Kayaking at Findley State Park, Wellington, Ohio

This morning Jim and I kayaked at Findley State Park.  We've spent a lot of time at Findley on other visits and it's a beautiful park a few miles from my mom's house.  We took a canoe out several years ago, but this time we've got our own kayaks so we spent two hours slowly cruising the lake's perimeter.

The lake is 93 acres big.  Even though I grew up on a farm comprised of many acres, I have no mental picture of how much land that is.  Per the internet, there are 43,560 square feet in an acre.  An acre is also 91 percent of a football field if you don't count the end zones. So Findley Lake is just under the size of 93 football fields. That still doesn't help my mental image, but the lake did seem pretty big.

In other news:  Mom's wifi is on the fritz, so yesterday I called her Internet provider and they sent a new modem. Today Jim replaced the old modem with the new but it seems it's actually a problem on the provider's end.  Meanwhile, I swept part of Mom's unfinished basement.  I put a broom to it when I was here in February and there's maybe a new spider web or two but other than that Mom's basement -- like the rest of her house -- is spotless.

We've been in Ohio one week today, and it's rained every single day.  Last night the rain came down in sheets. This afternoon a storm came in from the south that pounded so hard the ground looked white.  Killdeer must love the rain because a couple dozen of them showed up in the field next to Mom's house when the rain first hit. Or maybe -- because they build nests on the ground -- they were running for cover.

Our kayaks waiting for us at the Findley State Park boat dock.   This is a good dock because it's low in the water which makes it (in theory) easy to keep your center of gravity (i.e., your butt) low while getting into the boat. And a low butt is a dry butt.  Again, in theory.

I'm not sure what kind of dragon fly this is, but one section of Findley Lake had a lot of the double-winged insects -- including one that settled in on Jim's kayak for an easy across the lake ride.  There were also a lof of water bugs skittering on the lake.

I did not use any kind of a telephoto lens to take this pic.  Instead I took the photo while my kayak floated right under this Blue Heron.

I'm not sure what kind of tree has this white spiky fruit, but it was growing practically in the water.

Jim on the Findley State Park bayou -- if they have such a thing in Ohio.