I don’t quite think we can refer to boating on Post-Dispatch Lake as traveling by sea, but it was quite a trip for a couple of land-lubbers such as my son Austen and myself. The lake and the grand basin were covered (well, almost, sort of covered) with boaters, in rowboats such as ours (though many seemed to struggle with the oars) and paddle boats. There were mowers on Art Hill, wedding parties on the edges of the Grand Basin and birds everywhere.

If you haven’t sat on Picnic Island or beside Post-Dispatch lake and watched the swallows and Purple Martins dip, dive, soar and weave in their pursuit of happiness, you have been missing out! Bring a friend, some food and beverage and just sit back and enjoy the show (it’s all natural and non-fattening).

Besides sailing the pond so green (thanks to the geese) we met a painter named Georgia, watched lovers smooch, walked through the woods, and saw goldfinches, red-headed woodpeckers, hawks, black-crowned night herons and quite a few other birds. We found Star of Bethlehem and snapping turtles. It was a good day for photos.