Juanita Bay Park

Until the 1970s the ground where Juanita Bay Park sits in Kirkland held a golf course of nine holes, and once it stopped turning a profit there were plans to build over the 110 acres [1]. Kirkland chose to buy the land rather than see that happen, and let the wetlands come back on their own [1]. Three boardwalks lead people out over the water, where painted turtles stack up on logs to sun themselves, occasionally by the dozens [1]. The causeway beside 98th Avenue was the road into downtown Kirkland in an earlier day [1]. Halfway along it is a beaver lodge, and a bit farther on the old pilings of a ferry dock still stand, a leftover from when crossings to Seattle were made by boat, before the bridges [1]. A red-winged blackbird on a cattail and a great blue heron holding still in the shadows both belong to the place [1].