Finding Common Ground

I'm not an outdoorsy kind of girl, though I grew up in a family that could not get enough of hiking. Now that I'm in the Northwest, I'm surrounded by rock climbers, hikers, mountain climbers, marathon runners, kayakers, skiers, snowboarders, bicyclists, you name it. It's considered a crime to not love the great outdoors in Washington state, as we're basically surrounded by them. 

My ideal weekend would consist of going out, going shopping, drinking wine, antiquing, crafting, and laying in a warm patch of sun. I'm half cat, half grandma. My boyfriend however loves everything and anything active and outside. If it's below 30, he likes "the sting of the cold" on his face. Ick! He's always looking for opportunities to get me outside throwing a frisbee, football, swinging a bat, whatever. 

We seem to have reached a common outdoors ground in local wetlands. I've posted about Nisqually before, a wetlands about 30 minutes south of us populated by songbirds, eagles, hawks, owls, and herons. It's a four mile looping trail over a flooded river delta made of gorgeous boardwalk. You can walk all the way out into the middle of the flood plains and watch the tide rush in underneath you. It combines some of my favorite things: seeing water and taking photos. And his: biology and hiking. 

We spent last week Sunday visiting the Mary Theler wetlands to the north west, pictured above, and hiked about four miles on boardwalk and gravel trails to spot some gorgeous red winged blackbirds (first picture), a ton of sparrows, heron, duck, and even spotted raccoon trails under a bridge over a mud flat. It was a gorgeous day for the Northwest and I was able to wear only about three layers instead of seven. I always end up feeling very refreshed when I've gone outside and enjoyed the "sting of the cold" on my face. This is evidenced by my need to nap for hours post-outside activity regardless of how non-strenuous it was. I think we're going to try to make this a regular thing on the weekends instead of a sporadic outing.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures, I've got a berry crumble in the oven I've got to pop out and serve up warm with ice cream! Have a great Tuesday.