The Carey Adventures

Continued from Day 1’s Post.

Saturday was a late starting day.  At least it felt that way.  But we did have to be at the visitors’ center by 11am for the guided tour.  I wasn’t too hip on taking the tour but then again, I wasn’t not too unhip.  In other words, it was just a relaxing weekend and I was happy to do whatever.  And it did sound interesting.

There were about 20 other people of various ages meeting for the tour at a new gun installation.  The tour guide, who’s name I can’t remember at the moment, was a volunteer with the Friends of Fort Flagler, a non-profit group that is doing a TON of work restoring parts of Fort Flagler.  Just getting the gun and refinishing it, complete with one of those information boards, cost them $10,000 and a year or more.  And it’s all volunteer based.  I really like seeing that in action; seeing private citizens adopt something like a park for the mere interest of making it come alive.  The state park system obviously has financial shortcomings so it’s great to see everyday citizens step up and say, “this area is important to us and we are going to care for it”.

The tour guide was great!  He had a smooth pace, kept everyone engaged and was very mindful of kids’ paces and tolerance, having previously been a elementary teacher.  Sabrina wasn’t with me but I thought it might have been something I’d have to ‘drag’ her along if she was.  But by the end I wanted to go get her and have her take it with me.  I won’t recap the entire tour but some cool points:

• Visiting inside of the Powerhouse was cool
• Seeing how they used man power for lifting and moving 1000lb shells
• He had a binder with historic photos. A lot has changed on the grounds
• All the cement for the fort came from Belgium and was hand mixed!!  Same with Forts Casey and Warden
• Imagining condition in the winter made me very happy for the sun

The tour really helped bring the fort and the time it was built alive.  I never really had put myself in the shoes of anyone living there.  At the time the island was just an island, no road and pretty isolated.  The crew at Fort Flagler is said to hold a world record for both day time and night time target practice.  I found a link here to a New York Times article from 1915 but the PDF isn’t coming up right now, but give it a try.  This one reports the night shooting of 3 hits out of 4 which is phenomenal.  The day record was 7 out of 8.  I’d highly suggest taking the tour when you visit the park.

Later in the day we headed into Port Townsend to get a few parts for kayaks Todd is building for Sheri and himself.  From there it was over to Sirens, an awesome pub upstairs on the water.  They recently opened their deck and have live music most nights.  Plenty of inlaid wood and trim give this bar a nice feel and I’ll definitely be back.  Sheri then did some shopping while Todd and I wandered one of the public piers nearby.  This town has a good open feel and lots of chances to connect with the water all around.

Back in camp it was time for more relaxing, some drinks, more marshmallows, yet another great sunset and finally some sleep.   ZZZzzzzzz

Only one more day left!