I had another awesome Sunday spent with my lovely wife and mother nature, even without the bike again. The weather was a bit cool but that isn't the reason we didn't ride today. I planned a day out for my wife and myself last Monday and even managed to keep it a secret from her until Saturday night, an impressive feat for me as I have a terrible time keeping surprises secret. I have to give my wife credit though, she was quite creative in her questioning of me to find out what my plans were. She even resorted to using my feelings about keeping secrets against me! I held firm and did not break until last night.

We went to the Butterfly House outside of Whitehouse, Ohio, http://www.butterfly-house.com/ and it has to be quite warm in there, duh, around 80 degrees so wearing bike appropriate clothing would have been stifling in there and the other plans I had for the day required comfy shoes. We arrived at the Butterfly House and there was hardly a soul there, again our great timing comes through! We watched the butterflies and took a ton of pictures. I love our digital camera! Set it on macro and the closeups are awesome! We spent about 40 minutes there until a bunch of people and their brats showed up so we hit the road. I was planning on going to the Whitehouse Inn for lunch but it was way too busy and full of people so we headed towards a fireplace dealer in the area we've been meaning to get to. Unfortunately for us, the dealer isn't open on Sundays so we decided to head towards Toledo for some eats. We agreed on Max and Erma's as we have eaten there before a got good food. Well, they have changed their menu, and their food quality as well. We ate our rather unremarkable lunch and my AWESOME wife asks me if I wanted to go to Bass Pro in Perrysburg to try to get some ammo for my .45 acp Glock. Obviously, I was up for that since our local wally world always ammo for her handguns but never for mine.

We got a few hundred rounds for my Glock and a couple of hard cases for our AK's and my AR. I got a shirt with Old Glory and the Bill of Rights on it, we got our dogs some doggie treats and we got some really awesome fudge in regular chocolate and peanut butter! Yummy! We looked around for a bit, I'm STILL looking for a new camo ball cap, none of them they had struck my fancy so my search continues, kind of. I'm not really looking that hard, it's not that important, but I will look at them when I see them. Maybe one day I will find one I like.
　
We left Bass Pro and went to Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, http://www.fws.gov/midwest/ottawa/Index.htm as we haven't been there for a couple of years. We walked, and walked, checking out the trails without really seeing anything except some birds in the woods and near the lake shore. We saw alot of geese, Blue Herons, Egrets, and what I think were Trumpeter Swans in the wetlands surrounding the drive into the park. The alleged trumpeter swan is the large bird with the reddish colored head in the picture. I have read that sometimes their necks and heads take on a reddish rusty color because of the ferrous metals in the soil that exists on the bottom of the wetlands where they feed. We got back to the truck, ready to be done walking. Hiking in the woods with no maps nor clue where you really are is an adventure that I enjoy, but I will go to the visitors center first next time to get trail maps. There are usually things to see on the map that one doesn't sometimes know about otherwise. We were leaving Ottawa and my wife asked if we could run over to Maumee Bay State Park to try to see some deer. http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/parks/maumeebay/tabid/764/Default.aspx

I told her that was a good idea so off we went. We arrived and were somewhat surprised that they have let some areas of the park go back to nature, meaning they were actually letting nature take it's course by growing all kinds of plants, bushes and trees in areas that used to be kept mowed. I prefer that in a park that is supposed to be celebrating nature. We drove a few of the roads where we have seen deer in the past with no luck, until we came upon four deer just edging out of the woods to feed. We sat for a bit, tried to get some pictures and did get a few, but the deer were beyond the limits of our digital cameras zoom range so detail is pretty lacking. We went and turned around to get another look see at them and try for some more pictures. One of the does was a bit closer to the road but not by much. I asked my wife if she had ever seen deer on the other side of the park by the golf course and the cottages. She told me she hadn't looked on that side so off we went. We had almost reached the turn around area at the edge of the park when I spotted fives bucks feeding off the trees. We got slightly better pictures this time and decided to go to the turnaround to let the folks behind us get some viewing time. After turning around we stopped and took the deer in again.

Again, another Sunday spent with my totally awesome wife! If the weather is conducive next Sunday we are planning a ride on the bike so she doesn't start feeling left out of all our fun.