I didn’t blog yesterday, because I was wiped out from all the day’s fun and adventures. Of course, then I couldn’t get to sleep. I’ll be glad to get back home where my Thursday early meeting is only at 7 am, not 5 am. Glad my next trip is only one time zone away!
The fun part of the day was that my friend Patty, who I last saw when she visited for the eclipse in April, drove up from the Phoenix area to hang out. I’d really wanted to go back to the fishery area to see if it could find some more birds. So I dragged my poor friend off to good old Page Springs and took her on two walks at different parts of the Important Birding Area, as the signs said.
The first place we went was near the hatchery and included a nice part of the trail along the beautiful creek. It was pleasant but warm.
I did hear a new bird, and even better, I later saw it. The Abert’s Towhee is all brown but has a cute black eye mask. I would have a photo but when I saw it my phone had overheated.
We left that part of the trail to go find where I’d walked earlier. The birds were extra friendly and just sat around looking at us.
Patty developed a blister and wasn’t good with the heat, so she went back to the car to sit in the air conditioning while I went “a little farther.” Sigh.
I got past where I’d been earlier and saw that the trail was turning back. I thought how nice it would be to circle back. It was indeed a beautiful walk past an interesting wetland area with cattails and such.
But it didn’t head right back to the parking lot. Oops. I’m glad I have a good sense of direction and remember landmarks, because I found my way back. I even heard a new gnatcatcher. I felt bad for making Patty sit there for so long, tough.
So I took Patty to eat at the restaurant on Airport Mesa. It was quite scenic and the food was very fun. It’s run by the same people who run Creekside, where we ate earlier. Patty had a salad that was immense. The part she took home was definitely enough for another meal. I had trout with spinach and green chile grits with spinach and a jicama garnish. The best part was the fish skin “chicharrón” on top. I like that way better than pork skin. Mmm.
We also enjoyed prickly pear lemonade, and had an appetizer of, get this, eggplant meatballs. There was no meat. They did have “Swedish cheese” in them. We were glad we tried it, because they were very flavorful. Who knew?
After Patty left we packed up, worked, and took it easy. We enjoyed a cute PBS detective drama about a glamping site with weird murders (of course). I loved the little village where it was filmed. Can I remember the name? No.
Stay tuned to see where we stop as we meander homeward.
The Hermits' Rest 