Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Fort Worden, WA - guns, wind and waves . . .

Waaaay up on the easternmost tip of the Olympic Peninsula, north of Port Townsend, WA, Oscar and I found Fort Worden. A strategic outpost from long ago, Fort Worden's weapons protected the water approaches into our nation. One of the disappearing guns of the Kinzie Battery required 51 men to operate the massive canon which could hurl a 1000 lb armor piercing shell 8 miles!

As the Wonder Egg cozied up against the sand dunes, Oscar noted a tall sparsely appointed tree and asked what happened to all the other branches. The answer came in the middle of the night when gale force winds whipped through the area gusting up to 50 mph! The Wonder Egg's curved body allowed the harsh wind to slide effortlessly around without any significant shaking . . . nice. (Some of our neighbors in straight sided "stick built" trailers were a-rockin' and a-rollin' all night long)

Down on the beach, we could see some bits of driftwood. Oscar wanted to go down and investigate.
He discovered those weren't just any old pieces of driftwood . . . this was the mother-of-all-driftwood . . . large trees that had washed ashore. Boy, was he impressed.

As we walked along, Oscar said "Hey Pete, I wanna buy a surfboard to ride the BIG wave!" then he ran over to a sign we never see near San Antonio . . .

I tried telling Oscar that the guy in the picture wasn't going surfing . . . he was still determined to get a surfboard, dog paddle out, and wait for "the BIG one." To get his mind off that idea I had to distract him by walking down to the Point Wilson Lighthouse where we saw what he claimed had to be "The biggest flashlight in the world!" (At least he got tsunami-surfing off his mind)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I guess you didn't find Richard Gere up there for a follow-up film to "An Officer and a Gentleman."

The waves in the sound are very mild. Only a tsunami would produce anything that one could surf upon and for that to happen you would need to have an earthquake....the ONE thing that we DO fear in the PNW. Oscar will once again have his chance to surf when he is on the Oregon Coast!

Anonymous said...

It looks beautiful! I wish we were there with you. Fall has arrived back in San Antonio but I'm sure it's not anywhere as near as gorgeous as where you are. We miss you.

Gayle and Richard

Anonymous said...

Very fasinating. I never knew that pieces of driftwood could be on the beach. Go figure. Tell Oscar that if he thought about surfing enough he'd probably dream aboy himself riding that "BIG" one. Hope you enjoy yourself the rest of the trip. The Collins:)

Anonymous said...

*about. sorry! The Collins

mountainborn said...

Woo Hoo, all of the right stuff ! Guns, Wind & Waves !
We love the Pacific N/W Coastline. Kinfolks live up there. We sure do need to visit them.
Thanks Pete

Anke said...

Enjoying all your travel stories and pictures,really makes me want to follow in your footsteps...! But for now I also enjoyed Boston very much, so thanks for the tip! Am now in Miami to cathc some summerson, but have to leave tomorrow unfortunately! Take care and keep on posting!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful...