This evening, feeling bad about a trip to northern Michigan that I didn’t get to take today, I decided to compromise with a walk in my favorite park with my girl Katie.   It’s about a 30 minute drive; we arrived early evening.  It was 76 degrees and quite humid.  I carried treats and a water bottle, plus the camera and a doggie bag to pick up any deposits we might leave.  I felt like a bag lady.  Katie was quite impatient with all my preparations.  She was ready to go Go GO!

As it was quite warm we stopped every quarter mile or so for a drink, but mostly she was just doing the “Sheltie prance” right down the bike path.

Of course there was much sniffing along the way.

And of course, lots of times I made her pose for me near beautiful places.

Katie and I had quite a long discussion when we got to the 3/4 mile mark, but she wanted to keep going, so we turned around at the one mile mark.

Which turned out to be a mistake.  We should have turned around at 3/4 of a mile.  Shortly after we started back Katie just stopped walking.  We goofed around for awhile, got a drink, sniffed some stuff, then she trotted off.  We rested each quarter on the way back too.  During one rest two sandhill cranes flew overhead, squawking madly.

It took us more than an hour to walk the two miles.  The sun was going down by the time we got near the car.  Low evening light makes for pretty pictures.

We got to watch a family of geese and a few ducks on the way back too!

Happy girl!