Jacket weather?

I waited and waited but by 1:15 it was still only 68 and still heavily overcast.  Forecasts for tomorrow say 80 percent chance of rain, finally the goal of salvaging a ride today became paramount and I just had to get on my bicycle and go.

I made it twice around the cul-de-sac before heading back into the driveway to retrieve my most light weight jacket.  68 and heavy overcast in April would be one of the last days of jacket weather.  Jacket weather in June seems wrong but today it seemed too cool for my summer costume.  I went with jacket, deciding that I could always take it off and stuff it into my jersey pocket.

So I rode out to Vadnais yet again.  The GRider and I rode out there yesterday on another heavily overcast day which produced zero photo opportunities.

We did have a quite extraordinary non-photo opportunity moment though.  We were riding the reverse route which means we were riding up the lake instead of the much more common down the lake.  Shortly after rounding the curve just after the parking area we startled a great blue heron from its lakeside resting/hiding spot.  The great blue, he be very, very shy.

The very largish by Minnesota standards bird got up from its roost and started to fly north along the shore of the lake.  We happened to be riding north along the bike path on the shore of the lake.  The bird was traveling at about the same speed that we were so we rode almost all of the rest of the way to the top of the lake parallel to and exactly in line with a great blue heron.

Pretty dang spectacular view, I kid you not.

It was clearly not a photo opportunity, who could have prepared for that?  But what it means that for the rest of the summer any time I am heading up lake I am likely to pre-prepare by putting my pocket camera on video mode.  If it ever happens again I could try to grope the camera out of my pocket and just point it in the direction of the wildlife.

Wouldn't that be spectacular?

Of course, what is likely to happen is that there will be several inadvertent videos this season, as I forget to adjust the settings on the camera before attempting a photograph.

*sigh*

Here is a photograph from today.  This is the exact same ground that produces the spectacular tulip display pictured here previously.  The tulips are gone, obviously, but the proprietor over there has overseeded the tulip bed with a variety of later blooming plants.  The tulips are gone but today it looked pretty nice.

And then there is this.  The sign isn't the "no parking" that I grew up with but it is the internationally recognized "no parking".  So why is that car parked there?  And for what reason is that a "no parking" area?

Here's a view from the other side.

Cars can park wherever they want because cars are way more important than bicycles.

I made it all the way home with my jacket still on.