Lake Padden walks over the years

Yoga moves in September

For some reason I didn't even think about pulling out my camera this morning when we ladies walked around Lake Padden. I've been doing this trail with the Fairhaven walkers for several years now, and I knew I'd have plenty of pictures in my files to choose from. I got lost in time going through them, realizing that it was January 2010 when I first started joining the ladies. Cindy has been leading these Saturday morning walks for more than a decade, and many of the women who started with her back then never stopped. We come and go, but every month she posts where the walks will begin, along with the scheduled route, and if you make it by the early hour (8:00am) you are most welcome.

That first picture was taken on a September morning, as I saw a woman on the deck practicing her yoga routine. The weather was fine that day. Today, it wasn't raining but boy was the wind blowing! I see that we had gusts over 30mph, making the temperature feel much colder than it was. We managed two trips around the lake anyway, and then some of us headed over to the local cafeteria for coffee. We have become real friends over the years, and it makes me realize how much I look forward to our times together.

A much colder February walk

We come on these walks rain or shine, but Cindy will cancel any walk where there is a chance of ice on the trails. We had one cancellation earlier this winter, but so far we have mostly lucked out with the weather. Of course we always come prepared for rain, but sometimes, like this morning, the rain waits for us to finish walking before the skies open. Lake Padden is always visited at least once each month, and for some of us it's a favorite. Twice around is exactly 5.2 miles, our average distance: sometimes we go a bit more or a bit less, depending on where we are.

I hope I will have many more years of traveling around Lake Padden with this group, in rain, sunshine, wind, and the occasional glorious perfect weather.
:-)