A Million Dollar View with Birds 8.2.11

When I first moved to Hayden, I sat on this beach staring at the wonderful view. It was autumn, the view was spectacular. The view was wreathed in oranges, greens and red. I couldn’t believe that I could just walk up, sit down and see the water, the hills and the skyline. As I sat, a friend who had moved here from a Slavic country came up and sat beside me and said words that I have never forgotten. “Do you realize we are looking at a million dollar view? If we lived in Europe we would have to save for years so we could rent a boat, once. We would sit on a lake, and the lake would be packed with so many boats that you would only be able to sit in one spot until everyone else moved. But, what we would enjoy is the view. Here we walk up and just sit down. The lake is empty and the view is free. This is incredible!

And she is right…except today the view is probably more like worth tens of millions of dollars.

Still, we as a public can walk up, sit down, swim, boat, and barbeque, play volleyball under the watchful eyes of a lifeguard with a public supported bathroom. Of course like everywhere the sea gulls visit regularly….and where we step can be tricky. I was very pleased to see that the people on the beach didn’t actively feed these scavengers. Of course that didn’t stop them from landing and seeking their meal but living with nature is one of the charms of living in the Northwest.

Yes, we support all this with our taxes. And don’t get me started on our taxes…but Thank-you Hayden for the wonderful view I got to enjoy today.