Have had a very nice day here in Morton Washington with my sister, Barb and her husband Martin. I had my usual slow morning, but around 10:00 Barb and I headed out for the town of Centralia down along the I-5 corridor. An old farming and logging community originally, they have now turned most of the old town section into a mecca for antique hunters.
   Barb and I spent several hours going from one 'bad' store to the next before lunch. (A 'bad' store being one with too many neat things that you want to buy in it). I did actually end up making a couple purchases, even though I try very hard not to buy stuff too often, mostly because you can't fit a lot of extraneous stuff into the trailer anyway. But I am always on the look out for old tools that are still in good enough shape to use, and which aren't ridiculously priced beyond what even a new one would cost. Today I found two different wood plans that I have been looking for these past couple of years. One was a #8 Baileys jack plane with a solid flat base of about 10" in length. Good for planing across the grain on wood panels to help flatten them out. And the other was a 16"-18" long Baileys jointer plane that is used to straighten out long boards so they can be glued together, as well as flattening large flat surfaces also. New they both would be between $200 and $400 each, today though I got both for under a hundred. Now they will take some work to recondition them both, but all of the parts are still there and aside from some rust on the bodies and a split handle on the jointer plane, they are both in good shape.
   We ate lunch at the McMinnamins there in town. This is a chain that started in Oregon, I believe in Portland, and has been spreading ever since. Even though it is a chain, this one looks nothing like any of the other ones I have eaten at, mainly because none of them were built new. Instead the owners go out and find an old building and gut most of it and then install what ever they need to, in order for them to make it a restaurant. So each is unique and a little quirky, and all of them have wonderful food and great beer. 
   After filling up with lunch we wandered through a few more antique stores looking at all the cool toys, furniture and other brick-a-bract that you can find in them. I managed to keep from buying anything else, so I did pretty good, all in all.
   A pleasant drive home and then a quiet evening sitting around talking and watching a little TV. They are both early birds so they are already in bed while I still have a few more hours to be up at least. So I finished up another set of pictures from the other day and they are located below. Enjoy!

Point Wilson Lighthouse near Port Townsend, Washington  Oct. 3, 2014

Situated just a little north and west of Port Townsend Washington, this lighthouse is directly across the straights running between Whidbey Island on the north and the Olympic Peninsula on the south. Admiralty Head Lighthouse is located opposite to this one on Whidbey Island, and between the two they help direct ship traffic from the Pacific Ocean and the Straights of Jaun de Fuca into the inner sanctuary of Puget Sound

The original lighthouse was first lit on December 15, 1879 and consisted of a 46 foot tower and a keepers dwelling. The fixed white light could be seen for up to 13 miles away on a clear night.          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1894, a new lens was installed in that lantern room, changing the light's characteristic from fixed white to fixed white varied by a red flash every twenty seconds. 

The original lighthouse was eventually undermined by beach erosion and a new one was built further inland to take it's place. The current lighthouse was built in 1914, and the original lighthouse, minus its tower, continued to serve as the keepers' dwelling. The new lighthouse featured a forty-nine-foot concrete tower, built in an octagonal shape to reduce wind pressure, which projects upward from a fog signal building. The light still shines from the fourth-order Fresnel lens, sending forth alternate red and white flashes every five seconds.

Like other lighthouse's along the east and west coast's the light at Point Wilson was extinguished during World War II as a defense measure to protect nearby Fort Worden and the entrance to Puget Sound.

Note: much of the information that I write concerning lighthouse history and construction is gleaned from information kiosks or placards at the site of the lighthouse or from a really good web site I use dealing with Lighthouse's.     http://www.lighthousefriends.com/maps.html


brk*

   Packed up and left the Seattle area this morning. It takes a while to pack everything away again in the trailer if you have settled in for any length of time. But everything finally went back into it's own little cubby hole, or under a seat, all the tanks got drained, and the truck was finally hitched up to the trailer and ready to go.
    Pretty foggy in the area this morning, so it was a very nice day for travelling. Emma, my GPS, took me down I-405 and then on to the back highways through Renton, Puyallup and assorted other small towns. The sky cleared up as the morning progressed so that by 10:00 it was nice and sunny out once again.
    I had a good time driving down to my sisters house just outside of the town of Morton Washington. I wasn't in much of a hurry, so it was after 1:00 before I drove up the last little piece of dirt road and landed in their front driveway.
    Not much has been done since arriving here. I got the grand tour of their property and all of their out buildings and pastures of course. They have a beautiful place here, about 13 acres of mixed forest and pasture land, as well as the house, several barns and garages, and the best part, the swimming pool and tennis court. Unfortunately the pool is way to cold to swim in right now, and none of us play much tennis any more, but both seem to come in handy when any of their grand children show up. Other than that, and a short walk this evening, I mostly just sat around drinking wine and talking with my sister and her hubby. It is unfortunate that I showed up on the day that Martin had to have several of his teeth pulled out in preparation for some additional dental work. So he was pretty miserable this evening and still looking like a chipmunk with his checks packed full of nuts. It's good to be here finally, and I am looking forward to a couple of days here catching up with Barb.




