The sound of silence

Photos Eva Joos

We cannot only shop - okay, who am I fooling here? - so we decided we were going to stroll through nature. In no more than 20 minutes, we arrived at the Lake Louisa State Park, a beautiful park we have visited 2 years ago as well. We knew Gramps was going to love the scenery and the walk we had prepared. The sun was out but it wasn't too hot. We had brought bug spray and walking shoes, cookies and cold drinks and our cameras of course.

Our guests were truly gobsmacked by the beauty and the serenity of this park. I mean, you just have to be here, to experience the vastness of this park. There's not one single spot not worth visiting here. We didn't get to see much wildlife this year, but that single squirrel and the fascinating alligator under the bridge, made the visit more than worthwhile.

The lake is so big, it's almost like an ocean. Some brave Canadians hired a canoe to explore the lake, inhabited by numerous gators. Not all of them are showing, but we were patient and we moved around the park until we found one that wasn't too shy to show itself. We were thrilled by its appearance. We enjoyed the silence and the purity of this park. No litter whatsoever and no loud people to spoil the serenity.

Later that day, we decided to trade the stillness for the entertainment and laughter at Old Town. A totally different environment, but great fun as well. We almost got grandma to join the Line Dancing group, but she hesitated. If only someone would have joined her, she would have danced her steps on Save a horse, ride a cowboy!

Grandpa tried several cowboy hats, but didn't find any hat to fulfill his needs. They looked pretty good on him though.. Too bad we couldn't take any pictures. The Truck Parade was not as impressive as the Oldtimer Parade we witnessed before, but still worth the visit.

Since we had had an early dinner at the apartment, we could enjoy some cocktails and Mexican sopapillas at the local TexMex restaurant. It was late when we got home and we were really tired. Will that keep us from going out tomorrow to .. what did you think? That we would actually give up on shopping? nah!