Juanita Bay

I had today off, Tuesday.
and since no other normal person has a tuesday off, and the weather was wonderful, i decided to do my own thing.

i went down to the part of Lake Washington that is nearest to my house, Juanita Bay.
i've been here a few times before, so i knew what i was in for, but ever since i've been carrying my camera around, things seem to have a new light.

The park itself was once a golf course, and it kinda looks like it too. At some parts, in the brown grass, you can see indentations that would look like the size and shape of sand bunkers.
I don't remember why it was given up as a golf course, maybe partly due to the gopher problem.
Where's Bill Murray when you need him?

there are two boardwalks at the park with 3 look out points.
they don't want you to jump off into the brush, but there are a few points where there are well-established paths on ground that's hard enough to walk on.
i jumped onto one momentarily to get a quick picture of the two turtles on the log, but i totally scared them, and everything to the left that was out of view from the boardwalk.

after walking around the boardwalks, i headed down the old road that seems like it could only be oneway nowadays.
there was a cool covered part at the beginning of the bridge, but my camera has issues every now and then from the loess (dust) from alaska that keeps the shutter from opening all the way.
it's way too bad, cuz the part of the picture that i could see was pretty cool.

along the road were a few informative placards telling me about the local flora and fauna as well as a bit of the history of the area both in pioneer and pleistocene times.

there was an area affected by beaver, which didn't show their damn mugs. i've never seen a wild beaver. is it so sad that that's on the top of my list of wild animals to see?
bear, check. cougar, check. moose, check. beaver, NO. dammit.

further along came a clearing in the road where you could see the old pier that was built back in 1907. all that's left are a row of pilings. this used to be a ferry service that transported people from kirkland to bellevue, madison, and mercer island.
then they had to go and connect the lake to the sound, which lowered the lake and made large ships sailing in that area a hazard.
poor kirkland.

the interesting animals seen on the walk were 2 blue heron, maybe a dozen turtles, and a bullfrog chillin' on a lily pad.

i made my way down to the end of the old road and found Orexi. this was a Greek restaurant that finally went under a few years ago. everything that takes up residence in that location goes tits up within a few years. i can remember it being a jack in the box as well as some mexican restaurant.

when i walked by, there was some mexican dude on the roof and some asian dude inside working.
i took a couple shots of the shat inside.
as i was doing so, i look behind me to see Mitch, a guy that i talk to at the pool.
he asked why the hell i was taking pictures of a shat building.
but before i could really answer, the light changed and he rolled off.
i'm sure he'll ask me again later on thursday if he's in.

i ran from the restaurant all the way back across the bridge and to my car.
my ass hasn't run in such a long time.
i was sweating and breathing like crazy and it was probably only a 200-yard dash.

that's alright. water's more my element anyway.
tomorrow, pending good weather, Manuel and i are going to enter at Juanita Beach, which is a bit north of the park, and swim down to the hundred-year-old pilings to see if any sort of garbage can be found below.
i'm somewhat skeptical, because that small pickax that i found over at Carillon Point, i only found as i was pushing off from the bottom to get some badly needed air from above.
if my hand wouldn't have accidentally gripped around it, it would still be submerged and covered in muck at the bottom of the lake.

i still think it's worth a try.
so tomorrow, it's on.