brk*

   Yet another wonderful day in the Seattle area. I'm beginning to think I screwed up and I'm really down in southern California and not up here in the northwest in the Emerald City. Anyway, wonderful sunny and warm day, just right for being outside exploring. My last day in the area so I headed for the downtown area and spent a couple hours just walking around. Visited the Pike Street Market first off, a wonderful place full of colorful veggies and fruit from the state of Washington. Then there are the fish mongers with their cases of fresh caught salmon and flounder and all other manner of salt and fresh water fish and crustations. I love the stacks of fresh Dungeness crab, either live or cooked, as well as fresh squid and octopus. It is just a feast for the senses.
   I bought a nice warm round of just baked sour dough bread and then a fresh blueberry-cinnamon roll to eat on my rounds. There are so many things to see including all kinds of local arts and crafts as well as local wines, beers and other alcoholic beverages. It was fun to wander around, but it just made me hungry, so from there it was a walk of a few blocks to bring me down to some of the restaurants along the water front. I ended up in a little place that looked out over the sound and had a nice plate of fresh caught flounder in a garlic and butter sauce and some French fried potato's. It was yummy.
    Tonight I'll be putting things away in the trailer and getting ready to move in the morning. The plan is to head south about 100 miles and meet up with one of my sisters and head out to her place for a few days. It will be fun to see her and her hubby once again as I missed seeing them in Florida last year after they moved from there back to Washington state. Right now though I'm going to finish up these pictures and then get busy. These photo's are from a few days ago on my trip out to Whidbey Island.

Admiralty Point Lighthouse on Whidbey Island, Washington - Oct 3, 2014

First lit on Oct 21, 1861 this lighthouse, in conjunction with the Wilson Point lighthouse on the Olympic Peninsula mainland, this lighthouse showed ships the way through the Admiralty inlet and into the inner Puget Sound. The original wooden structure was later moved so that gun emplacements to protect the waterway during the Spanish American war could be built. In June of 1903 this lighthouse was inaugurated and it flashed out it's red beacon for the next 19 years before being deactivated. As WWll started up the lighthouse was reactivated and it has been in use every since. 

This second Admiralty Head Lighthouse was built in a Spanish style and I think it is one of the prettiest lighthouse designs I have come across so far.

I really like the arched front entrance to the porch as well as the crenellated gable along the front.

Just an additional view that I liked. What first looked like red Spanish tile on the roof actually turned out to be a red standing seam roof. I imagine that the original roof was either cedar wood shingles or actual red clay tile. But this looks pretty good I think.

One last one.

