As a hectic Friday morning slipped into a languid afternoon, I pulled into the Lafayette Reservoir to take a look around.
I found a lot of walkers and a lot of runners enjoying conversations or solitude. The water looked cool and clear as a gentle breeze offered some relief from the heat.
Despite the fact that his computer was broken and customers kept coming up to his desk, Tony, the park ranger, was kind enough to pause and do a brief interview about what's available at the Lafayette reservoir.
A man with his three grandchildren were fishing off the pier. His two grandsons had never fished before, and both of them caught a fish, which they threw back. The granddaughter, in her early teens, played with her phone, completely uninterested in the goings on.
The entire time, two groundskeepers were blowing leaves and dust around with what had to be the loudest leaf blowers ever manufactured.
It was just a rather loud reminder that Lafayette reservoir, as scenic and pastoral as it is, is still located in a fairly urban area.
But there are far worse ways to spend a summer afternoon, even if the fish aren't biting and the leaf blowers are at full volume.
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