It was cloudy but dry Saturday morning, so we packed a picnic lunch and headed for one of the state parks outside the city to explore some hiking trails. No, we didn't end up renting bikes -- it was too expensive, we decided, and picking them up would have added some extra driving to the cost (gas is $4.40 per gallon!). So we climbed a small mountain instead and got a nice workout all the same. My hip flexors can still feel it today! Whew.
The trails we used were moderately well-maintained except in a few places where the overgrowth was up past my waist (where's a machete when you need one?). We managed a six-mile loop (about 2,000 vertical feet) in four hours with a stop for lunch. By the end of it, we were quite muddy, but it was worth it for all the fresh air and the peaceful sound of the streams that occasionally crossed our path.
Most of the sights didn't vary much, but the vegetation did change as we got higher. The lower areas were carpeted by ferns that looked like giant carrot tops poking out of the earth, which made me feel like I had wandered into rabbit heaven by accident; the upper ones had holly and more fir trees. At all elevations we came across some interesting fungi that grew out of the sides of tree trunks as if the trees were sticking fat fleshy tongues out at us.The highlight of the day was the nest of birds we discovered inside one of those trunks. The energetic chirping stopped me on the path next to it, but I couldn't see where the noise was coming from. D walked up to a crack in the bole and realized there were babies inside. An adult with something in its beak landed on a branch not far away and echoed the same call that was coming from the tree, so we stepped back and waited. Sure enough, the bird circled the trunk, slipped through the crack and dropped whatever it was holding inside. Then it zipped back out and disappeared.
Sunday's explorations were more suburban (and thankfully did not involve much walking since we were a bit sore). We didn't find the nest of our dreams (as expected this early in the house-hunting process), but we did learn a lot about the realtors we chose to try out. The first one, who drove us around to the homes we had asked her to show us, was pretty astute -- she had previewed all of the places earlier in the week and pointed out things she thought we might not like about them (but in a way that suggested that they were details to consider bringing up in negotiations, not that they were total dealbreakers). Then she zeroed in on our reactions as we toured each house, observing what we focused on even if we didn't comment out loud. It was almost a little unnerving, but it showed us that she had an eye for detail and was experienced in reading people. The second realtor, on the other hand, did a much more perfunctory job -- not really trying to assess what our tastes were and just talking up the properties in a slightly too transparent sales-minded way. In fact, she talked down about one residence when comparing it to another we were looking at (I can't imagine what its owners would have thought had they heard her). Like they say about job interviews, don't ever be openly negative about former places you've been ...
All in all, quite the learning experience.
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