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   Finished up the laundry yesterday afternoon and packed up the truck and took off for Alki Point just south of Seattle. The plan was to go and get some pictures of the last lighthouse in the area that I didn't have any of. My GPS routed me along the edge of Puget Sound for a good portion of my trip, and people were out in droves enjoying the warm sunny weather. The beaches along the point were full of sunbathers, volleyball players and people just strolling up and down the sidewalk and along the shore.
   I finally found the lighthouse, just about where the GPS said it would be, but then had to drive about a half mile before finding a place to park the truck. But as I said, it was a nice day for a walk so I didn't mind all that much. Of course once I got to the entrance to the lighthouse grounds I found that it was closed to the public now. They evidently run lighthouse tours during the summer tourist season, but the rest of the year it is closed off as the district commander for the Coast Guard, some Rear Admiral, actually has his residence there in the old Keeper's house. Actually a kind of romantic notion, using the old grounds and buildings like that, but why he would want to keep hoards of people off his lawn and from peeping into his windows is beyond me. :)
   With that being said... and not letting it deter me, I proceeded to snap pictures of the keepers house and what I could see of the grounds from the front gate. I then preceded down the hill until I found a public entrance driveway for several houses that lead back towards the lighthouse. By walking down it you could finally come to a 6' high chain link fence and actually see the lighthouse in the distance. The only thing you could really see though was the lantern tower sticking up over the roof's of some of the surrounding support buildings. Or at least you could if you had a long enough telephoto lens to look through and snap the picture. I of course didn't, having left mine back in the truck when I started out.... so back to the truck I went, changed lenses and walked back for my pictures. They aren't great pictures, but good enough given the circumstances.
    I spent a couple hours there along the beach just hanging out, reading a book and watching the boats go by. I had an appointment at 5:00 though to be over at my niece's house for dinner with here and the family. So I finally packed up once again and got on the road.
    A.J. lives in a wonderful house, high on a hill overlooking the sound. She and her husband, Steve, have a view that one could enjoy for hours and hours. So that is what we did. We did take a little time to 'climb' down the stairway that leads from their yard to the edge of the bay, but we only stayed down there for 30 minutes or so. We much rather preferred the comfort of their deck, with its big comfy chairs, spectacular view and cold beer and snacks.
    Their view out over the bay includes this huge fir tree just down the hill from them. It looks like it may have been hit by lightening at one time and had several feet of the top of it blasted away. But it stands perfectly silhouetted against the back drop of the deep blue water, and later, the rich warm colors of the setting sun. It was a real joy to sit there for an hour or so and drink in all that beauty of the sunset over Puget Sound.
   Besides being a great photo subject that old tree has also been home to a pair of bald eagles that have fledged little eaglet's in their nest for the past 6-7 years. Unfortunately  one of the main support limbs for the nest broke off this last summer, and this years young eagle fell out and died. Everyone is hoping that the eagles will come back next year again and find some way to rebuild their nest.
    Andrea, Steve and one of their son's, Matthew, made a wonderful dinner for us all of grilled Bar-b-Que ribs, stir fried veggies and biscuits. Wash it all down with a glass of Washington wine and you have the makings of a nice meal.
   I stayed another hour or so after we ate and we sat around just talking. Got a chance to really get to know Steve, having never met him before today. He seems like a real nice guy and he and Andrea look to be pretty well matched as a couple.
   Back to the trailer after all of that. It being somewhat late and all, it only took 25 minutes or so to make it back to Esmerelda. Finished up a batch of pictures after that and watched a few more episodes of the 'Beverly Hillbillies' and then went to bed. Enjoy the photo's below.

Bush Point Lighthouse on Whidbey Island Washington

Oct 3, 2014

As you can see from the sign this lighthouse, Bush Point Lighthouse is located on private property now, so no going in and getting any close ups of it. I could still point the camera down the driveway though and get at least a couple of pictures from this direction. As you can see it isn't one of the more photogenic lighthouses anyway.

One more view from a slightly different angle.

And finally; one shot from the deck overlooking Puget Sound. A person could come to like having this view all the time. Note the eagles nest just down from the top of the tree.

brk*

   Just sitting here in the RV park waiting for a load of wash to finish up. It is one of those chores people who don't travel full time neglect to think about. But even I have to do the laundry once in a while. Even if I do find it to be a dreary chore. Still, one must make the best of it, so I'm sitting up here at the main office with my book, a couple magizines and the computer, just hanging out for about another 45 minutes or so. The good news is that the WiFi signal is much stronger up here closer to the source, so this may actually go out in a timely manner.
   Not much else going on, not since last night and my last post anyway. I had way to much caffeine late in the day yesterday so I found myself still awake at 1:00 in the morning. Turns out that there are only so many old episodes of the 'Beverly Hillbillies' one can watch at any one time.
   Slept late of course and just hung out for awhile around the trailer. The plan is to go over to my niece's place late this evening and have dinner with her and the rest of the family. Haven't ever met her new husband, but he looks nice enough and I've heard nothing but good about him and his son so far. ;)
    I would like to go over into that area a little early, as there is another lighthouse not too far from their place. Alki Point is the only other one in the immediate neighborhood that I haven't taken any pictures of yet.
    Below are a few photo's of the West Point Lighthouse out in Discovery Park that I took a couple of days ago. I remember using this light as a navigational aid way back when I was stationed in the Coast Guard here. It was always a friendly sign that we were getting close to the Seattle waterfront when we had been out on a night call or out training.

West Point Lighthouse in Discovery Park just north of Seattle. Oct 3, 2014

Commissioned in November 1881, the lighthouse is about 7 miles from Seattle and fix's the point where Elliot Bay starts, as well as the south side of the Washington ship canal into Lake Union and Lake Washington.

