We had a really rough Monday…

After waking up and having a cup of coffee and breakfast we just kind of lounged around the house and started to just take it all in… Then after we ate lunch we decided it was time for a trip into town to find Reservoir Park that was located near the town of Southern Pines.

The park has a 95 acre lake that was created in 1924 when a dam was built across a Mill Creek and supplied up to 2,000,000 gallons of water per day to Southern Pines and the surrounding area. The park is run by the city and is free to enter.  We decided to hike the 2.2 mile loop around the lake and took a few side trails as well.

The early signs of spring were abound as the fiddleheads of ferns were spotted along with the flowering dogwoods and wild blueberries. The trail on the lake is pretty well manicured and was a pleasant and fairly easy hike. e were occasionally passed by joggers and mountain bikers but they didn’t interfere with us bird watching or ambling along…

We stopped along a boardwalk crossing a creek that fed into the lake and the water was so clear that we could see the lily pads waiting to emerge from the depths… so we sat for a while and took it all in… While sitting a rather large (about one foot long) trout came out from the boardwalk and was manicuring it’s spawning bed. It had cleared out about a two foot diameter circle of sea grass and had wallowed out a place where she would soon be laying her eggs.

While watching her an American Coot was on the other side working the lily pads and sea grasses in search of food. We watched as she plodded along eating grasses and an occasional minnow and small frog. After sitting there for about half an hour we moved on towards the end of the trail where we were greeted by a pair of courting Canadian Geese.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After hiking around the lake we once again went into the town of Pinehurst as we really enjoy the area a lot.  One more visit to Dugan’s Pub for an ice cold draft Yeungling and a small walk around the quaint downtown area where there are several golf related statues in town… the tulips and landscaping were impeccable as this is obviously a vacation choice for the haves and not necessarily for the have nots.

No better way to end the day than with a nice dinner made in our new home… Seared Tuna with a mushroom lemon cream sauce, asparagus, rice with green chilies and mushrooms, and a slice of homemade wheat bread that was our first loaf of bread made in the convection oven… a nice glass of red wine to top it off… excellent!!!