Hiking vs. Walking

We got out to the wildlife refuge this weekend. It's a nice place (though unfortunately named), bluffs and a wetland/landfill down by the river, and it's only about half a mile from our new apartment. The weather was cool and damp, but not actually raining, qualifying for Beautiful Weather status on my current emotional barometer, and we all had pretty serious cabin fever. Actually, Cook and I did - Dutch, as usual, wanted to stay and do her projects, and only reluctantly agreed to go when I threatened her with the loss of the lemonade she'd earlier been promised as a with-dinner drink. Then she insisted on being carried all the way there. Then she informed us that her bladder was full and insisted on being carried all the way home to pee. Then she insisted on being carried all the way back to the refuge (I grimly insisted that we had to go back post-pee, though we were all pretty damn cranky by then). Then she joyfully walked and hopped and ran for 45 minutes, without complaining or asking to be carried, as we strolled around the trails. I'm sure there's some lesson here about Children's Innate Love of Nature, or at least This Particular Kid's Love of Puddles. At any rate, it was lovely. It didn't rain. We inspected decomposing logs. We heard frogs! About a billion of them! They're not gone yet! Of course, we had to carry the kid all the way home again, but it was worth it.

I was just looking at the wildlife refuge website, and was surprised to find that they list WiFi as a park amenity. No doubt the migrating birds find that very handy.