A Life Day

Good afternoon, my friends. We had in mind to do another hike this morning. When we looked at it, we realized it was farther away than we thought. After driving those winding roads to yesterday's trailhead, we decided to just do some walking around the park here. The original trail, as described, wasn't a whole lot different from what we could see right here. Flowing Lake is a county park, and there are paths all through the area. You can see them where the dotted lines are in the image below.

We're in site 33, which is almost smack in the middle of the image above. 

We had grocery shopping to do, and we scored another roll of quarters (for laundry) while we were at the local Fred Meyer store. It's been great traveling in a state where we can shop at our home town store.  Now here's something you don't see every day. This store had a robot named "Tally" that keeps track of inventory. It's a brave new world, my friends.

When we got back, nothing would do until we got Smitty out for a walk. I had him out a few days ago, but there were too many people and too much activity, and so our walk was only a few minutes long. Since then most everyone has left. There are a few other campers here, but it feels as if we have the park to ourselves. With it being so quiet, Smitty insisted that a walk was in his future. He was out about 15 minutes, hunting, hunting, hunting for any available grass. He found just a few tufts here and there, but it was worth it for a little nibble of that Pawshington green.

And you probably can't see her very well, but Sadie stood guard from her catio.

Don't worry, Smitty. I've got your back.

Back inside, the walk was utterly exhausting. This is how they've been spending their time since.

Matthew called while we were at the grocery store. We called him back and had a nice little chat with him. After that, we had lunch and naps, and then we decided to take one of the trails to the lake for which this park is named: Flowing Lake. Right away, we spotted this "citizen scientist" invitation, and I'm all for science. They want pictures of the lake level, and this lake is clearly below its normal level.

The area was fenced off, but we simply walked around the fence. This dock we're on is going to be replaced. It was easy enough to see why. The wood felt kind of spongy, and there were areas where the lake could be seen through holes in the boards.

These lily pads must be so pretty when they bloom.

We saw one lone duck, occasionally diving down for something delicious.

Looking out across the lake, it looks like this. We imagine this is a lovely place to spend a warm summer day.

Heading back to our site, I noticed these two trees and their bark. The one on the left is a Western Red Cedar. On the right is a Douglas Fir.

We also met up with one of the indigenous creatures. We have them in Oregon too. The duck would have enjoyed meeting up with this guy.

And that was a pretty easy-going day. We enjoyed it. 

We'll be moving on to La Conner tomorrow. There is a quilt museum there. I thought there was a quilt shop as well, but it turned out to be one of those shops that's actually someone's studio. It's only open by appointment, and I'm not really interested in that. I did find one close by, and I'll pay them a visit.

As I'm writing, I haven't done any slow-stitching today. After I publish, I believe that will be my next stop. It'll be a good way to close out the day. We're expecting a very rainy day for our drive tomorrow. Happily, it'll be a short drive of just about an hour. We're expecting better weather by Wednesday. Also, I checked the hours on the quilt museum...closed on Tuesday, but open on Wednesday. Hooray!

Okay, my friends. If I'm going to do any slow-stitching, then I need to stop here. Enjoy your evening. If I don't check in tomorrow, I'll be back on Wednesday.