This is the story of two friends, both mothers of two-year-old tots. One lives in Ripon. The other lives in Lathrop.
Motherhood is not the only thing they have in common. They also love to go out and take a walk somewhere that is not just safe but scenic as well. And that daily perambulation is not just for their health benefits but also to give their youngsters a chance to enjoy the outdoors, the fresh air, and the opportunity to get out of their strollers and stretch their baby muscles at the same time.
For their daily walks, Olivia Guevara of Lathrop and Alyssa Decena of Ripon have chosen the 52-acre Woodward Park along Woodward Avenue in Manteca as the perfect place to do that. For a couple of reasons: it’s a beautiful park with plenty of amenities to indulge youngsters like their toddlers, and, it’s a convenient half-way meeting place for them since Manteca lies practically in between the two South San Joaquin cities.
“We try to do it every morning,” said Guevara of their exercise activity.
“The kids love the park,” chimed in Decena.
The children get to play once their moms have completed walking while pushing the kids’ strollers around the community park. Sometimes, the mommy friends alternate and push each other’s child in the stroller, which is what happened Wednesday morning.
“It’s a mile all the way around,” Guevara said noting the amount of walking they do everyday around the park.
Decena and Guevara are not the only ones who have discovered Woodward Park as a perfect place for walking. Throughout the day, in fact, especially early in the morning and later in the afternoon, the paved pathways around the park attract a human traffic of pavement-pounders of all ages practically non-stop. One of the most scenic sections of the park is the stretch of walkway along Woodward Avenue flanked by a stretch of maturing sycamores forming a natural archway and canopy overhead.
Woodward is one of nearly 60 parks, and one of three community parks in Manteca. The other two are Northgate Park on Northgate Drive, and Lincoln Park which also boasts a public pool on South Powers Avenue.
