third of september

I took the boys and their buddies down to Seahurst Park so we could all put our toes in the tide pools one last time before Fall blows in.

We watched the leaves and sticks on their slow sail along the creek toward the Puget Sound.

We climbed over logs and bent down in the shallows to stare at seaweed and barnacles.

We squatted in the damp sand and tried to throw all the rocks we could reach, and the ones we found under those too. Dark and heavy clouds gathered behind Vashon Island (it would be a rainy afternoon), but the sky above us was blue and the breeze was leftover from August.

I watched until I got so full I had to bum a few snapshots off a stranger, handing her camera back with my business card and hoping she'd do as she promised.

She did, and I'm grateful.