Daily Archives: June 23, 2014

June 23, 2014 Nordland, Washington

We awoke to the sound of foghorns.  While not as bad as the sound of rain, it is not a welcome sound on move day.  By the time we ate breakfast and prepared everything for the move, the fog had lifted and the skies were beginning to clear.

We traveled sixty miles east to Fort Flagler State Park on Marrowstone Island.  We never saw any clothing optional people regardless of what the sign said.IMG_1052

 

 

 

We also visited the little post office there to pick up some mail we had forwarded there.  IMG_1017

 

 

 

 

 

Fort Flagler State Park It is a nice little park where we had a full hookup site overlooking Puget Sound with snow capped mountains in the distance.  While we saw cruise ships and barges at Salt Creek, here we saw mainly ferry boats. IMG_1053

 

 

 

 

The beach there was mainly rocks with a lot of driftwood.  IMG_1063 One favorite pastime of many of the campers staying at the park was kite flying, and everyday we saw several colorful kites flying over the water.

 

 

 

Fort Flagler was one of three forts in the area begun in 1897 to create a heavy artillery “triangle of fire” with 12 inch guns.  The goal was to protect the entrance of Puget Sound from enemy naval forces, protect the port cities of Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia and Everett, as well as the navy shipyard at Bremerton.  Fort Flagler was a military installation from 1899 to 1953, a period of time encompassing WW1, WW2, and the Korean Conflict.

Inside the park are barracks, officers’ quarters and a hospital used during World War 1 and  World War 2, as well as a museum housed in the Quartermasters Depot with a collection of military items along with a film about the fort’s history.  Wednesday morning we attended the Coastal Artillery tour which was a walking tour of the gun line which gave us a sense of military life and operations at the fort.  IMG_1013 IMG_1025 IMG_1031 IMG_1032

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill loved this sign in the little museum there!  IMG_1016Another day we drove over to Port Townsend, voted one of the “Top 10 Coolest Small Towns in America” by Fox News, NBC News, Budget Travel, and Yahoo Travel.  The entire town is on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of only three Victorian seaports in the nation.

Settled in1851,  Port Townsend was a bustling seaport, lumber and fishing town in the 1880s and 1890s..  Town leaders and prosperous merchants built ornate homes and brick buildings downtown because of the promise of a railroad line through the town.  Unfortunately Seattle was chosen instead and the town never grew to the large city it had hoped to become.  Instead today it still has a Victorian charm that attracts visitors, artists and musicians.  The movie “An Officer and a Gentleman” was filmed in Port Townsend in 1981.  Some of those old historic brick buildings are now used as shops and restaurants.  Back in the 19th century there were gambling halls and secret tunnels where drunks were shanghaied, kidnapped and rowed out to ships where they were sold into forced labor.  Today those secret underground tunnels are the sites of underground cafes where tourists can experience the secrets of the past.  Also during the 19th century Port Townsend was a Customs station IMG_1047where every ship entering

IMG_1048

 

 

 

 

Puget Sound from a foreign dock had to dock first in Port Townsend. Now it is a little cafe.

We really enjoyed seeing the picturesque town with a view of Admiralty Inlet, and seeing some of the historic buildings dating from between 1860 and 1900,

IMG_1046 IMG_1049 IMG_1050

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

including the Victorian style Jefferson County Courthouse built in 1892 with its 124 foot clock tower.

IMG_1044  It is one of the two oldest courthouses in the state and still in use today.

 

 

 

Later in the day we drove over to Fort Worden State Park, which was one of the other triangle forts built between 1897 and 1911.  We drove around the grounds of the fort which included barracks as well as a balloon hanger that was built to house an experimental balloon observation post which failed, and a chapel, Alexander’s Castle which was built before the fort as served as a retreat for John Alexander, a clergyman from Port Townsend.  The fort also had a building which once served as a hospital, a workshop, a gymnasium, a guardhouse, a theater which was one of the newer buildings at the fort, as well as a Band Barracks where the Coast Artillery band rehearsed every day and slept there at night.  Anytime of the day a soldier could pass by the building and here music being played.

We certainly enjoyed our stay at Fort Flagler State Park, especially our lovely view of the water!  Next we headed about an hour south to Bainbridge Island County Park, which included crossing the Hood Canal Bridge.  This bridge is 7,869 feet long and is the longest floating bridge in the world located in a saltwater tidal basin, and is the third longest floating bridge anywhere.  We had read about it earlier and we didn’t really know what to expect, especially in an RV, but it felt like any other bridge to tell you the truth.  20140627_101002

 

 

 

 

We stayed two nights on Bainbridge Island and once again we had a lovely view of the water where we could watch the ferry boats and cruise ships pass by. IMG_1080 IMG_1071 IMG_1066

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The full day we were there we took a scenic drive around the island, which included a spectacular view of Seattle. 20140628_134257 Too bad it was not a bright sunny day so we could get better pictures for the blog, but it was still a great view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found one of the most interesting geocaches on the island which was called “Dr Who’s Sibling”.  Since Bill is a huge fan of Dr Who, we were excited to find this one.  I will only say that it involved an out of order pay phone.  While it was not a Tardis like Dr Who’s, it was close enough and all Dr Who fans will get the joke.  20140628_150755