Secret Walks #4: Elysian Park & Barlow Hospital, 2.3 miles—but Barbara and I took Fleming's side trips and extended the distance to 5.25 miles

If you've driven to Dodger Stadium via the Stadium Way exit off the 5, you know Elysian Park, the park area west of the stadium filled with picnic tables, woodpeckers, playgrounds, coyotes, and grills. We walked south along Stadium Way, detouring into Montecillo De Leo Politi Park (Elysian Park / Dodgers Stadium) a small park within the park with its own amphitheater, tennis court, picnic area, and an abandoned horseshoe court. And stairs! I miss stairs. Back down to Stadium Way, we crossed through the grounds of the Barlow Respiratory Hospital (built in 1902 as a sanitarium for TB patients,) and then got our first look at the new Vin Scully Avenue sign at the stadium's Sunset Gate entrance. We took one look at the steep road up to the stadium and said "Why not?" The Dodgers are in SF today, so we had a breathtaking view of the empty field to ourselves.

At the end of the hike we collapsed over mochas at Silverlake Coffee, happy but exhausted.