The lighthouse has been automated now and a new electric light is positioned in front of, and outside of, the tower of the original light. The original 4th order Fresnel lens is still located in the light tower however.

The section of the building on the left use to house the steam powered fog horn. It was on average in operation for 350 hours per year, and in the year 1897 it used up more than 7 tons of coal to keep the fire burning that generated the steam. The fog horn in use now is electronic.

You can see the old and the new lights in this view. The light flashes alternating red and white and on a clear night can be seen for 16 miles.

Puget sound is off in the distance.  

A last look at the old lantern room.

Two family 'Keeper's' quarters. Not sure if these were original or not. They certainly aren't as ornate as most keeper's houses were.

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    It has been a very busy two days now since I last wrote. Sorry it has taken so long to get anything down on 'paper', but I've been out exploring and having fun.... which always takes precendence over routine matters like writing blogs.
   Yesterday was spent driving around some of Puget Sound in this huge circle. I started out by going north of Seattle to the little town of Mukilteo where they have this wonderful little lighthouse located on the point of land there. (See photo's below.) I spent some time wandering around the area snapping photo's of the lighthouse and surrounding area and enjoying a nice sunny morning.
   Once done there it was just a hop over to the other side of the road where the parking lot for the Widbey Island Ferry was located. A total of $8.30 got me and the truck on the ferry and 20 minutes later we were rolling off the other end of the boat onto the Island.
   There are two lighthouse's on the Island itself, so I drove around until I had found and photographed both of them. One is now on private property, so there is only a distant shot of it down an access road, but it isn't much of a lighthouse to look at anyway. The other one is just up the hill from the ferry leading off the Island and going over to the town of Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. The 'Admiralty Point Lighthouse' is just beautiful and I hope to have some photo's of that up on line in another day or two. 
   Hopped on over to the mainland again after having to wait in the ferry line for  about an hour longer than usual since one of the two ferry's was out of service that day. It was a nice day though so I could spend the time walking on the beach there and reading my book. Once in Port Townsend it was time, past time actually, to find some lunch. So I parked the truck and walked up and down the main street of old town until I found a cute little café in one of the old, old buildings there. Fresh caught ling cod was on the menu as their version of fish and chips. Yum! Ling cod may be one of the ugliest fish ever pulled from the waters of the sea, but it sure is delicious. Reminds me a lot of walleye, my favorite fresh water fish to eat.
    Unfortunately I went the wrong way out of town after eating, heading west towards the town of Dungeness in order to see the lighthouse out on Dungeness Spit. It wasn't until I got there that I found out it was going to be a 5 mile walk out on the spit and then 5 miles back just to get there. Since the sun was starting to go down anyway, that was pretty much the end of that quest. At least for this time around.
    Turned around and headed back east toward Olympia and then on north towards Bellevue and my trailer. Did take a little time out for a late bite to eat, but otherwise it was several hours of driving to get back home. Unfortunately it meant not getting back to the Seattle area in time for  the contra dance, so maybe next time.
    Today has been a little slower. Spent the morning at the trailer reading and then working on some photo's. Late this afternoon I went on back to Discovery Park, just north of downtown Seattle, and walked on the beach and spent a couple hours just watching the water while reading. A beautiful sunny day with a temperature around 70 degrees, so there were lots of people out and about, both walking in the park and out on the sound on a boat of some kind.
   So now it is dark and I'm holed up in a Micky D's using their WiFi to get this out. The signal there at the RV park is enough to read most things, like fb or the comics, but it isn't good enough to actually load up photo's or anything else. So here I sit for another 30 minutes or so. Right now though I need to finish this up and get on to other things.

Mukilteo Lighthouse at Mukilteo, Washington - 10-3-2014

The front door to the Mukilteo Lighthouse. The word Mukilteo is actually a Native American word meaning 'good place for camping', as a local tribe would use this site for their winter camp site. The tower is 38 feet tall and has a 4th order Fresnel lens.

That is Puget Sound in the background.

A view of the tower and the 4th order Fresnel lens.

 

 I like this view for some reason.

The total station consisted of not only the lighthouse building and tower, but also two keeper's houses a windmill-pumphouse building and several small out buildings. Total cost of construction for all of it in 1905-06 was $27,000.

