Smilin' Jack: Summer Days at the Park

Or - A Tale of Two Parks

It's been a brutal Summer. The heat, well, the heat has been a real annoyance. Nothing like I've experienced before but, for this area, totally unexpected and unwelcome.

And I've done my share of griping about it. But, really, it wasn't that bad (I say now as the weather rests comfortably in the mid-70s during the day) for the most part.

Still, to beat the heat, Carol and I headed to the Beach. Hahaha, at least what passes for a beach around these here parts.

We headed out for Coulon Beach Park. Home of the Most Amazing Fall Folliage and other delights. And, today, for the first time, I tried out one that has been there all the time...

The Beach.

And it is a Northwest Beach. Oh, there's a sandy beach and plenty of sun (when it's shining) just like down Cali way but, just over the sidewalk, there's lush green grassy areas and large shady trees. Hahaha, the best of two different worlds.

So we wisely decided to stay on the grassy, shaded side and enjoy the view of the sandy, sunny side of the beach.

And there, right there is the sidewalk separating the two worlds.

It works. I recommend it for all those beach nuts in Southern California.

And we had a good view of the numerous Sky Scavengers…

Seagulls.

We were taking it easy…in the shade.

Always, in the shade.

Actually, it was quite pleasant and, in the shade, reasonably cool.

Had the radio tuned into KIXI Radio, 880 on the AM dial. It was playing the cool, timeless sounds that please rather than assault the ear.

Hahaha, either that or 770 AM, The Truth, Talk Radio. That always goes over big in Looney, Liberal Seattle.

Carol was fascinated with this Lifeguard. For some reason, they have a lifeguard who just paddles around out near the breaker. He, or she, just paddles around and nags the kids out there.

Ah, here we are. In the shade, on the grass.

Playing with our electronics.

Some of the other views from our shady perch.

It's Summertime so there were lots of kids, and Kid's Camps, there.

And a colorful playground area.

Yep, it was a perfect day for the beach and plenty of folks were taking advantage of it.

Including these Daffy Ducks. In the shade.

Hahahaha...

Their part of the beach was busy, too.

It really is a quite pleasant beach. With plenty of shade.

Still…trying to get a good picture of a Seagull!!

Damn you, Don O'Gara!!

(he's the one who challenged me to get a picture of a Seagull way back in '79 or '80)

This one was pretty scruffy. Maybe he's one of our Valued Homeless Seagulls.

Probably a Veteran, too.

There's a small island near the beach and we walked out there to see what we could see.

And what we saw was OUR park, across the Lake. There it is…can you see the wind sock in the lower left corner of this pic? Our park is spread out to the right of that…up to that boathouse on the lake towards the center of this picture.

That's our little park. We sit on the grass under the trees and eat our Double Chocolate Muffin treats and just enjoy. Oh, and we watch for Ospreys out hunting. And the Seaplanes land and take off. And the folks kayaking across the Lake.

Just behind our park is a retirement home. You can see the Dining Area there…the big glassed in area.

Then, from the same spot on the small island, we turned 180 degrees and saw…Ivar's, the boathouse and the picnic floats. it was from the one on the left there that we remembered Ev and Adrienne.

Some of the flora on the small island.

Walking back, we passed the playground.

And saw this guy. He was bouncing along, showing off for the kids. I'm sure these are cool but, are they really practical? You can definitely jump higher and stride across the area faster.

But how do you sit down?

That'd be real important to know for me.

We walked over to the other side of the park. You can see the small island upper left…behind the rusty bolt. The beach is down below that, just to the left of the lower rusty bolt. There's plenty of walking paths along the Lake and, of course, there is always Ivar's.

Part of the walking pier/breakers around the boathouse. Mercer Island is off there in the distance.

Hahaha, gulls. Seriously, I think it's more an illness now than a challenge.

Still, I try. I try and try.

A final look back at the park near the beach area.

And then it was over to OUR park. The small one on the other side of the Renton Airfield. And, from there, you get a real good view of Mt Rainier.

There's the hills of Renton in front of, by about 50 miles, Mt Rainier.

It's sorta big, eh?

And our Osprey made a brief appearance.

We think we're lucky because we got to see him hunt, and dive, about six or so times now. You can always tell when he's gotten something because he comes back up, out of the water, and then heads directly home.