Lake Kegonsa Boardwalk and Cone Crawl 2024

 

This morning I still felt under the weather but went to Mass anyway. In the bathroom at church (actually, in the gym) I saw that my eyes matched my muumuu - both were bright red. Back home we debated about going to the county fair but decided to check out a new boardwalk along Lake Kegonsa. We also decided to do at least part of the Cone Crawl:

Free mini ice cream cones! We went to the Chocolate Shoppe closest to us and got these adorable little cones full of ube chai ice cream. If you are wondering about ube, it is a purple sweet potato used in Japanese cuisine. I've only had it in desserts, but maybe they use it in savory foods too. Anyway, it was delicious. And aren't they cute? Each stop had a different ice cream flavor or vegan flavor you could choose from.

Then we went to the boardwalk and walked that tiny cone off. Here are some photos of an osprey nest which seems to have a bush growing in it, and some other ospreys that were hanging around on top of the telephone wire contraptions.

These three are a sequence: (grooming), "Yeah?" "What do you want?"

And more osprey poses:

We saw lots of wildflowers in bloom.

Bergamot

My phone refuses to ID this flower, but it does have a REAL ladybug on it and not one of those Asian beetles.

St. John's Wort

Broadleaf Arrowhead

Amphibious Bistort

Bee Balm

Wooly Mullein

This one looks like a saguaro cactus, with two arms.

Blackberry Lily

Golden Toadflax, or, as I know it, Butter and Eggs

We saw other sorts of birds too. Lots of gulls, and these three. Now my phone can ID birds as well as flowers.

Eastern Kingbird

Common Grackle

Song Sparrow

The boardwalk went through a marsh beside the lake, and there were lots of lovely views.

That may be our friend the kingbird in that last one. The path continued on after the boardwalk ended, apparently going all the way to Lake Kegonsa State Park. It was woodsy and beautiful on the part we explored.

As we were heading back, gray clouds gathered above us, and we could hear the distant rumble of thunder. We did go to another Chocolate Shoppe that was on the way home, where Travalon had the free bourbon pecan pie flavor and I had the passion fruit Italian ice. He also ordered a regular dish of Zanzimint, which is their ultra-dark chocolate Zanzibar Chocolate flavor swirled with mint. So delicious! We hurried home so I could do Irish, but only two of us were there besides the teacher, so we talked (in English) about rowing and sailing and this crazy presidential race and all sorts of things. The weather grew more ominous as we talked, so I didn't venture forth to the medium Irish session I have not tried yet nor the jazz concert in Allen Centennial Gardens. We talked about swimming and then hitting a Chocolate Shoppe near our health club that was giving out the delicious "kitchen sink" flavor "This $&@! Just Got Serious!" but we ended up just relaxing at home. Who knows? This Cone Crawl goes until 10 pm, so we might just make a late-night run to get some Serious $&@!. I heard they were out of the prize bags for hitting all nine stops by midafternoon, so some people out there were able to put down nine tiny cones in short order. Probably college-aged guys, is my guess.

Famous Hat