Nature

One of the very cool things about Maine is that you don't have to ride for hours to get close to nature. This National Wildlife Refuge is hard by the highway, a dozen miles from home.

Extending out into the water is a quite sturdy porch, complete with benches, binoculars, and camera rests. 

Since the binocular cases were empty ...

...I got all artsy.

Enough artsy. 

This gull enjoys a fresh Maine seafood dinner

While he doesn't have to pay our high tourist prices, he does have to protect his dinner table.

First, a loud warning...

...then prepare for incoming dive-bombing swallows

Nonchalantly turning his head, the gull ignores the birds, who are a mere annoyance, not a real threat

Order is restored to nature, and I ride off to a Sea Dogs baseball game, where I'll eat hot dogs. Oddly, I can't stand seafood. (My mother often lamented that she must have done something wrong in raising me: "How can a child raised in Maine not eat fish?"