Duck Attack and our crazy walk

Two hilarious things happened on our walk today. I love to walk everywhere and while driving down a street by our house I noticed a big field that has 4 different playgrounds around the edges. I decided we would bring a picnic lunch and play for a while. I parked at the library to cut the walk a couple of blocks shorter since it is 95 degrees and I do not have a stroller. So here we are walking down the street, sweating, but it was pretty shaded and I had tons of drinks and snacks for the kids (plus hats, sunglasses, sunscreen, etc). First we came across a pond with a fountain, and some nice houses and palm trees and I decided to take a picture with the kids. Immediately ducks (are they ducks?) started flying, swimming and running over to us (conditioned to get food?). The first 30 seconds was fun because Maya was squealing "kak-kak" and they made good props, but when they started trying to nibble US and our clothes, it wasn't so much fun.. more like terror and screaming kids running in every directions trying to escape. Think Hitchcock's "The Birds" movie, but with weird, red-faced ducks, almost as big as Maya, chasing her. Maya started crying, I picked her up and started running and told the kids to run "But stay on the sidewalk" as Vivi tried to run in the street to escape one. They look innocent in this picture, but it was taken just as the ducks realized we were not going to feed them. So here we are trotting down the street, I am balancing my camera and its case, the picnic lunch, my phone, and squirming Maya, who is looking over my shoulder and saying "waddle-waddle-waddle" (I think she was talking about the ducks and not me). Then Tonito is in front laughing and screaming "they're gonna eat us!! ha ha ha! they're gonna catch us and eat us!" while that scares Vivi even more who is hanging on my leg saying "mommy carry me too!" I am laughing so hard she can't understand me explain that ducks don't have teeth and can't actually eat us. We stopped after a block, and they were still chasing us, and almost had caught up to us. How can ducks run that fast? There were about 20 seriously running after us, and almost as fast as us! I told the kids we just had to run one more block and then we would be far enough away from them, so we did and we were. By this time everyone is red-faced and sweaty, and I am *almost* regretting our walk. We sat on the bench to take an apple juice break.

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Enter man on bike.

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Older Man, stopping his bike and staring, confused: "Are you just out... taking a walk?"

Me, smiling: "Yeah."

Man, stammering: "Oh, wow!........ That's........good! .........Good for you, taking a walk."

Me: "Thanks."

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Thanks, I think? Am I crazy? We were the only people at all 4 playgrounds. I get it that it was really hot, but.. really? There was no one else out and a guy congratulated me (or reprimanded me, I can't tell)..? Maybe their summer is like our winter, where people staying inside their air-conditioned/heated homes until the weather is better...