Sunday, July 12, 2015

Romeo's Big Adventure

Well, the headline is a little misleading...  We just went to the National Arboretum together yesterday.  I try to take Romeo every couple of months.  It's not too far from here.  He can smell so many amazing things!--which is his favorite thing to do in all the world.  We often encounter other dogs, which gives him more practice in the arena of social skills.  It's also a good walk for me, a chance to practice and grow my tree, flower, plant identification accuracy.  Oh, and did I mention that it's free?
 We always start our adventure in the area of the 50 state trees.  This is a place to piss and shit around and get all of that out of someone's system before we proceed.  Here is the stand of White Pines that honor Maine.
 I took Romeo in the shaded center in hopes of getting a good photo....
But he just kept looking off into the direction of what he knew was going to be the heart of our explorations.  I love how he knows this place well enough to know what to expect and what he wants.  I love this kid so much.
Our next stop was an area given over to replicating the tall-grass prairies.  There was a wonderful view of the Capitol Columns monument from there, too.


Berries and flowers to taste and enjoy.  Then on to the woods!
From this point the entrance starts on a bridge.
 It wasn't that hot.  I think he was just panting out of sheer excitement!  What a boy.

 Roots that resemble antlers...way cool, right?
 Such a beautiful iridescent dragonfly.
 I relented at let my boy wade in the water....  There were lots of frog calls, turtle sightings and so I thought it was safe enough.
 Ouch!  A problem?  And later (below) we saw the source.  A fallen tree from the many violent storms of this atypically wet summer.

This area of the National Arboretum is called "Fern Valley" after all!

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