Last week I had a craving to sit and stare at one of the Great Lakes. Ideally, I'd sit on Lake Michigan all day--or for an entire week!--but Lake Erie is within an hour from us. My husband agreed to take a Sunday afternoon drive to check out a nature preserve along Lake Erie. I packed a cooler and a few camping chairs, and we were on our way.
About 90 seconds into the trip, I said, "Let me just check the hours of the park." It's a good thing I did, because it was already 3:00pm and the park was closing at 4:00pm! Our GPS clearly showed a fifty minute drive.
On to Plan B...
We're blessed with many gorgeous parks in our area, and many of them have pretty views of the Maumee River or small, inland lakes. We decided to stay local and went to a heavily wooded Metropark. Once there, we strolled to the pretty lake where families fished and picnicked.
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| I took this picture last year, but this is the little lake we visited. |
It's been an extremely busy month for me, so I was happy to just sit on a bench and let the shimmers on the water whisper all my stress away. After lazing about, we decided to walk along a trail we hadn't tried in the past. I'm usually up for a power walk, but neither my husband nor I had much energy, so we took it slow.
The two-mile path cut through diverse environments. One minute we were in a patch of towering pines, the next we were in a meadow with bluebirds and butterflies. We even saw three deer on our walk. Beautiful!
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| I took this picture a few years ago, and I still love the message! |
I still want to explore the nature preserve we originally intended on visiting, but the local park revived our energy, renewing us for another hectic week. What a blessing!
Do you have pretty parks nearby where you can explore? What about nature renews you?
Have a wonderful day!
Jill Kemerer writes
Christian romance novels with love, humor and faith for Harlequin Love
Inspired. Jill loves coffee, M&Ms, fluffy animals, magazines and her
hilarious family. Visit her website, jillkemerer.com, and connect with Jill on Facebook, Twitter and sign up for her Newsletter.
HER SMALL-TOWN ROMANCE is available in paperback or ebook from online retailers like AMAZON now.
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