Trailing

GOLDEN LOCKS:  This morning we decided not to let a couple rain showers stop us, we wanted to get a good walk in.  We drove to Ballard and parked on the north side of the locks, as I wanted to show the kids one of the trails the dogs and I took while the kids were camping. 

About the first 'highlight' of the tour was visiting the spot where the dogs knocked my backpack off the deck and down a cliff while I was taking a photo. 

Here are the kids and the trouble making dogs on said deck.

And here they are by the statue I was looking at when I heard the sound of nylon sliding.

Happily, we left the deck without incident today.

Just beyond it, I spied a gravel trail I hadn't noticed when the dogs and I were there last week.  We saw signs saying it was open to the public, maintained by Seattle Public Utilities.  We were surprised to find a horseshoe pit along the way.

CJ was pretty dangerous with the horseshoes, let me tell you.  I was taking my life in my hands by standing here.

A little bit down the trail Annabelle noticed a sign that said shore access.  We tromped down some stairs next to SPU Pump Station 38 and, sure 'nuff, we could have gone right on down to the water. (The photo of the access point is at the top of today's blog.)

There were a number of Canada geese enjoying shore access.

 We passed hundreds of boats at Shilshole Bay Marina.  One in this group caught our eye. ... 

Here's a aerial view of the place, thanks to Google Earth. As you can see, the marina goes on and on and on for many a city block.

Our path today (locks to Golden Gardens and back), is traced in bright green.

HOME IMPROVEMENT: We spent the afternoon in West Seattle, helping Rick with a few things around his place.  We put CJ and Annabelle to work replacing the old, ugly, over-sized white plastic knobs on cabinets with some bright, shiny new silver ones.  MUCH better. 

ROCK STEADY:  The Great Rock Wall of Magnolia project continues.  I think Christian and I moved 6 or 7 rocks this evening, which is better than we did yesterday.  We''ve got our system down, and are doing it as fast as the two of us can while being  safe.  However, while our current approach is working find for the first couple of rows in our wall, it's not going to work for higher rows, as we can't lift or tip these big rocks up that high to stack them.  We're going to need to devise some kind of skid set up. Stay tuned. ...