LaDue & Dinner

A long hectic week so a quiet weekend sounds fine. Friday evening was spent watching the Cleveland Indians win over Kansas City. Looks like today’s game is going to be close. Would be nice if the Indians could manage the sweep. The Chiefs are playing plenty sloppy enough so the Indians should be able to pull it out. (Oops, game over as one of the Indian outfielders lost a fly ball in the sun and the Chiefs win).

Saturday Nicki and I started out with a quiet breakfast and sorting papers in front of the Rita coverage. Very relaxed.

Then Nicki took her mom to Oberlin’s Doggie Doo pooch parade. Lots of dogs and costumes and local celebrities - no cats. Ursula seemed to enjoy the outing - even had a chance to hold a small dog. I stayed home with our dogs and did schoolwork. Samantha and Cricket aren’t very civilized with their peers and wouldn’t have been a positive addition to the events. After the parade Nicki brought Ursula back to our house and she had a chance to see how we load up the kayaks.

Then we were off for another kayak excursion. This time we headed for LaDue Reservoir which is an Akron City reservoir. We had scouted it out on our trip to the Upper Cuyahoga last weekend. The first impressive event was circling an island with two trees loaded with cormorants. Cormorants are getting a bad reputation in Ohio as they are starting to have a negative effect on fishing and are competing for habitat with other birds. They are neat to watch as they take off from the water as their wing tips slap the water for the first 5 or 6 strokes. We did see several herons but they were hard to approach. The birds on this lake were much more skittish than our favorite Findley Lake.

But the waters were calm and we had a nice sunset. Took the kayaks out of the water with just enough light to tie up the boats. An odd couple with kayaks was heading out as we headed in. Not sure what they would see in the darkness. Maybe a different set of animals comes out that time of night?

On the way home we stopped at the Mustard Seed Market & Cafe - a neat natural and organic food store with a very impressive restaurant. Nicki had coconut-crusted chicken on salad greens and I had Australian Beef Filet (eight ounce filet of Aussie beef, bacon wrapped, pan seared, and served with grilled vegetables and fries). Not a bad dinner after a good outing in the kayaks.

Sunday was lawn-mowing. Samantha (our elderly main dog) has developed a peculiar behavior. She now follows me around the back yard as I mow. I think she isn't hearing the lawnmower so she isn't bothered by it. Every few rows she seems to need a bit of petting. And then she follows me some more.

Good Ol' Findley

Nicki and I grabbed the good weather and nothing scheduled after work as an opportunity to do a little weekday evening kayaking. And given that it was a weekday we decided to stay close and head for our familiar Findley Lake. And again it didn't disappoint.

First we were greeted at the park by 4 young deer. We've always expected to see deer at this park but haven't. Then as soon as we were in the water I headed for a tall grassy area just across the lake from the dock and found two 2-3 foot carp sunning themselves in the shallow water. Get real close to them and they explode across the surface to get away. Impressive. Turned around to find a couple turtles catching the last few rays of the late sun. From there we did our usual chasing ducks and sneaking up on herons. Nicki prefers to watch them from a slight distance while I like to see how close I can get with my camera. Tonight they seemed easily spooked but that may have been from so few people being in the park or they were just visiting (migrating) birds and not accustomed to kayaks floating up on them.

Just after the sun set and on our way back toward the dock we watched an osprey hunting - flying in circles 50-60 feet above the lake and then diving feet first for fish - big spash - and then repeat the hunt. Nothing like sitting in the middle of the lake watching the nature show. And just before docking I found two more carp to sneak up on with the same explosive results. This time they almost slapped the side of the boat on their way to deeper water.

The first photo is from tonight of the turtles. I'd like to have some shots of the carp but you don't really see them until you are right on top of them and they do their exploding thing. Got a lot of heron photos but there's enough of them already posted here. And the osprey was doing its thing at a distance when the light was too flat and I'd already packed the camera away. The second photo was actually taken by Nicki on our Cuyahoga River trip last Sunday. We didn't download her camera until tonight and I liked the shot.

Cruising the Cuyahoga

Friday night was rainy - lots of rain - no floods but very very wet. The kind of rain that sounds nice outside the window when you’re sleeping.

Saturday Nicki was working around the house while I tried to rebuild a computer cart load of laptops - mostly dealing with cranky batteries. To get out of town we took our aging vacuum cleaner into the Oreck store for a $15 repair which made it good as new. And then back home to watch the Indians win again.

Sunday was church for Nicki and more school tech work for me. And then we traveled about 60 miles east to Eldon Russell Park which is a very quiet county park along the Upper Cuyahoga River (yes, the same river that eventually flows through the City of Cleveland and into Lake Eire). I think I had elevated expectations for the Cuyahoga. It is a “state-designated Scenic River” and is very natural looking. It is a slow flowing river so we first heading upstream. Every hundred yards or so we’d find a fallen tree partially blocking the path so we’d have a maneuvering challenge. After a half-mile or so we gave up - not so much from the obstructions as from the hunter’s shotgun we could hear getting closer.

