Hiking through the estuary

We spent the morning of Memorial Day on a hike through a nearby estuary.  (For those of you who may not remember, an estuary is where a river meets the ocean). 

We moved at a rather leisurely pace, since William didn't much want to stay in the stroller.  But there was lots to see. 

We looked for wildlife,

and found a few ducks playing in the river.

and a goose nesting in the swamp grass.  The river was very interesting as well, with one side of the river having a current out to sea and the other side of the river moving inland as the tide was coming in from the Sound. 

We saw lots of red-winged blackbirds, which were very cool,

 and even a couple of herons.

There were lots of different kinds of plants and flowers to see, but William just wanted to play in the rocks.

 Most of us had a good time,

 but some (er...I mean, one) of my children did not want to be there.  I'll just leave it at that.

 Back to the smiling happy ones...

I even got in one of the pictures this time (Ben and Kate were begging to take pictures for most of the hike, so we have LOTS of pictures).

Happy unofficial start to summer.  (We are still wearing sweatshirts, but at least we got to spend the day outside with no rain!)