The Widbey Island ferry docks right next door to the lighthouse. I took the ferry over to the island after finishing up here so that I could see several other lighthouses out there. Total cost for me and the truck was $8.30.

One more view from this angle. The light seems to have been the best from this angle today.

I love the details they used in the construction back then. These days our lighthouses are usually metal monstrosities that have no soul.

One last look.

brk*

    Made it into Bellevue Washington around 2:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon. It was only a couple of hours of driving from where I had spent the night before, and all in all it was very pleasurable driving at that. Up through Yakima and on to Wenatchee and Cle Elum. From high desert the highway ascended into the high Cascade mountains until it finally passed over the summit of Snoqualmie Pass.
   The RV campground I'm in is just east of Lake Washington alongside I-90. It isn't a very large place, but they have managed to pack more than 90 RV's of various sizes into it. My spot turned out to be just slightly longer than my trailer with all the bikes and stuff hanging off the back of it. In addition it was a back in site rather than a pull through. In addition there was a 6 foot tall fence directly on the other side of the access road you came in on and which was only slightly wider than my truck and trailer. What that means in real life is that I had to back the trailer in at a near 90 degree angle using only the width of the access road I drove in on. It took me a couple of tries to get it all set up, but in the end I slide the trailer in as slick as can be.
   Once I got everything set up and had a bite to eat, it was time to take off and go explore. My first stop was over in the town of Ballard, a suburb of Seattle just north of downtown, where the Hiram Chittenden Locks, (sp), were located. A long time ago, way back in the early 80's, when I was in the Coast Guard and stationed in Seattle at Pier 36, I use to take a 41 foot patrol boat through those locks and on into Lake Union and Lake Washington at least once a week. It was always fun 'locking' up and down while crowds of tourists would talk to us across the guard barriers. So it's still fun to watch other boaters enjoying all the attention as they go up and down with the water. There were several sailboats and small motor boats that locked through, as well as a large Alaskan Crabber that had to use the larger lock because of it's size. I could probably sit there all day and watch the water traffic, and the tourists as they went by.
    There is also a fish ladder there at the locks so that the native salmon have a way to bypass the dam and the lock system and return upstream to the streams and rivers where they had been born 3-5 years earlier. Along with the 23 separate dams and pools that make up the ladder itself, there is a viewing area they built into the design so that you can see several of the pools from under water. Yesterday they still had quite a few salmon using the ladder to move upstream, even though the majority of them had already passed by over the past several weeks.
    I took a chance and actually recorded a couple short videos of some of the fish with my telephone and posted them down below. Of course I first had to figure out how to download them off the telephone and onto the computer, and then I had to figure out how to rotate them 180 degrees, since I was holding the phone upside down apparently. It all got sorted out eventually though, and I think they are at least good enough that you can get an idea of what it looked like with the salmon swimming.
   Today was pretty slow to start, but it finally got up to speed by mid morning. I went over to Discovery Point Park just north of downtown
Seattle, and wandered around all the trees, bushes and flowers there. I really think this part of the country has to have some of the prettiest areas around, especially when the sun is shining and the weather is good. Of course it's those long weeks and months of grey, rainy weather that makes it so green and pretty here. I also walked over to West Point and took a few pictures of the lighthouse there. I plan to do a big loop of a road trip tomorrow just to see more of them, so I hope to have a few photo's to post of them all in the coming days.
    I had a quick bite to eat out this evening and then headed over to the Mountlake Terrace part of the city, where one of the local contra dances was happening. The dance was held in a local community center, and it had a great wooden floor to dance on. It also had a 4 person band that was really wonderful, as well as a little bit unique for a contra dance band. They had the usual fiddle and piano player, both of whom were outstanding, but they also had a trombone player and someone who played both the flute and the saxophone. All of them were excellent musicians so there were some really fun tunes to dance to this evening.
    There were a full 3 lines of dancers, with maybe 30-35 people in each line, and even though there was an over abundance of men to start with, it soon evened out as more women showed up after the start. It was fun to dance again, and I even got to see an old friend of mine, Jeff, from the Portland and Denver areas. With any luck I'll also get a chance to go to another dance tomorrow night somewhere else in the Seattle area. Like always I feel lucky to have happened into contra dancing so many years ago. It has made it easy for me to interact with local people wherever I go, and most of the time there is at least one person, and often times, many people, who I have met some place before. Plus it's fun!

Migrating Salmon at the Ballard Locks Fish Ladder in

Seattle, Washington. Oct 1, 2014





 




 

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