Views of Sequim, the Olympic Peninsula. . .and beyond
This little girl was holding her own as she played on the street in Port Townsend last month. Her mother sat in a chair across the sidewalk from her.
I had mixed emotions. On one hand she seemed mighty young to stand, performing, on the street. On the other hand, how better to learn to perform?
New Dungeness Light Station is a gem, located at the end of Dungeness Spit. It’s not easy to get to. For the hearty it’s a 5-mile (8 km.) beach walk, timed to avoid high tide. We took a watery route on Monday as we fished for crabs on the last day of the season. Not much luck on the crab front but the lighthouse views were great. It’s otherwise quite distant from land.
The Lighthouse is maintained by a volunteer association and for a fee members can be volunteer lighthouse keepers for a week. It’s a beautiful, remote, and different place to stay. Keepers greet visitors and do light maintenance around the site.
Can you tell it was a nice day to be on the water?
One of our recent guests is a craft beer aficionado so on a trip to Port Townsend we sought out a local brewery we’d seen but not explored: Propolis Brewing.
My Danish grandmother allowed me tiny glasses of beer as a child so I’ve long enjoyed beer and ale. However, nothing quite prepared me for the Propolis beverages. Made with herbs and botanicals in an “Old World” style, the tastes were quite unlike what I’ve come to expect. The one on the left, above, was a Golden Saison brewed with lemon balm. The other was an Amber Saison brewed with sage, hyssop and thyme.
The brewery has won a number of medals for their craft brews. We took home a couple of bottles. As one who leans towards India Pale Ales – and drinks them infrequently – I can’t really say what I think of them. They’re certainly different.
Climb down a flight of stairs in Port Townsend and there’s a small warren of tiny underground shops. This little creature greets you on one of the unfinished walls.
Here’s one of my favorite shots from my recent trip to Fort Flagler State Park. This was taken in a military fire station bermed into an overlook onto Port Townsend Bay and Puget Sound.
The room has an openwork grid ceiling that makes irresistible light patterns. Can you see why I like Fort Flagler?
We spent a couple of days at Fort Flagler State Park last week. It is an historic park with a number of military batteries built for coastal protection in the early 20th century. In addition to its being a beautiful location the old fortifications are worth exploring.
After my post about it four years ago, Western Flyer’s fate moved into uncertainty. We read in the local newspaper that the real estate developer who intended to restore it and move it into a hotel in Salinas, California stopped paying fees to keep it in Port Townsend. Its fate seemed perilous.
As desperate as its condition was, the Western Flyer was nonetheless an iconic vessel with a storied history that joined a lion of American literature, John Steinbeck, with Ed Ricketts, an equally great figure in American marine biology and ecology. It couldn’t be left to crumble into a pile of rotted wood and barnacles. In 2015 the Western Flyer Foundation was created.
The Western Flyer has been moved into the Port Townsend Shipwrights Coop where it is being painstakingly restored. However, it’s not being rehabbed just for the sake of renovation. The foundation plans to regenerate the vessel to a state of the art marine research vessel which will bring a marine lab and educational platform to coastal communities. Students will engage in marine science with the assistance of a remote operated vehicle and below decks workshop. A committee of qualified teachers, scholars, scientists, and engineers are collaborating to design curriculum specializing in the Western Flyer’s multi-disciplinary nexus: American literature, marine biology, and maritime history.
It’s an exciting project and the enthusiasm of Western Flyer’s proponents is infectious. Click here to go to the foundation’s website with a video and additional information about the project.
I plan in coming months to drop by to see Western Flyer’s progress.