Magic!

I needed to get out and go for a walk in the sunshine, but I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go – Mount Baker? Squalicum Pier maybe? Deception Pass? I started driving, curious where I’d end up, and found myself at Lake Padden. And oh! There was major magic there today!

The mist was moving over the autumn reflections on the lake (I’ll post more pics and video in another post), and the paths were filled with a golden glow from the sunlight filtering through the leaves. There was a man and his pup – Shawn and Remington – down near the shore – and I could tell they were as caught up in the magic as me.

Shawn was wearing a hat that said “Ketchikan” on it, and we got to talking about what a great little town Ketchikan is – Shawn had lived most of his life there and I’d traveled through Ketchikan once on an Alaskan adventure. Then Shawn bent down near the shore and showed me how he took cool pictures with his cellphone by letting it rest vertically right on the edge of the water (he showed me some of the photos he’d taken this way and they were FANTASTIC!). I wanted to know more about Remington, and Shawn told me that Remington had been rescued after being abandoned in the woods with other dogs from a puppy mill.

As Shawn was leaving to continue on his walk with Remington , he turned back to me to point out a deer that was headed down the trail. Magic!

After taking some more pictures of the mist on the lake, I headed for the dock – I figured there’d be some great reflections there. And this is when I met Salem, and her human, Josh. Salem let me scratch her behind the ears, and Josh and I got to talking. I learned Josh had moved from Seattle to Bozeman, and had only recently returned from Montana. I asked him if he missed the wide, open spaces of Montana, and he admitted he did. He talked about how he’d been astonished by the starry skies when he’d first moved to Bozeman from Seattle. And then we got to talking about the mountains and skiing and snow-boarding and (ahem) I might have mentioned my dad is in Wikipedia for mountain climbing.

I continued on my walk around Padden, passing under golden arches (not the MacDonald’s kind), and swishing through autumn leaves. When I got to the part of the park where the geese hang out, I sat at a picnic bench to watch them. And this is when I saw the magnificent Wilbur! “That dog is magnificent!” I told Wilbur’s human, and he smiled and brought Wilbur to me so we could get acquainted. Wilbur let me pet him – his fur was so soft! Wilbur, his human told me, is an Irish Doodle – part Irish Setter and part standard poodle – and he’s huge! Wilbur’s human introduced himself as Ryan and I introduced myself as “Karen, of course” – Ryan passed the Karen Test by laughing – and we shook hands to make our introduction official. (We went all-out with the handshake and did the handshake, thumbs over, fist bump, and “poof” – because, as everybody who’s anybody knows, that is the best way to shake hands.)

I really needed to be at Lake Padden today – I needed to meet the pups and people, and see the mist moving over the water. I needed the magic of kind people and autumn.