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I headed out early Monday morning for some birding.  My first stop was a small park with a pond very close to our hotel.  The pond was maybe half the size of the lagoon at Glen Oak Park, but there were 5 kinds of ducks, including one white-winged scoter.  I also found several bluebirds and woodpeckers.  If I lived in that area, I'd bird that park every day!  I then headed over to Indiana Dunes State Park.  On Friday, there was absolutely no wind and the water was calm.  Monday the wind was almost unbearable and the waves on the lake were big enough to surf.  The water was so choppy the only obvious birds were gulls.  I headed back to the nature center and hiked a trail to the top of another dune.  I also walked to the back of the nature center and found a large selection of feeders attracting a huge selection of birds.  I think between the park and the nature center feeders, I recorded nearly 40 species of birds.  It was a great start to my day!

I made it back to the hotel by 8:30am.  Gene and the kids were just getting up so we all had hotel breakfast before loading our stuff in the car.  Logan was making himself a waffle and for some reason grabbed the waffle iron and burned three of his fingertips.  He has been making his own hotel waffles for years!  I have no idea why he was injured this time, but I bet he won't do that again!  He has nice, big blisters on the tip of each of the three fingers and was in a lot of pain most of Monday.  Fortunately, today he feels fine and the burns and blisters don't hurt at all.  We got everything packed and loaded and headed back to the state park.  The van smelled absolutely horrible and we realized that Logan had picked up a deer leg bone on Friday and it was starting to stink.  He tossed it out of the car, but the smell lingered for a while.  We agreed that unless it's a really amazing skull, there will be no more bones in the car :)

The kids tried to play on the beach for a while, but it was so windy and cold it was just miserable.  We headed back to the nature center and hiked the same trail I did earlier in the day.  We then went inside the nature center.  A couple had stopped by with their pair of golden retrievers and a special surprise- ten 3-day-old puppies.  They were adorable and we got to look at them and pet them!  We then hung out in the feeder observation room for a while before heading out and starting for home a little after noon.  The drive home was quick and uneventful.  We picked up Scout and headed home to the cats.  As always, it was good to return home.

This morning I had a recheck appointment with my podiatrist.  I was taken off all work restrictions and don't have another recheck for two months.  Yay!  I then took my doctor release to the zoo and put up our zoo keeper group's favorite animal contest.  That was something that was hanging over my head for so long it was great to have it done.  Well, for April anyway...  I spent the rest of the day running the kids around and taking them to Galena Marina and Detweiller Park.  I'm trying to rest up and force myself to go get groceries tonight.  Right now if I had my way I'd just take a nap.