They say, "always bring your camera". [View All]

[teamster633]

It's advice I fail to heed all too often. The top priority of the morning was to get in at least 20 miles on my bike at the coast. The summer is fading fast, as is the motivation to make the trip. We live on a tidal river and we're only 30-40 minutes away from the ocean but, most years we go for a week's vacation and that's it. I put my bike on top of the car last night. Still, it was a pretty leisurely roll-out this morning. By the time I got to Rye and got 26 miles in, it was 11:00. I looked around as I tried to walk off impending leg cramps and noted the awful light, the boring, washed-out sky...it didn't appear that there would be any reason to take the camera out but, even as I packed it, I hadn't expected much. Then, just as I was about to put the bike back up on the car, a great blue heron landed in the salt marsh across the street. It couldn't have been more than 15 yards away. I wasn't really prepared but, I managed to grab a couple of quick shots before it moved on.