I decided to take my walk all the way down by the creek today b/c I really wanted to see the ducks and the swan and be near some really clear, rapidly moving water. (Granted, the creek is nothing like the mighty Delaware River, which I used to live half a block from in Pennsylvania, or the awesome Hudson River, which I  used to live one whole complete block from in Manhattan, but it does the trick in a pinch.)

It is a gorgeous day out there today, gang. 73 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny, a cool breeze blowing. And with it being Monday morning, everyone was back at work and so the whole creekside area was practically empty. There were only some really little kids with their moms, feeding bread to the ducks. One duck even had a whole bunch of ducklings. The one single swan was there -- although that swan makes me sad b/c I know swans mate for life so whenever I see it, I always get sad and wonder what happened to its mate.

Anyway.

The "emergency update" part is that I decided to take a walk deeper into the woods -- on a path, you know, but not an area I'd ever been to before. And I came to a bog. The bog had one of those informative markers telling all about the bog and the "elusive" common snapping turtle, and that if you looked really carefully you might be able to spot one in all the green slimy bog-stuff. Well, gang, I spotted NINE young ones peppered throughout the bog, sitting on various slimy logs. AND I even saw a really huge one! I only saw it because it moved slightly in the slimy stuff to get some air. Man, it was a couple feet wide and several feet long. Clearly, an amazing day at the creek!