I started this post a few days ago, but I was boring myself to tears with my writing, then I ran out of time to finish. Not publishing an outing within a day or so of it happening violates one of my weird self-imposed rules of posting, not to mention being gasp! boring, but I’m going to pick up where I left off. I’ll try to be more engaging, but if I fail, well, that’s why there are pictures.
We’ve had a bit of a spring-teaser weekend, and no doubt we will encounter coworkers tomorrow whose faces are a bit too pink and muscles a bit too sore. Add in Daylight Saving Time, and we’ll all be a bit too tired. In the upper left corner of the country, we grab warm sunshine by the greedy fistfuls whenever it shows up, but on a weekend? Have mercy.
We took advantage of the weekend’s radiance to check off state park #61.This is a park I had been to before over 20 years ago pre-TBG, but it only counts in the Great State Park Grand Scheme if we visit together. As they say, the couple who visits together, stays together. They do say that, don’t they? They should. It’s pithy.
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| Does my butt make this tree look big? |
Some of the trails are like you see above — nice, level gravel. And some are single-track dirt, but all are pretty darn nice. There wasn’t a particular trail sign by which TBGuide could pose. The following shenanigans were beyond my control.…
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| or are you just happy to be here? |
Back off, ladies, he’s all mine!
Several of the trails lead down to the shores of Lake Washington where there is a beach area (a no-sand type of beach) but there are a few picnic tables and a restroom (yay). TBG took the opportunity to adjust his boots and practice his smile. Does anyone remember the Friends episode about Chandler not being able to smile for photographs? TBG has the same problem. We’re working through this difficult situation together.
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| Togetherness is where it’s at! |
Again, we exchanged photo-taking with another couple enjoying the beach area. There were a lot of people in this area, so it is a bit amazing that none of them showed up in this photo.
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| Aggressive owls are the worst! |
When they say “be cautious” what do you think they mean? Tiptoe? Whisper? Some concrete pointers on what not to do would’ve been more helpful. After we climbed back up from the beach and away from the raptor attack zone, we headed for The Grotto.
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| Galloping to the Grotto |
Any time we have visited a grotto, and this isn’t the first time believe it or not, I can’t help but sing “in the Grottoooohhhh” to the tune of Elvis’ “In the Ghetto.” TBG thinks it’s hilarious. When I say hilarious, I mean he tells me to quit it.
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| In the Grottoooohhhh! |
This particular grotto used to be used as a place of prayer when the seminary was still active, and there was a statue of a saint on that pedestal. I can’t remember which saint it was, but I do remember it wasn’t Saint Edward, which I thought was curious. These days, this area is a popular place for weddings.
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| Dedicated to Saint Edward the Confessor |
According to my research, a real estate group will be converting this building to a hotel. I can only imagine that some of the expansive lawn is going to become more parking lots. There is also a beautiful indoor pool that has been closed for several years, and if the hotel people don’t refurbish it, they’re fools.
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| The path of least resistance. |
We took one more trail loop before calling it a day. There are about seven miles of trails in the park, and we did about five of them. We should have gone the other way in this photo, and then we would’ve gotten closer to the seven-mile mark.
But who’s counting?