It was a walk in the park

At the instigation of Dingo, Otis and I joined a minor expedition to the MI today. While some were scaling vertical terrain and others sleeping the morning away, we took the middle road and went for a little woodsy jaunt though Pioneer Park in Mercer Island - something like six miles of trails through something like 100 acres of woods and stuff. I don't know how far we walked, but we went through all three sections: the raviney one, the flat one, and the horsey one. It was just lovely, both the environment and the company.

After our walk, we got some victuals and headed over to Groveland Beach, just a mile or so away. It was a swell picnic, but the ladies didn't go swimming, only wading - it just wasn't that hot-hot that makes everyone but me want to jump in a lake.

When the small beach park started to fill up, we journeyed back to the mainland for ice cream cones and urban ambience at Madison Beach, comparing the squared away Seattle lifeguards to their more lackadaisical island counterparts and watching the vast human tapestry all aflutter in the summer breeze.

A nice way to spend one of the last Sundays of summer.

There was a cool bridge over the deepest ravine in the raviney section.
(Dingo is not being abducted by aliens; it was a dirty lens.)

We saw a lot of instances where new growth had taken over old stumps.

Here's a tree that appears to be in the shape of a woman's nethers.
(Otis saw it first.)

Dingo liked the bushes with little delicate red berries hanging from them like ornaments.
(We saw blackberries, too, but ate those instead of photographing them.)

Is this an egg in a bird's nest? No, it's a seaweed and rock art piece!