the Little Sugar Greenway extends to this neck of the woods. Cordelia Park itself is not that big compared to Freedom Park or as nice.
Walking into the Park and onto the Greenway there was garbage like soda cans, trash, plastic bags, broken liquor bottle, etc… Calling all Litter Bugs pick up after yourself and throw out your own trash. The environmentalist had garbage bags and picked up litter that was in our path. We also pitched in.
Amazing hike and the things you notice in the park and greenway. Got to love mother nature and all it’s beauty. We saw a North Carolina Praying Mantis, Wooly Bear Catepillar, Blue Heron having a bad hair day and hiding from us. Tons of mushrooms– Oyster and other interesting fungus. Tis the season for Pecans for they are ripe and dropping on you as you walk by. They are read to eat too. Just crack them open.

Cordelia Park — my kids spotted this place on the way to NoDa and made us circle back around to play. I had also seen a cop circling through there at that time — must be safe, right? Located on a hillside, this park has two levels. The lower level has a community pool and playground and the second has another playground. Unfortunately, included in the sandbox area was an underground hornets’ nest someone had stirred up. Well, it makes sense, we are in Charlotte. Go Hornets! Haha!
NoDa is a pretty hip and gentrified area, but sometimes you get lulled into a false sense of security; not all of NoDa is nice. As it got darker, I realized everyone else had left — everyone else but two young men parked near our car in a running SUV; this was not the Mystery Machine, but a dark vehicle with tinted windows. The driver had been watching us take pictures with our nice camera. Having grown up in New York, I started getting «that feeling» (hot flash/​fight or flight), like something was going to happen and we needed to get the hell out of there. I hustled everyone into the car and headed down to the NoDa parking lot. When I passed by the SUV, the driver was either tweaking or dancing — I was not going to knock on his window and see if he needed medical assistance.
Definitely not the kind of excitement I need in my life — I’ll stick with the crowd, as there’s safety in numbers…