Monday night

A lovely last day to my 4-day birthday weekend. Jessie woke me at 5:15 and we were out the door by 5:30, and at the park shortly thereafter. It was a beautiful morning. Cool enough that I took a jean jacket and wore it on our walk. Later in the morning my friend L came over and we loaded my kayak on her car and drove down to the shore. We meandered through Stonington Village and found a funky little place to eat lunch, and then put in the boats at Barn Island. I'm used to going to Barn Island on the weekends, and in the summer the weekends are Power Boat City. There were quite a few cars and trailers parked, but it wasn't a zoo. We put in and paddled back over toward Stonington Harbor. Very stiff breeze, probably 15 - 20 knots, and the current against us on the way out. A few dicey moments, nothing truly dangerous, just challenging. On the way back we stopped at Sandy Point, pulled the boats out, and walked a bit. I didn't realize it is some sort of wildlife refuge. Sea gulls had nested there and were not happy to see us. We saw mother/father gull feeding 2 fishes to 3 juveniles. One very unhappy adolescent sea gull! One of the lucky youngsters was having trouble swallowing his/her fish and spit it out. Zoom, the other raced over toward the well used fishy dinner but the spitter saw him/her coming and re-swallowed the fish. Anyway, it was cool. I looked up the gulls when I got home and I think they were Great Black Back Gulls. Also saw many pink jellies, some cranes, cormorants, one pigeon (not sure what it was doing out on this spit of land in Little Naragansett Bay but didn't seem to be bothering the gulls).

The weather was perfect - mid to low 80's, breezy, low humidity. High fluffy clouds. Beautiful.

I tired - hard paddling against the wind and the current - but good tired. I think I can face a 4-day work week tomorrow.

Peace.