Going downstream from the park also had challenging trees and semi-obstructions but we kept seeing a bend ahead that promised a potential natural wonder. There was one Great Blue Heron that we spooked out of the shore grasses and that flew ahead to lure us further on our journey. However, the threat of dusk finally made us do a u-turn and we headed back to the launch site, loaded up, and headed home. We did see a couple turtles but again we’ve found little comparison to our local Findley Lake. There just wasn’t much sign of wildlife - not even much in the way of jumping fish. There are a couple lakes in the same area of the Upper Cuyahoga that we’ll try another day. We’ll keep exploring. Given how the days are getting shorter we may need to reserve kayaking to weekends. Though we may try to get out quickly after work one day this week.

Music, Movie, & Muddy Water

Great Blue Heron ---------------------- Great Blue Heron on drugs.

Quick busy weekend. I suppose that’s going to be the norm.

Friday night we saw Bruce (our dogsitter and informally adopted son) and his bluegrass band at the Cat in the Cream Coffeehouse on the campus. Good music Bruce style. Then we did a quick trip to the Quaker State to see Nephew Peter’s band doing the oldies rock thing. Different style and volume. Nice to get a variety of music types.

Saturday after a bunch of school work we headed for Crocker Park. Had dinner at Hoggy’s which was barbecue oriented. Then saw The 40 Year Old Virgin which was very very funny with very very raunchy language. Better than expected. Not sure I'll recommend it to everyone. Maybe they will come out with a PG version on tape? Not likely.

Sunday we again focused on school work (it is a busy time for both Nicki and myself) and then did a quick kayak trip to Hinckley Lake which is a very shallow lake nestled in the hills. Not a lot of wildlife and the greatest challenge was avoiding getting stuck in the mucky bottom - in the channels leading from the boat launch to the main part of the lake. Nicki perfected a method of using her hands to scoop her way through the thin water which meant contact with the muddy bottom. I didn’t do that - resorting instead for paddle pressure - sort of like a pole boat. Otherwise it is a pretty lake that made us appreciate our local Findley Lake. At least we were experiencing nature and away from our chores. Darkness is getting sooner and sooner.

A New Bird

Nicki and i finished off the holiday weekend with a quick kayak excursion on Findley Lake. This time I took my video cam to see if I could get some action shots of the cranes. Came upon a very relaxed bird that we thought might be a hawk. Later, after consulting our bird books, we found it was an Osprey. Here's a photo from our video. Very nice evening on the water and a good way to end summer. Now to start the Fall kayak season.

Finding Lake Erie

Life has been way too busy to blog. Both Nicki and I are starting up the school year. And with watching the Katrina news there hasn’t been much time. The kayaks have been safely stowed on their racks in the garage - didn’t want them caught up in the storms we had Tuesday and Wednesday. Besides we were starting to get a certain amount of recognition (I assume positive) as we drove around town with the boats on top.

However, Saturday we just couldn’t not take advantage of the great weather and reloaded the boats on the CRV and headed northeast. First a stop at Trader Joe’s to pick up coffee beans, munchies, and wine. Then to the boat launch at the Rocky River Reservation which is part of the Cleveland Metroparks - a string of parks that circles around most of metro Cleveland. The Rocky River section contains a long section of the Rocky River as it empties into Lake Erie.

This boat launch is much busier than any of the others we’ve experienced. Five or six ramps feeding into the river in the shadow of a long shale cliff. Even has a policeman on duty and a police patrol boat - assume that is part of heartland security. We didn’t get much notice.

Tried going upriver first. Interesting to be under the cliffs. If you look closely you'll notice that Nicki is wearing her PFD inside-out - either a new fashion statement or just overlooked in her enthusiasm to get out in the water. Didn’t get far - maybe a half mile before the river became too shallow and we started scraping rocks and fighting the current. Turned around and headed toward the mouth of the river. The river passes through the Cleveland Yachting Club marina - hundreds of boats and yachts and interesting houses along the water. At one point we passed an exclusive looking picnic ground - by exclusive I mean the picnic tables had table cloths, candles, wine glasses, and a real nice unobstructed view of sunsets over the lake.

As we got closer to where the river empties into Lake Erie the paddling got more and more challenging. The water got increasingly choppy as you near the end of the breakwall leading into the lake. I’d like to say I was real confident about my boating skills but after a minute or so officially out in the lake we turned around to explore more of the marina area.

Later on we got braver and our desire to see the sunset from the perspective of the lake led us to venture just a little further onto the lake proper. And besides you do get more confident about the kayaks ability to ride the 1-2 foot bumpy swells - I can’t really call them waves. There was a little water that splashed up into the cockpit but only enough to moisten my shirt - no concern. The kayaks feel very stable, turn well, and are easy to steer away from the waves striking the breakwall. And with the wind at your back they kind of surf the swells - cool.

Nice sunset. It was worth riding rough waters. Good thing it wasn’t a busier evening as it would have been even more interesting if boat traffic had been heavy. We are small and low and we don’t make much of a bump in the night.

Wildlife report: We did find a couple herons to sneak up on, there were a few cormorants fishing, and on our way back to the boat launch we found a small bunch of immature and mature Black-crowned Night Herons. Too little light to get decent photos of the Night Herons and besides Nicki's camera wasn't cooperating (she was using her boat camera - not her good camera).

I think we surprised the policeman on duty at the boat ramp as we kind of quietly snuck up on him - he wasn’t sure what was arriving along with the dark. I did have my flashlight on so I was legally abiding by the watercraft rules.

After loading up the boats and changing clothes we stopped for a late dinner at one of our favorite spots - Max’s Deli. Home by 11:00.