For my mental and physical well being, I try to get in some form of exercise in the middle of every day.  Since workloads and lunchtime meetings often preclude a visit to the Y (formerly the YMCA, you know), I often find myself taking a walk around downtown.

The other day, I imagined making these jaunts if I weren’t downtown, at some office complex in an outlying area, or at a mall (where there’s lots of parking but no appealing landscape) and I realized how lucky I am to work where I do.

Walking around downtown I can:  drop off my dry cleaning, get my clothes altered, buy cards for special occasions, make a deposit in a drive through ATM (sorry Wells Fargo), whiff the aroma of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, consult with an attorney (God forbid), get a haircut, enjoy lunch of Mexican, Asian, Spanish and greasy bar fare (there goes my walk’s health benefit), see friends, walk around a lake, stroll along a river, sit in a park and just be.

I will close (at the risk of sounding like a Dr. Seuss book) and make my point:  walking around in downtown Cedar Rapids is not only productive, it’s fun.  And it’s like no other place in our city.

For mind, body and soles.

(Guest blog for Cedar Rapids Downtown District.  www.downtowncr.org