Frontenac

Was'aka, my favorite


Angel, the loudest eagle


Harriet, the famous eagle


Donald, the quiet Golden eagle

They take the eagles out every day for outdoor time at the waters edge and make sure they can stretch their wings. It hurts to see them captives to their injuries, but then again, so many living creatures exist that way, it's just the nature of this world, I suppose. At least they're given a loving home, good food and time spent outdoors. They don't seem to mind at all :)

The Eagle Center was great! They have a bunch of eagles there for educational purposes, we met Donald, Angel, Harriet and Was'aka. Donald was an extremely quiet Golden Eagle, which apparently is the nature of Goldens, and he came to the center after being hit by a car. Angel was the loudest, most agitated eagle. She had severe wing trauma and arthritis following her injury and was never able to take flight again, despite surgery and rehabilitation at the Raptor Center. She was found surviving off of scraps that were falling from a heron rookery. Was'aka was a juvenile who was blind in one eye and was my favorite bird. He's the only bird at the center that can physically fly, but because of his eyesight would not be able to hunt for food. Harriet was the oldest (30 years!!) and most famous eagle. She's been on all kinds of shows including The Today Show and The Colbert Report, among others. She was such a humble bird, very mellow and quiet, just preening and chilling on her perch. She was hit by a car and her wings never healed properly, and you could tell one of her wings was severely disfigured and the bones jutted out. They gave a great informational program with Was'aka, and then we got our pictures taken with Angel. We picked up an eagle charm, something I've been looking for for a long time since I adore eagles, and a little turtle necklace for Fiona.

Then it was off to Frontenac to enjoy another freezing cold, windy, cloudy hike! We walked along a paved trail for awhile, but then made our way down to a more challenging hike along the hillside, which made for better viewing of the trees, woodpeckers and songbirds that rustled in the forest. We never did see any rattlesnakes, and the hundreds of pelicans were conspicuously absent (grumble grumble), no owls or pheasants, either, but it was a good walk nonetheless. After about an hour and a half of hiking, we made the drive back to the main park entrance and bought a couple of shirts. Back to the resort for a long nap followed by another long walk along the riverside into town to get a couple of items for our fish dinner back home. We made some baby veggies, beer battered sole, toasted herb rolls and a brownie for dessert for our anniversary dinner. It being so bloody cold, we opted for another movie night and watched Shakespeare In Love and then The Queen. Just before going to bed at 1:00 am or so, we realized the stars finally came out, so we used the telescope to view the stars a bit and finally were just too tired to stay up anymore.

I've been looking out intently for Pepie, the legendary Lake Pepin sea monster, to no avail :( Ooo, John's got brekkies all done! Off to enjoy our final morning here, the sun finally making another appearance. We'll be doing more hiking in the state park today before heading home to be with our little furry baby, Vesta! Pictures to be posted when we get home since we forgot the cable for uploading.
Love & hugs, R&J