Nature

Driving out to our friend's house we pass the following cement structures; two story alegator, two story orange, a giant wizard.  And when you couple that with the fact that you live somewhere that looks like this.It is easy to forget that the natural world exists.

We live by a lake.  But it has a fountain in it with green lights at night. Every few weeks someone comes in a boat to put chemicals in our lake to ensure mosquito and mold (and I suspect a lot of other things) don't grow in it.

 I found myself this morning walking along the sidewalk back from our air conditioned gym thinking fondly of our next stop in rural Washington.  I wanted to see trees darn it.  So at lunch today I packed up the kids to go find me some nature.  Nature was surprisingly close.  If you walk 5 min from the WalMart parking lot you are here

An honest to goodness swamp.  Complete with half eaten armadillo carcass and poison ivy.  By far the best part of the hike was a retired Korean woman who took it upon herself to guide us through the park.  She came to our aid when Eden was screaming about a dragon fly

Our guide walks through the park every day rain or shine and knew the mile trail better than anyone.  She also knew Tia Chi.  And when I mentioned that I once did Tia Chi and liked it, she immediately had us do a Tia Chi form right there in the parking lot.  I was game.  The kids even did a remarkable job of not being embarrassed as pick up trucks rolled by.  After our Tia Chi lesson she pulled water bottles out of her trunk for us and wished us luck on our vacation.  

We were so grateful for the water which was warm but wet.