Five Days Ago ...

I never wrote about our Memorial Day adventures. The first part of the weekend (Saturday) was work, work, work. Well, for Ben. He did several big projects around the yard. Sunday was like any summer Sunday: church, naps, family walk. Monday was the special day. It is so rare that Ben has a weekday off and we have nothing to do. So we packed up a little picnic (really little, like a snack size picnic) and went back to the trail that rained us out a couple weeks ago.

I think this was our fourth time on this particular trail, and the first time we actually completed the whole thing. I'd tell you how awesome it is, but I think the pictures will do a better job.

First, as we've done many times before, we hiked through some wetland and some meadow areas. We stopped at an apple tree orchard to eat our snack.

And then (the part we had no clue existed) we walked out onto the lake and hiked for about two miles on the lake. My view was always similar to this:

Halfway between Reid, who was taking his sweet time playing with all the rocks; and Ben, who was maintaining a normal pace while packing Nell on his back. I did have a stroller, and Reid occasionally volunteered to get in, but he was also forced to get in, in order to keep up. 

A close up of Ben.

And a close up of Nell. She did eventually want out. So we let her run around and take a turn in the stroller. When Reid got tired but Nell was occupying the stroller, we broke the weight limit and threw him in the pack.

I think he had a lot of fun riding with his daddy. They looked for "all the dead things." Reid was enthralled by the dead fish and the dead birds who had washed up against the trail. There were even some smaller dead fish on the trail, probably dropped by birds.

Speaking of birds, we saw more than 100 pelican on this hike. The trail is owned by the Lake Butte de Morts Conservatory, and I'm guessing they built the area up as a sanctuary for the pelicans. We are so grateful they leave the area open to the public, because it really is an awesome experience to hike out on the lake.