26Jul2021 early morning, ~04:30 i left the apartment for my drive to Snoqualmie for a (small) mountain hike. But the plan was thwarted cos i saw my one of vehicle Tires was "Flat". i replaced the "Flat" with the "Half-Size" Spare (which is rated for Maximum speed of 50 mph). Not wanting to drive far with the "Half-Size" Spare, i decided to go for a quick ramble "somewhere" while i waited for the Tire-store(s) to open later this morning .. and from where i can get the Tire fixed.

~05:30 cool low 60s_F, i arrived at Seward Park. i did the ~2 mile ramble (CW) on the paved Shoreline and a little of the woods - it was quiet, and blissful … lovely trees and "understory". It was on the Shoreliine where i would encounter people - solo, pair, or small groups - cycling, jogging, strolling, or walking their dogs. By ~07:00 when i was leaving the Park, my guess is that i had encountered a total of ~30 people and 3 dogs. Everyone's cheerful, friendly and courteous.

Btw, Seward Park is clean and well-maintained. Thank y'all Parks Maintenance!

Lovely sunrise over Mercer Island. And seeing the gathering of geese enjoying themselves in Lake Washington gave me lots of joy 😃

Happy Trails Everyone!

Road to upper parking lot closed. Unsure for how long as there was no signage stating how long the closure would be, but still plenty of parking in lower lots when we rolled in around 7 pm. 

We walked the outer paved trail clockwise starting from the pottery studio. When we hit the northern tip of the peninsula, we took (I believe) the Spine Trail back south to cut through the park. With plenty of daylight these days, it didn't feel dark in this part. Trail well maintained. When we hit the upper parking lot, we just walked the road back down to our car. 

The trails near the upper parking lot have recently had some work done on them with new gravel laid out. It looked like the reason parking isn't allowed in the upper lot is because of the dump/construction-related trucks that are parked up there now. 

Lots of space to social distance throughout the park. There were other people around but this park does not feel crowded like if you were at Green Lake. Nice to see other dogs leashed, too. 

Lovely day at the park. One of the several trails (Hatchery Trail) is temporarily closed for infrastructure work, but the others are open. Lots of people out and about enjoying the fantastic weather, no issues with trail crowding though.

Check out these 2 urban parks on the same day! Kubota Gardens is a beautiful old Japanese garden with mature trees and tons of charming little bridges, walkways and small waterfalls. Famous for the bright red bridges, there are some little wooden ones and cement ones fun to walk along also. Not too much in bloom, Cornellian cherry (not a true cherry but related to dogwoods), just showing it's bright yellow color, witch hazels are finishing up and one early rhody is starting. This garden has a lot of mature specimen conifers that are the main plant feature this time of year. There are lots of rhodies there, it should be beautiful in May!  Sanican available near the entrance. Once we were done, we drove a few miles to Seward Park. This is a great park with access to Lake Washington, but also lots of little trails thru an urban forest. It was sad to see the areas decimated by the sword fern dieback. There was a sign about it, it is not know exactly what is causing it, but it is unique to this area and it has affected many of the parks in and around Seattle. Sad. The urban wildlife sightings included a coyote, I took a picture just to make sure, yup it was Wile E, (it was pretty blurry for posting so didn't)  also eagles, golden crowned kinglets, and the usual flock of crows. We had Kubota to ourselves, having gotten there around 9:30, but Seward was popular today, parking full and we had to park on the street. Prepare to be masked for the whole time at Seward. Loo open at the parking lot. We stopped for coffee afterwards and were still on the freeway back to Everett by 1:30 to beat the rush hour. 

It rained so hard today! But we walked anyway:-). The parking lots are still closed so we found parking on the street. There are a few spots in the small lot by the tennis courts, but they were full. The restrooms in front are open, but the others are closed. There was a porta-potty by the beach, but it desperately needed emptying. Quite a few people were walking. I didn't see any bicycles. We stayed on the path that circles the park and didn't try to go on any of the trails that go through the woods. It was beautiful and relaxing. Even in the rain.