1. After a cup of coffee, a bowl of Cheerios with blueberries, and writing a blog post, I leapt into the rental car and tore just a short distance north and east of Valley Cottage and visited the expansive, leafy, and peaceful Rockland Lake State Park. A level paved trail goes around the lake's circumference -- it reminded me of the walks I used to take around Greenbelt Lake, but my walk today was over twice as long.
Fortunately, the heat late this morning was moderate, but the air was thick with humidity. Luckily, a cooling breeze blew throughout my walk. The only natural feature I knew I could count on today was looking at scores and scores of stately deciduous trees, but it turned out I saw much more than trees. Swans glided on Rockland Lake. Ducks calmly paddled about as did many geese. A few yards into my walk, I saw the largest turtle I've ever seen, but I didn't stop long to look because the turtle had attracted quite a crowd and I projected my own desires for solitude onto the turtle and moved on!
I used to love to walk the shores of the Delta Ponds in Eugene and around Greenbelt Lake in Maryland and I used to go in search, in Maryland and Virginia and Washington, D.C. for wetland areas with boardwalks or trails and especially loved the National Aquatic Gardens and, in the Alexandria area, Huntley Meadows Park. I miss such areas when I'm in Kellogg and today restored some old feelings of love and wonder I hadn't felt for a while.
2. After my nearly 3.5 mile walk, I headed down to a strip mall called The Hub and strolled into the Nyack Hot Bagels and Deli, thinking this was the spot where Adrienne and Josh go whenever they load up on bagels. Later, I confirmed that this is, indeed, their go to bagel spot. I hadn't had a great cinnamon and raisin bagel with a light smear of cream cheese for many months and I ordered just that today and bought a bottle of water and I loved this mid-day treat after my gorgeous walk.
3. Adrienne and Josh love to get take out food from an Asian fusion spot in Nyack called Grub. I looked at their menu online and ordered a Korean Beef BBQ bowl served with jasmine rice and delicately steamed vegetables. Debbie and I split this entree. We also split an order of Hand Rolled Pan Fried Shrimp Dumplings which were served with a superb Thai sauce. What a splendid dinner we enjoyed!
A little later, Debbie, having introduced me to the short loop she walks some days, took me and Gibbs on the "long loop" walk today and I really think that by the end of this loop, I had racked up over four miles of walking today, an exhilarating accomplishment.
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