The Real Deal

We decided not to go anywhere this weekend. We just stayed home and slept in our own bed. It's very rare that we spend more than a few nights in any one location so having an entire weekend at home is almost more than we can handle. It was hard not to plan something to fill the void.

What did we do? Today, we made a list of the things we wanted to accomplish in our unscheduled, unstructured 48 hours. Then, we promptly ditched the list.

Instead, we decided to check out a couple of our neighborhood parks. It was sunny but very cold and breezy here. There weren't many out doing the same but we did come across a few adventuresome souls. They were walking in pairs, or with their dog or seahawk. We even saw a few bicyclists.

Wait, seahawk? Why, yes. Seahawk.

We saw a falconer taking his osprey out for a walk. "Fly" would be more accurate. The park had several trees lining the pathways. He walked along the trail as his bird flew from tree to tree behind him. Although it was large, the bird blended into the branches when it landed but it wore a bell on one leg so if we lost sight of it, we easily found it whenever it moved.

It was a beautiful creature and we were fascinated by it. Once, the bird flew to the ground and appeared to catch something but it was behind the trunk of a tree so we couldn't see for sure. It's hard to imagine the bird caught much with that bell on its leg. But it never got far away from its owner. When its owner told it to come, it flew to him and landed on his heavily protected arm.

It wasn't the seahawk, the one that performs at games. Fun fact: the bird that performs at the games is a buzzard. The one we saw at the park was a seahawk of the real variety.

When their "walk" was over, they left in a car with this front plate:

Proof.

It'll be hard to top that tomorrow.