I took the day off today. That may not sound like anything interesting, but it’s uncommon for me. Generally, when I’m off (and it’s not one of my mandated breaks), it’s because the weather is bad and I can’t work. That’s not some sort of humblebrag – it’s just how people doing my job work. Today was an exception. The sun was shining, though it was a bit cool for this neck of the woods (I think it was in the upper 40s / lower 50s). Perfect walking weather.
So, since I had some time available (woke at 7am) I grabbed some breakfast at the place which is rapidly becoming my favorite local food spot – The Moonlight Diner and then figured I would go for a walk.
I’m doing more walking these days in an effort to get a bit more fit. So I thought ”Why not go someplace nice and take a real walk today?”
At first, I screwed that up. I’m not really a patient man. This surprises some folks, because I feel like I have a whole lot of patience for others. But when it comes to myself? None. So I picked a place that looked ’big and green’ on Google Maps. Oops. That big and green? Private golf club. The park I went to (Mangurian Park) was a tiny thing. But still, I felt like I wanted to get something out of it, so I waled the perimeter a couple of times.
20 minutes a day is kinda my ”I really shouldn’t do less than that per day.” limit. I don’t always hit it, but that’s my base target.
So I could have called it, but I had some more time before my only scheduled thing for the day, so I thought ”Let’s see if I can’t improve on my choice of locations.”
I succeeded.
I made my way to Fern Forest which is in Coconut Creek Florida. I highly recommend it!
It’s a beautiful preserve with over 30 different kinds of ferns (one of my favorite kinds of plants) and I got some more steps in. Spent another hour walking around and walked about another 3.25 miles. I also took lots of pics. I won’t bore you with all of them, but all of the photographs in this post are from there.
And this last one is for my friend Shelle. It’s one of several Zebra Longwings I saw throughout my walk. According to Wikipedia, their wing coloring is aposematic to warn predators that ”Hey, I’m not worth it – trust me.” – which in this case is because they process pollen in a way that makes them generally toxic. How frickin cool is that?!