Camping with Eddie - The journey

We left at the crack of dawn, headed for the early morning ferry to the mainland.  The day was dry but not too hot - a good day for travel.  The ferry trip was uneventful, and we snoozed in the car much of the time.

Are we there yet?

Because we left so early, I hadn't had time to take Eddie for his walk.  An hour in the car and two hours on the ferry is a long time to wait, so as soon as we arrived on the mainland, we stopped for some exercise and fresh air.  There's a perfect strip of shoreline right near the terminal.  After a nice walk, I spent some time photographing this heron on a rock:

I guess he needed exercise too, as every now and then he shook himself up,

Stretched his wings,

Shook some more,

And resumed his post.

As we drove out of the waterfront area, I stopped to drop Eddie's poop bag in the garbage can and was distracted by the constant chattering sounds from nearby trees.  A heron rookery!  How many hundreds of times have I taken that ferry and not realized it was there?  I pulled the camera back out - there were dozens and dozens of herons, many with chicks just learning to fly.  They were a bit beyond the range of my zoom, but if you click on the photo you can get a better view.  How many herons do you see in this picture?

One very small part of the rookery

 Here, a young one takes his or her first flight, amid the coaxing and cajoling of the parents:

Help! I'm falling!

The youngster flaps awkwardly down to a branch,

Can I stop now?

and mama calls encouragement to continue with the flight:

That's it! You can do it!  Go Johnny Go!

I could have watched them for hours, but I'd told my mom I'd bring a picnic lunch to share with her on the bench outside her care home, where Eddie could sit and beg for crumbs from us and pats from visitors and other residents.  He also learned how to walk nicely beside her wheelchair as we all went for a walk together.  Then a quick photoshoot of mom, and we were on our way again:

Mom, age 94,  outside her care home

Next post, the first couple of days at Emory Creek.