Wind!

Often it's a smell. Sometimes it's a scene. Or a song. Suddenly, you're whisked back in time, a childhood memory fresh and bright in your mind.

Kite surfer enjoying the wind at Juanita Beach.

 
It happens to me while Finn and I take an early evening stroll in very blustery spring weather. The wind, the big whitecaps - their spray highlighted by the sun - and waves crashing onto shore at Juanita Beach take me back to growing up on Lake Sammamish. On many days like this, back in the 1970s, my brothers and I would put on our beaver-tail wet suits and jump into the cold, cold lake to try to body surf on the waves. I would stay in as long as I could, until numbness set in, then dash back up to the house and into a hot shower. 

Finn's not sure about posing in the wind.

As I struggle to keep Finn's leash in one hand, and take photos with my iPhone in the other, a kind stranger offers to take a photo of me and Finn:

My ponytail and Finn's ears fly!

The kind stranger did well!

Is that a big duck?

Finn has become obsessed with ducks. He always scans ponds, streams, lakes and beaches for them on our runs and walks. When he's off leash, I have to be on high alert to keep him from giving chase. Here, he looks at the kite surfer for quite some time, perhaps wondering whether this is some new, large species of duck. His duck obsession is so strong that if he really believed it was a duck, he'd brave the waves and try to swim after it. Lucky for me he's on leash, and dubious enough to not try to give chase today. Besides, he's nowhere near as good a swimmer in reality as he is in his mind.