I have lived in some beautiful places in my life – Harrisburg, PA, with its full four seasons that offer variety and changing colors, Chapel Hill, NC, with its bounty of azaleas that take us into a long spring, Naperville, IL with its perfect blend of wild and whimsical with its downtown Riverwalk on the DuPage River,  and Norfolk, CT, with its lush forest canopies that offer peace and solitude for anyone who shows up.

Annie enjoying a walk through the Borden Woods in Norfolk, CT

This is my first full summer as a Lafayette, Colorado, resident. Lafayette has a suburban feel to it, much like Naperville. Where we live, it’s also wild, thanks to the City of Lafayette Parks and Rec and their investment in Waneka Lake Park, which is a three-minute walk from the house we rent.

While everything feels open and exposed at Waneka (there’s no true canopy like in Norfolk), I can’t complain because every morning I get to see views like this:

Waneka Lake, June 2025

Wildflowers are also abundant around the lake, and the sunflowers are blooming everywhere. I sent this photo to my niece earlier this week, and I’m still laughing at her response.

Of course, with so many flowers and an expansive invitation of fresh water, the wildlife is abundant, too.

Just recently, I’ve seen cormorants pretending to be Batman, a goose pretending to be a flamingo, a black-crowned heron perched in a tree, bunnies galore, a northern flicker looking for tasty bugs, and a baby toad being the cutest little nubbins of an amphibian.

I also like the community aspect of the lake. I’m usually out there walking early in the morning, often around 6:30 am, and there are plenty of people and dogs to say hello to. Just this morning, I met a schnauzer mix named Ruby, who loved me immediately, and her buddy Leelee, who deigned to let me let her. It was Ruby’s human who pointed out the baby toads hopping around, and I don’t think I would have noticed them otherwise.

I made it a goal in 2025 to walk around Waneka Lake 2 to 5 times per week. Now I find myself wanting to walk there every morning because I never know what I’m going to see or who I’m going to meet. There’s a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) in the best possible way. Since June 4, I’ve walked around the lake 36 / 40 days, and the only reason I missed 4 days is because I was in NC!

Let’s see how long I can keep the streak going…