A Walk in the Park

As promised, here are some pics of my lovely day at the park when my best friend Doug came to visit Sunday.  He, Matt, and I grilled hot dogs and hamburgers (yum!), then fed the ducks, splashed in the water, and visited the McKinley Memorial. 

The picnic table you can see there across the water is where we hung out and ate.

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day for our little outting.  So far, summer here in Ohio has been blazzingly hot and humid or rainy and humid (did I mention it's humid?), so to have a day that was warm and breezy was amazing!

Gillions of ducks patiently awaited our leftover bread.

Canadian geese, mallards, and adorable little wood ducks loitered on the bank and in the water around us while we ate.  I couldn't resist feeding them some hamburger buns.  One brave mallard stayed very close to me the whole time and even took bread right from my hand!  Wish I'd gotten a pic of him.

Left: Matt, right: Doug.

After we fed ourselves and the ducks, we walked along the river and enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery.

The spillways we passed along our stroll looked so cool and inviting, I just couldn't resist kicking off my sandals and getting my feet wet!

After playing in the water and taking some more pics, we walked up the hill to the massive McKinley Memorial.  There's like a million stairs (108 to be exact.  Only feels like a million) to the top and I kinda wanted to hum the "Rocky" theme while going up them lol.

Doug stops for a quick pic

The McKinley Memorial was built between 1905-1907 as a final resting place for President McKinley and his wife.  It stands 7 stories tall and has a beautiful white dome inside decorated with a stained glass skylight. 

The acoustics inside were so amazing I could hardly resist singing.  "The hills are alive...with the sound of music..."
All in all, it was a wonderful day made even more wonderful by getting to spend it with two of my favorite guys.  Hopefully it won't be another five years before I get to see Doug again!