Last Saturday we had a few free hours so we headed to a local park so Doug could fish his little heart out and I could read my book.
Now Doug will be the first to say fishing at a suburban park with a perky man-made fountain in the center is totally lame. In fact, he claims it sucks the testosterone right out of you. But even with little girls skooting by on roller skates, our day at the park still proved to be quite outdoorsy.
It started with the catch. Sure it wasn't gigantic for a bass, but hey--he caught something.
And because I was sitting still reading, the ducks and geese brought their babies right next to me (sometimes only 2 feet away... kinda uncomfortably close).
And then some little birds kept flying around trying to attack the geese. They were very territorial. They were black with bright orange shoulders, and we realized we last saw birds like that in Costa Rica. We were impressed until the little birds chased the geese right towards me. Now THAT was uncomfortable.
And THEN a wren kept circling the pond and landing just across the way from me. The black birds were not pleased with him either, but I sure was.
Doug then took a break from fishing to spend a good 15 minutes trying to catch some lizards with a 9-year-old boy. The lizards were snake-like, so I kept my distance.
Little did I know, though, that just before we left we'd head over to check out some turtles and we'd run into this guy:
It's a rat snake. I'd like to say I acted gracefully when I saw it, but let's get real--I freaked. It never came all the way out of its hole, but it was pretty dang big. Way more troubling than the geese.
We'll never underestimate a day at the park again.
7 comments:
that is too funny. i would be screaming too! me and jerome really like fishing too. i don't eat any of the catches either. yuck!
I feel your pain - you know how I feel about geese.....
And the snake - I can just see you. I'm guessing Doug made quite the meal out of that fish.
YowzA! Nothing like hanging out with mother-nature! What did Doug do with the fish?
Alas, we did not keep the fish. He was caught and released.
Okay...that snake looks way bigger than it did on your camera over Skype! Holy poo! Seriously, I totally understand the freak-out. I would have done the same. I hate nature...though I love nature videos (you know, national geo, planet earth).
When I scanning the blogger list, I read your title as "A Dork at the Park". Oops!! Sorry Doug!
Quite eventful critter day. We have a dead snake in the garage right now. Malcolm dragged the poor thing in and had a party until the snake died of the excitment. Ahhhhh . . .
Geese . . . you must be your mother's daughter.
We were there for that fishing trip... sort of. I found your blog!
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