Category: Animals

  • Bald Eagle

    Comlara Park, IL, August 2026 I absolutely love the bald eagle because of their size, beauty and grace. Did you know? The US added the bald eagle to the Great Seal of the US on June 20th, 1782. You would think this means the bald eagle was the US national bird. It wasn’t. In 2024,…

  • New Business Plan …

    Comlara Park, IL, August 2026 Toupees for eagles! Think about it. There are more than 400,000 Bald Eagles in North America alone. It is an untapped market. We will be setting up a go-fund-me site to start this up. Premium early donors will get a free toupee for their eagle! And now, back to our…

  • Burr, It’s Hot

    Comlara Park, IL, August 2026 Kate finally found something that her iPhone could not take a decent picture of. It was the small white flower in the previous post. The R7 did an okay job, but it was just using the 55-250 mm lens, which is not the right choice. Despite being 85+ degrees and…

  • Lakeview Nature Trail at Comlara Park

    Comlara Park, IL, August 2026 Like so many other park trails with Lakeview in the name, it does not have much of a lake view. You can see the lake at the trail head, but you quickly move away from it. Oddly, the Mountain bike trail that spurs off of the lake view trail has…

  • Primitive Hiking

    Comlara Park, IL, July 2026 No, this is not hiking wearing animal skins and stone shoes while carrying a club. There is a primitive campground on the other side of the lake with a hiking trail loop. Despite having camped at Comlara Park several times, we have only hiked less than 10 total miles on…

  • Kayaking at Summit Lake

    Summit Lake State Park, IN, July 2026 We had time to hike or kayak one last time, and we rented kayaks. If not for the racks, the rental place would look more like a boat junkyard than a rental location. You launch from a muddy beach, so John pushed Kate out into the water. He…

  • A Truncated Hike

    Summit Lake State Park, IN, July 2026 No one was hurt, but when the mosquitos buzzing would give a World War II vet flashbacks to Pearl Harbor, it is time to stop or use bug spray. Technically, we did have bug spray in the car; we just were not wearing it. Okay, Okay, let’s start…

  • A Walk on the Mild Side via Selfie

    Summit Lake State Park, IN, July 2026 John tends to take a while when photographing insects, birds, etc. I end up getting a little bored. To alleviate boredom, I end up taking selfies. This post is dedicated to selfies and keeping myself entertained while trying not to scare all the bugs and wildlife away. (On…

  • A Walk on the Mild Side

    Summit Lake State Park, IN, July 2026 That title does sound like a lot like a Taco Bell commercial, but the walk certainly was not that wild. Summit Lake State Park has five hiking trails, but two are connected. We had hiked and biked the roads some, but we had not hiked the trails. It…

  • Canada Goose Flash Mob

    Summit Lake State Park, IN, July 2026 Indiana (and Illinois) have terrible roads. You would think that, at least, the interstates would be good, but they resemble a cheese grater more than a road. Maybe each state has a greater purpose. Maybe, God created Indiana and Illinois to grate mozzarella for a giant pizza, hopefully,…