Usually when the captain and I go hiking, I drive out east or up north, and I follow him around, assuming he knows where he’s going (9 times out of 10, he does). This time, though, I was like, Drive west, young man. He was like, Sure. That’s how we wound up going for a windy and at-first-chilly jaunt at Hempstead Lake State Park, which is a park I’ve been to multiple times, so I was totally in charge of navigation.

Navigation in this case means going around in a circle. I’m stellar at finding my way around a lake. Also, I’m stellar at layering. That day was one of the first warmer days, but we met up after I was done with work in the late afternoon, which meant that kind of warm that’s not warm. Captain, somehow willing Spring to stay put, decided a t-shirt and some joggers would do the trick. Meanwhile, I had on maybe five layers. While I may have been over-layered, I was happy to be that way when we first hit lakeside and a wind gusted at us, and I was like, that is cold, and he was like, Yeah, that was. Sometimes our conversations are too profound.

Instead of staying at the exact shoreline, we took the higher path around, which was less wind, more bugs. We walked through patches of hovering-black-bug-thingies that didn’t bother to swarm the captain but instead descended upon me. It seemed I was the only one being attacked until two girls walked towards us, arms all aflail. Yes, these were my people, and yes, we were under bug-siege. Nature can be cruel.

Despite the bug infestation, nature treated us nicely. No mud. Lots of sunshine. Glistening lake. Some discarded flowers that were somehow prettier in the sand. Also, the Loch Ness Monster’s cousin appeared. It was a rousing walk to kick off hiking season (but, like, a slow kickoff since I haven’t been back out since because it’s been cold, yo).