Warmth demands activity, and Saturday's sun and high temperatures -- a record 84 degrees in Erie -- seemed to drive us into the out of doors.
It was a glorious day for most any hobby or hope.
Oil Creek State Park beckoned more than a few folks. Petroleum Center's picnic grounds were full, the paved creekside trail filled with bicyclists and the creek stocked with trout anglers in and above the special regulations area. A common merganser couple took ownership of one stretch of stream, cavorting easily with a lone Canada goose.
At Pithole, not far from Oil Creek, only a dozen or so circling turkey vultures, an Eastern bluebird and the foundation holes of the 1860s oil boomtown were present.
History hangs heavy over the grounds. It's worth a visit at least once to walk the old lanes, read the historical markers and imagine the sudden and suddenly gone bustle of an 1865-1868 oil city.
Just down the road at gin-clear Pithole Creek, a campsite along the water and bare feet hanging out the window of a parked car said everything about afternoon fishing, and about the summer months ahead.
Back at Presque Isle State Park in the evening, a pair of turkeys strolled Sidewalk Trail just a few hundred yards from the north trailhead, and an American bald eagle announced itself with graceful flights near its nest around dusk.
Both sights invited a return trip Sunday that resulted in a slew of sightings: red-headed woodpecker, American kestrel, Eastern Towhee, red-tailed hawk and, most stunning, wood ducks.
I didn't think of the cost of gas once all weekend.