rss feedWeekend drive: Symmetry at Fort Worden, where the Strait and Puget Sound meet
My family and I took advantage of a free weekend day and drove from the Seattle area to Fort Worden – where the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Puget Sound meet.
Fortunately, the sun was shining and there was no rain. The wind whipped around – enough for kite fans to send their aircraft aloft and for my son’s pinwheel to twirl faster than we expected.
As we visited this former military base built in the 1890s and a strategic point at that time, I thought: Man, many of these buildings really do have a symmetry to them.
Who knows?
It could just have been me.
Or was it government specifications of the time? Or the fact that the U.S. military has always liked utilitarian buildings?
It also helped that I stood at the midpoint of each building to snap some quick images with my digital camera.
Some of you might have visited Fort Worden, which is part of the Washington state park system.
It was our first trip – and we had a blast.
The lighthouse you see in the two photographs above is Point Wilson Light.
The lighthouse opened in 1879 but it has been at its present location since 1913, according to a sign near the structure.
In 1976, the lighthouse went from manual operation to automatic.
The bottom picture is of the cavernous rooms and doorways to one of batteries – this one is of Kinzie.
Some older kids had a blast running in and out of the rooms, hooting and hollering.
We just watched them have fun.
We also saw rocks, rocks and water and a lone tree that has endured the coastal wind for years.
I also spotted a sign – translated into many languages, including Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese - reminding people to keep the seaweed at the state park.
I should note, as a full disclosure, that I like eating seaweed, especially in soup.
But I don’t go to state parks to collect it.
I’m too much of a consumer – so I actually go to stores and trade dollars for seaweed.
Oh, yes, on our way to the Fort Worden, we saw an old-style truck, sitting by the side of the road.
I’m glad my family and I had time to enjoy our roadtrip.
My wife, son and I threw many rocks in the water.
