We walked today – not a terribly long walk, but at least a 60-minuter. It was pleasant, fun and pretty darn warm (We mentioned that a few times today). I even got these great shots of the routes we decided to take, based solely on the amount of shade up ahead of us.

I had a great Puzzler, some interesting tree shots and a pretty picture of a bench.

So what happened?

Well, my favorite work camera, the resurrected D-70, appears to be dead. I’m not 100 percent sure on that, but it was displaying the same problem that took it out of commission last winter. It now is left in Monte’s very capable hands.

We shall see.

So, without photos, a walking blog is apparently pretty boring! I could tell you what routes we took (down Minnesota, then 15th, then Park), but without the views, it’s hard to really describe. And very clinical, which is not our style.

But I don’t want to bore any of you who stopped by!

So, I’ve developed a list of my favorite (non-Trail Mix) walking quotations! OK, really, in all fairness, since I just Googled them like 5 minutes ago, they’re not really my favorites, but they grabbed my attention…

—  “There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country.  A fine landscape is like a piece of music; it must be taken at the right tempo.  Even a bicycle goes too fast.”
-   Paul Scott Mowrer

—  “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
-   John Muir

— “People say that losing weight is no walk in the park.  When I hear that I think, yeah, that’s the problem.”
-   Chris Adams

— “All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.”
-   Friedrich Nietzsche

— “It is a great art to saunter.”
-   Henry David Thoreau, 1841

—”Of all exercises walking is the best.”
-   Thomas Jefferson

— “Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.”
-   Steven Wright

and … lastly …

— “You have to stay in shape.  My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was sixty.  She’s ninety-seven today and we don’t know where the hell she is.”
-   Ellen Degeneres

Have a wonderful day!

I was really looking forward to walking today, after coming up with a quick fix to a problem that had my Canon S5 IS out of commission for the past 14 months. So it was great to see a beautiful day to take our beautiful trail along beautiful Lake Bemidji. Can you tell my revived camera has me in a good mood?

Since the camera has a 10X zoom (oh, how I have missed that zoom lens!), I figured it would be a good test to capture the Bemidij Regional Event Center from across the lake and get some pictures of the birds.

The birds don’t stick around very long when we’re around, but we can usually get a few shots.

We often notice this tree that lightly dips into the water along the trail, one of a number of trees that find their own way to grow. I guess they’re kind of like people who don’t quite fit into “normal” ways to grow.

Here is someone getting in some reading in the sun:

I don’t know if we’ve ever taken a picture of this bridge from this direction. I was trying to get something short and narrow for the top of the blog, but this really didn’t work. We ended up cropping a picture Monte took of us walking past “Pioneer Lake,” which forms behind the Pioneer after rains and snowmelt!

Above and below are the stone-wall-lined steps from the trail up to 10th Street (I think) and Lake Boulevard. I never tire of taking photos of these steps. I think they’re beautiful. I love stone.

I also like pictures of the sun peering through stuff.

In today’s mystery photo, we’re back to the name game:

Yesterday’s puzzler was from the sign on Exhaust Pros. I thought that was a pretty good one!

Sometimes, we feel like we are the Exhaust Pros because we’re so good at being exhausted!

Trail Mix didn’t exactly go to class or anything today, but we did cut through Bemidji State University’s campus today, just to observe. It was such a pretty day to be outside. We found several students just hanging around outside, relaxing against the trunk of a tree. Possibly studying.

We also found some good signs for folks like Active Living, who are encouraging more bike-riding for work or commuting purposes:

We ended up with a strange sort of walk. We walked from Laurie’s downtown to the fire hall (for my daily fire reports) to the Law Enforcement Center (for my daily cop reports) and then down Minnesota Avenue to 15th Street, from where we cut on over the BSU campus. Once we got some shots of campus activity, we went back to the Lake Bemidji West Shore Trail for about a block before cutting over to “our” trail. So we, essentially, walked our route backwards today.

It was just a perfect day to be outside; the weather was absolutely ideal.

It was nice being back on the trail. I have, unfortunately, not kept up as much with my exercising in the past 1-2 months — and it showed. I tired more quickly today than I did in, say, June. But it’ll come again. I just need to walk more than once every week or two!

Of course, Laurie, conversely, has done much better lately. She walked a lot in Minneapolis, so she looked like a pro today.

She also was enthusiastic when I asked if she was OK going through the trail backward, which offered a few unique challenges (i.e. climbing walls we are not used to and going uphill instead of downhill in certain spots).

Laurie: “We’re not long for the rugged part. We haven’t been on the trail for a while.”

All in all, it was  a pleasant afternoon.

Other things that caught our attention today…

1. This student, who was, for some reason, carrying an Easter basket of some kind into a BSU building. (We’re guessing it was filled with candy. And, yes, we were tempted to ask for some. But he seemed to be in a hurry.)

2. This pretty house. (Doesn’t that swing look inviting? I asked Laurie if she wanted to sit, but she was, understandingly, not in favor of walking through someone’s yard. Much less sitting on their swing.)

3. This super nifty car decoration. (Although I must say that while I was drawn to it, I would never have one myself. I remember getting pulled over once, when I was in college, at 2 a.m. after I got off work, because I had a cross hanging from my mirror. I’m sure the police officer, perhaps, wondered if I had been out partying or something. But, still, I learned that night that the decoration was more of a hassle than anything…)

So that’s about it from us today…

Here is today’s Puzzler:

The answer from … I don’t know when … is that the green tiles are located on the exterior of the AnnTiques building next to the Economy Shop.

Thanks for continuing to check on us – I promise that one of these days we will get back into a real, dependable schedule!   

I’m just goofing around with some new appearances. Any thoughts?

We should be back to walking on Tuesday. I hope.

Edited to add: HEY! I’m posting as me, Bethany Wesley! (Look at earlier posts, when some guy named Jack was posting about all our walking adventures.)