c r o s s o a k

Summer Studies

The boys getting down to some summer studying.

Plan A was to watch the fireworks
on Lake Union from Gas Works Park.
Plan B was to watch the fireworks
on Lake Washington from Marina Park.
Plan C was to watch the sunset
on Cottage Lake from Cottage Lark Park

Our nice walk was interrupted by a loud 'bang!'

Yes, you guessed it, fireworks :-)

So we sat on the dock and watched the impromptu display.
Our thanks to the cottage lake neighbourhood.

We were quite comfy on the dock, but some others decided that a close-up view required some paddling.

Duck Racing

This crowd descended on the beach just before 4pm, and, by the by, managed to get in the way of some serious sand castle building.

Why? To watch duck racing, Kirkland style. The fastest ducks, as blown against the wind by men (yes, they were all men) with leaf blowers, won some serious prizes.

The trampled sand castles were quickly forgotten when the boys realised that there were 1,000's of ducks to help catch.

Happy Birthday USA

We did July 4th United States style. The parade in Kirkland, lunch (ducks and a swim) on the beach at Juanita Bay, a barbecue at home and then fireworks at cottage lake.

Day trip to Rainier

Thanks to Dawn for transport, we had a great day trip to Mount Rainier, stopping off for donuts and a view of the Alder Dam on the way.

Kautz Creek was a trickle compared with last time we were here. In the November 2006 storm the creek decided it preferred a different route down the mountain

There was still snow at Paradise, but the road was open thank's to the snow blower and snow plough.

From Paradise we hiked the relatively short, but fun in snow, Nisqually Vista trail...

...which leads to an overlook of the end of the Nisqually glacier.

On the way back we stopped for a spot of downhill bin-bag sledging.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Oar-somme.

Twin Falls

We took Nana and Faith to Twin Falls on the South Fork Snoqualmie River

On the hike we were surprised to see a rare finster that lives in the woods, we managed to get this rare photograph just before the finster disappeared into his burrow!