WHEN WE MOVED TO BENICIA ABOUT 25 YEARS AGO, Melody and I would go on walks around town and discover secluded features, like a perfectly good little park that nobody seemed to use much or a little trail leading to a piece of rocky shoreline. As the years have gone on, the rate of these new discoveries has greatly diminished, and I miss that. But there are still the occasional surprises. Now it might be as simple as finding a good patch of blackberries in an alley somewhere.

Here is a list of my favorites. None of these places is jaw-dropping. But they all have their charms.

1. The mini parks of the west side

The city grid that was laid out in 1846 had streets running continuously east-west and north-south no matter what physical feature was there — including the water of the Carquinez Strait. As a result, the city now has control of just about every location where a street meets the water. Many of these became features, like an overlook with a bench or a trail to the water. Each is different in personality. Some have picnic tables. Others are now used as secluded fishing spots.

There is a tiny play structure for tots at the end of West Fourth that my daughter and I would regularly visit back in the summer of ’94. Other faves include the bench under the tree at West Eighth; the hidden stairs at Elane Way; and the picnic tables at West 14th.

2. Bark Beach

Walk to the water at the end of First Street and turn left to make your way east along that marshy piece of coastline. Watch your step, and be ready to get your shoes wet. Dogs are allowed off leash here. Take advantage of that, especially if your pup is a swimmer. There’s always driftwood available that makes for good fetching sticks. It was here we taught Lacey to swim simply by throwing a stick, always just a little farther out into the water.

You’ll pass some abandoned pilings in the water left over from the industrial heyday of the Benicia waterfront. Over by the marina there is a beach that’s covered in a thick layer of tiny dark woodchips that somehow naturally accumulate there, like a cross between small tan bark or peat moss. It’s dark and spongy and especially fun for a dog to go rip-snorting around and dig into. My son dubbed it “Bark Beach” many years ago, and now I pass the name on here.

3. Overlook Park

Or should I say “Overlooked Park”? Benicia gets high marks when it comes to its park system — simply because we Benicians have a lot of them. Take it from a guy who grew up in an unincorporated town in Contra Costa County where little effort was made for many years to add parks to the various neighborhoods — Benicia has some real gems: the Downtown Park, the Community Park (aka “Big Slide Park”), and the Ninth Street Park, to name a few. Several years ago when my son was little, my family made a point to visit every park in Benicia over the course of a summer, checking them off on a map we got in a Benicia parks guide.

One of our favorites was “Overlook Park” primarily because of the views of Mount Diablo framed by the tall stands of eucalyptus trees. We return now and then for a picnic. There’s hardly ever anyone there. If you arrive at the Seaview Drive entrance, you will see only an average bit of lawn and trees that seem to be a disappointment. But follow the park around the corner and you’ll have your view.

4. City Cemetery

Most of us know about it, but few do anything with that knowledge. The original cemetery is just up Riverhill Drive off West Second Street (on the street across from McDonald’s). Surely this hilltop location was selected by Benicia’s founders for its fine views of the town and waterway below. For those who have a loved one interred there, this place must have extra meaning, but I can vouch for it simply as an interesting park to explore. I’m always noticing the dates on the headstones and doing some quick math to see if the person had a long or short stay here on this crazy merry-go-round. (There’s a marker at a family site that notes a latitude and longitude where Edwin Lewis was lost at sea at age 36 many years ago. Later, to honor him, I looked up where on the globe we lost poor Edwin. It was off the west coast of Mexico.) There are plenty who didn’t get their full allotment of decades, a reminder to seize the day. At those moments, the sound of the breeze in the trees seems especially precious.

We took the kids there for a picnic when they were little. It’s right around age four that kids come to understand what mortality is, and it trips them out to wrap their minds around that — a healthy step and a necessary part of growing up.

5. Walking trail connecting Palace Court and Hastings Drive

This is an official walking trail through one of the Southampton “green belts.” It’s paved, about 5 feet wide and just under a mile long and is in a valley largely set apart from the world of houses. Along the way, a dirt trail breaks away to the north that seems like it’s going nowhere special, but it leads to a pond hidden in the hills. This pond is a little ecosystem all to itself, with tall marsh grasses lining the sides — an unexpected oasis hidden in the hills. It’s also a good place for dog swimming.

There you have it. The best of my years of exploring. Now it’s your turn.

Steve McKee is a Benicia architect specializing in residential design. He can be reached on the Web at www.smckee.com or at 707-746-6788.