Hooky, and my interpretation of Minnesota seasons, and, oh, a dead beaver.

Last Friday Nathan and I played hooky.  Now, I know what you're thinking.  Nathan Youngblood played hooky?!  Yes, it is no surprise that I played hooky my senior year of college when my brain is the consistency of raw egg and my blood pressure is probably abnormally high.  But Nathan on the other hand, now that's a surprise.

Despite crappy spring's best efforts, the state park was still beautiful.

I think it had something to do with the temperature outside.  You see, up here in Minnesota, we've had... maybe... 3ish days that have been warmer than 60 degrees so far this year.  It's May 1st.  Why the heck would anyone want to live here?  Honestly.  I understand a love for the four seasons and the beauty of winter and all that, but there are NOT four seasons in Minnesota.  At least, not four equal seasons.  Here's how I see it:

November-Feb (4 months) - winter.  As in, snow, cold, ice, grey skies, and bare trees.

March-May (3 months) - PMSing spring.  As in, mainly spring, but mostly mood swinging crap.  One day it will be 75 degrees, the next there will be 6 inches of snow.

June-August (3 months) - The oldest joke in the book, I know, but : a combination of hellish heat and road construction.  Just when you think it's warm enough to roll down the windows and go for a drive, you're greeted with the sound of jackhammers instead of bluejays.

Sept-Oct (2 months) - In my opinion, the best season.  Warm breezed, hoodie weather.  The leaves start to change.  This is the point of the year where you go, "I'm so glad I live here!  Baha, those folks in Florida don't understand true beauty!"

Anyway, to continue with my tale: My boyfriend and I played hooky on one of the warmest days of the year so far.  60 degrees.  We drove to Interstate Park (Wisconsin side) and went for a hike and picnic.  This was the point of the relationship where we realized, "Oh!  All those things we've talked about doing?  Canoeing?  Hiking?  Biking?  We both actually DO have a similar desire to do those things.  It wasn't just the 7 month winter talking."

After a mile-long hike, we enjoyed a picnic snack of strawberries and sunshine on the beach of a small lake.  We lazed in the sun for a while, just enjoying being warm and outside for once in our relationship.  After skipping rocks and sticking our feet in the water (oh, and Nathan almost catching a sickly fish with his hands...), we walked around the lake and found a dead beaver.  It...well, it looked like that. ^^^^^
Poor thing.

Have you ever been that close to a dead thing before?  Try it some time.  You become filled with the irrational fear that it's going to come alive and attack you.

In my head, it looks something like this: