Cloudie's Adventure

Off and away! I'm not sure what originally inspired this next adventure. I recall feeling the need for a getaway and hearing about maybe one of the wildlife areas and then looking and seeing it was near another I was interested in and then a map and seeing other parks, maybe it all grew from that one area that I learned about, worm hole. All that led to finding a place on airbnb, booking it and committing to this self trip. I looked into and started creating a plan but also packed books and movies and my laptop. The place I would be staying in didn't have wifi!? ...I survived and it wasn't necessary since I had my phone to look up quick things.

Day One, set off mid morning on a Sunday, yes, a true "weekend" day, at least to the rest of the world. For me this is generally my "friday." How exciting, some places might actually be open! I had been coming off a very busy few days of camp, working 10-12 hour days, four of those in a row. Those days included Park Pals which you probably just read about. So off and away I went. I'd researched about 4 places I wanted to stop at on my way south, of course knowing, there was just no way I could get to all of them. I stopped at the first, Patuxent Research Center. This little gem had a free tram which was a draw, but the volunteer on the tram was giving basic naturalist info so not too exciting for me, but we saw a scarlet tanager, that was a highlight. Then I took the longer trail about 1.5 miles around one of their lakes. The weather was absolutely exquisite, and I had fun taking pictures and discovering the beauties of nature on my ownalong the way. It was a wise stop and they had a great gift shop. 

  

  

Fowler's toad!

Adorable baby frogs...or toads? So small and fast. The lady at the gift shop said American toad but maybe it was a juvenile version of the Fowler's toad I saw earlier?

GBH - great blue heron - I liked the reflection