Seize the day and shoot the ducks

When Mother Nature treats you to 53°F on the first day of February, it’s only polite to get outside and enjoy it. My husband decided to take his bike to scenic Kelly Drive in Philadelphia for a ride on the Schuylkill River Trail, and although it’s one of our favorite places to ride, my daughter and I didn’t join him since he intended to go at a much faster pace for a real workout. In fact, my daughter didn’t want to go anywhere at all on the bikes. I pleaded, prodded, poked, tried the carrot-and-stick approach (library? pretzels? bakery??), all to no avail. Just as I was about to give up, she begrudgingly picked up her helmet and muttered one word – “Ducks.” She was willing to ride down to the park to visit the ducks that gather next to the creek, a favorite stopping-off point on our ride home from school. Not exactly the distance I was hoping for, but at that point I would have been happy just to roll up and down the driveway on my bike.
We arrived to find the creek rushing like a river due to the melting snow and more ducks than usual on the slush-covered banks. One duck walked over to greet us while the other ducks stayed a safe distance away.

Most likely she was hoping we had come to feed them (as we’ve seen the nearby homeowners doing), but it was surprising how she continued to waddle around us even after it was clear that we had no food for her. Maybe it was our bikes that intrigued her. My daughter was thrilled to be so close and made the most of the opportunity by taking more than 40 photos.



As I uploaded them to our computer, I discovered she had also been practicing her video skills.

One Lone Duck from BIKE Lite on Vimeo.
(Titles added by me. Used with permission.)

I think I may put the filming duties on her in future. She's got much more dramatic flair than I.