Mommy Musing – Sometimes you find what you’re not looking for – like family time or a snowy owl.

Snow and more snow had brought on a case of cabin fever here at our house.

It was time to pile in the car for a change of scenery. We decided to go in search for a sign of summer – beach pizza.

We loaded into the car for a ride to one of the local beaches for our favorite square pizza (surely a slice or two of pizza would bring back the feelings of summer)

On our way to get beach pizza we passed the Salisbury Beach State Reservation – the entrance had a line of cars out of it and people all along side the road with cameras.

It looked like a paparazzi scene from TMZ only no one was looking for a Kardashian they were looking for snowy owls.

Snowy Owls have been visiting our neck of the woods here in New England the past few weeks and our local state reservation has been full of bird watchers and people out hoping to get a glance of one of these beautiful birds. Our family loves looking at the local ‘wild side’ of our area but didn’t have any intention of finding a snowy owl.

So while enjoying the heat of the car, being with my family, a warm pizza box on my lap and a little taste of summer (a.k.a. beach pizza) guess who flew by our car and perched on a parking lot light? That’s right – a snowy owl.

It seemed funny for us to be sitting together as a family talking about all the people out in search of this beautiful bird (who apparently wanted little to do with all the people trying to take it’s picture) – only to have it join us in the parking lot while we ate our slices of summer.

Spending time in the car that day has become one of my favorite winter memories this year. I felt so lucky to see that beautiful bird and to be able to have that shared experience with my family made it even more memorable. We were able to make a memory without trying – those are the best kind!