On Our Way... Soon

I just woke up a little while ago. We're still in LaCrosse, visiting my folks, but we'll be headed on the road soon. I took a few pictures yesterday when we went hiking along the marsh trail.

Red-wing blackbirds are Shawn's favorite bird. Since this one posed so nicely for me, I took the shot:


My favorite flower is the woodland violet, particularly the white ones. I managed to catch this elusive creatures as well:


My dad loves great blue herons, and I actually got a couple of really good shots of this one:




In this second shot, you can sort of get a sense of how high the water is. It's been a very rainy, cold spring and all the rivers are getting close to flood stage. As we walked our usual path, we noticed several 'sink holes' in the gravel. Mason and I stuck a long stick into one of them. We hit sand almost right away, but the sand was wet a long way down.

Grandpa and Mason on the bridge:






All and all a good visit. We're about to have some breakfast, a bit more coffee and conversation, and the hit the road... probably just in time to drive back through thunderstorms (again. We did this same thing on the way back from Indiana.)