It Was Nice While It Lasted

On Thursday we enjoyed temperatures in the mid seventies.  It was sunny and beautiful, and it was wonderful. 

I wanted to enjoy every minute of the beautiful weather, so I ate my lunch outside, and took this picture of these tiny little wild flowers that are blooming in the yard.  I was so happy to see something colorful and blooming.

After work Nick and I loaded the dogs in the car and went to the cemetery to walk.  It’s not as weird as it might sound, I promise!  It’s a really big cemetery; lots of people walk and jog there, and bring their dogs.  It was fairly crowded Thursday evening.  I think a lot of people had the same idea.

We also walked through the neighborhood near the cemetery, and Nick showed me the house his grandparents lived in when he was born.  They moved from that house when he was five, but he still remembers quite a few things from when they lived there.  It was fun to picture a little version of Nick playing in the yard. 

We walked until it started getting dark.  We knew the nice weather wasn’t going to last, so we wanted to take advantage of every minute of it.  I think the dogs enjoyed the long walk, too. 

Yesterday started off sunny and warm, but the temperature started dropping in the afternoon.  It dropped twelve degrees in between the time I went back to work from lunch and the end of the day when I left.  It continued to drop last night.  Today has been cold and rainy.  The temperatures haven’t gotten above the mid forties, and it has been raining all day.

Fortunately, it doesn’t look like we’re going to drop down to freezing, so hopefully the little flowers will survive.  The beautiful weather was so nice while it lasted!

So how about you?  Have you had any warm days?  Any sign that spring might be on its way?

Pedal Boating

This is a slow week at work for me, so I took a vacation day yesterday, since it was one of my husband’s days off.  We usually only have about four days off together every month, so we grabbed the chance for an extra day. 

We have been talking about going pedal (or paddle; it seems to depend on which park or website you’re looking at as to which they call it) boating for years.  I had never been, and my husband hadn’t been in over ten years.  We had tried a few times when we were at parks or other places that had them, but we always seemed to be too early or late in the season, or we arrived just minutes after they stopped renting out boats. 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tretboote.jpg

So we decided that yesterday would be the day that we went pedal boating together.  We went online and found out when the boats were rented and picked the place that seemed the most promising, which was Lake Susan, in Montreat, NC.  It’s an easy day trip to go there, so we set out in plenty of time for pedal boating.  It was a wonderful day.  It was warm and sunny, so I was happy, and there was a breeze and some shady spots, so my husband was happy. 

We actually arrived about an hour and a half before they started renting boats, so we had time to walk around the lake and browse in the shops.  We arrived at the dock just as they were opening up to rent the boats out, and ended up being the first boat out.  We also ended up in the only pink boat, which made me happy.

I enjoyed it a lot.  It was actually quite a bit easier than I thought it would be.  We had to dodge a swan with a bad attitude, but other than that it was very peaceful and relaxing.  I’m happy pretty much anytime I’m in or near water, so I had a great time.  My husband is always happy going to the mountains, so he had a great time. 

It was nice to take a day in the middle of the week, and get away from phone calls and responsibility and just spend some time with each other.  It was even better that it was outside, on the water.  I think we’ll definitely be exploring the pedal boating opportunities at other places now.