Another day at the park

A friend and I went back to Promenade Park today to enjoy a little more of the opening weekend festivities.  We got there in time to see the butterfly release.  Monarch and Painted Lady butterflies took to the skies.  There weren't thousands but there were many.  One landed on my shoe and stayed for a few minutes.  I think it was attracted to the color stripes on my shoe.  After the butterfly event we got tickets to ride on the Sweet Breeze, the replica of a canal boat that sails up and down the St. Mary's River.  I have been wanting to ride on this boat ever since it started its runs on 'my' river three years ago.  I've watched it many times from my balcony.  Today it was tied up near the butterflies so I checked and they did have seats available for the 2:00pm trip.  It was a 45 minute trip that didn't go past my apartment building but went the other way (westish) as far as the Jefferson Street bridge.  We had a very well informed docent with us and he told us many fun facts about the river, the Nickle Plate railroad, the old aquaduct (who knew?) and much more.  There were many nice views of the city but there were also some beautiful stretches lined with heavy growths of trees that made it possible to imagine what it was like when trappers paddled their canoes along this river two hundred  years ago.  And speaking of paddling, there were lots of people paddling kayaks today.  It was a great day to be on the river.