The official Van Horn Park post

I set out with the small goal of finishing all the streets off of Newbury today, and the small dog and I did a bit more than that. It was very warm and started out sunny, and then it got darkly overcast and I felt maybe a dozen sprinkles hit me, but the rain held off until we got home.

We traveled down Carew to Newbury once more, turning left onto Huron. We took that all the way down to St. Lawrence, finishing that up, and then turned right off of Huron onto Connecticut. We had been checking out Connecticut all the way from Farnsworth. We turned right onto David, took that to its end, turned around and then turned right onto Wentworth. We took that to its end, turned around, got back onto David, and then turned right onto Tacoma. We followed Tacoma up to Liberty and took Liberty down to the back entrance of Van Horn Park.





This is the small back pond, which turns totally green with algae by the end of the summer.



Where the trail splits is one of my favorite features of the park, a natural staircase formed by the roots of trees.



As we wandered along the trail, I noticed an awful lot of these bastard caterpillars, which can kill whole trees. If I had my way, I'd squish them all but it's the natural order for them to do their thing.



This photo was taken up by Armory Street, by the park entrance closest to Springfield Street. This is my favorite spot in the entire park.



This is the view of the big pond from the bridge on Armory Street.

We followed the sidewalk up Armory to the main entrance to the park and walked in on Catafalque Drive, which is basically the driveway to the park's parking lot. Van Horn offers a splash pad, a playground, several baseball diamonds, tennis courts, a basketball court, a picnic area and even a doggie water fountain. When we were done at the park, we took Armory up to where it meets Carew.

Across Carew from Our Lady of Hope is the House of Huang, Kenny Travel and Tours Income Tax and Kwick Kleaners and Laundromat.





The House of Huang received a glowing five-star review from a person on Yahoo! Local.

Across Armory from those shops were the Racing Mart, the Image Makers II and Jasmin.





The Racing Mart is your typical convenience store; Image Makers -- I'm telling you, you need your hair cut, you come to Liberty Heights; and Jasmin's Creations offers women's clothing and serves as a bridal boutique.

Next to them was El Pilon Restaurant, which Yahoo! Local user rubia gave five stars, stating, "You have to go to this restaurant, I give them an A+. It's one of my favorites. Very good with customers. Fresh food everyday. If you're looking for some spanish food, this is the place to go. Oh, and don't forget to ask for a Natural juice. I tried the tamarindo one and it tasted so good I asked for another one."



Next to that on Carew is Gerardo's Transportation and New Millennium Barber Shop.





After passing the barber shop, we turned left onto Raymond Place to begin our series of short, dead-end streets. After Raymond it was Morrell Street, Van Horn Place, Mystic Court and Dineen Street. Once we'd finished those, we got up to the corner of Carew and Liberty, where Access Family Chiropractic and Facchini & Facchini PC sit across from a Cumberland Farms gas station.





Amanda S. wrote on InsiderPages.com "If you are looking for a chiropractor that really cares about your well being take a look here. Our family is feeling great because of this business. It is amazing how much better life is without aches and pains. The staff is cheerful and helpful. The office is clean and nicely decorated especially for the holidays." The office specializes in whiplash, sleeplessness, no noise or twisting treatment, migraines, fibromyalgia, fat loss and chronic fatigue. They also offer free consultations and free financing. (The "kinky" sign on the side of the building is the best feature of the office in my opinion.)



Facchini & Facchini PC specialize in work place injury, wills and estate planning, serious injuries, real estate - residential/commercial, personal injury, medical malpractice, defective products, criminal defense and car accidents, and they do hablan espanol.

We continued following Carew back up to where it meets Newbury. Just before the corner building is A&H Printing Company.



On the corner sits Angelo's Barbershop, Junction Skatepark and H&K Hair Design.



Junction Skatepark is "a skatepark for skateboarders by skateboarders" -- no bikes, scooters or roller blades allowed. This place is always busy and the kids that hang out there are pretty awesome. They always compliment the small dog and I.

181 down, 42 to go