For my cousin's second full day visiting the PNW, we went to the Olympic Peninsula to check out a bit of history, and enjoy a nice drive on a Sunday afternoon.

We're really liking the new church we've started attending.  Its close, and we really feel that we can fit in there and make it our new home.

After church, we went down to Seattle, and picked up the ferry to Bremerton, which for this run was the Walla Walla.

My cousin isn't used to being on a boat that's carrying so many cars... =]

It was a beautiful day, and we were up on top, watching the view from the front row!

Heading out, we had a GREAT view of the Seattle skyline!

The trip across the Sound was very pleasant... they've moved the fish farms, and it was easier to get a decent picture of the pens.

 
Before too long, we were docking in Bremerton.  It had been a very pleasant trip across.

We drove up to Fort Flagler State Park.  (for some reason, I keep calling it "Flagerty"... but the picture of the entrance sign, hopefully, will set me strait.)

Driving on that side of the Sound is a bit more relaxing than driving in the Metro area, that's for sure!

 
Fort Flagler was part of the Coastal Defenses in the Pacific Northwest.  It was installed near the beginning of the Civil War, to allay fears of a British invasion, and was upgraded and improved over the years to provide security to the entrance of the Puget Sound, especially during the two World Wars.

 
The views from the emplacements are quite spectacular.

It seems the deer have figured out the area is protected, we saw this yearling foraging next to a parking lot, and an older gentleman who seemed to have been there for a while said that they were "all over the place" within the park.

The little guy was having a fun time checking out the interesting stuff, too.

 
The largest battery emplacement is the Henry Bankhead Battery, named after a Civil War General who was a mucky-muck in the artillery corps.  His brother was the captain of the USS Monitor at one point.

 

The Bankhead Battery has some interesting works that are still open to the public, which we checked out.  The little guy didn't like the dark all that much, but he did OK.

The Battery supported 8 12-inch mortars, which must have made an INCREDIBLE amount of noise when they were firing!

 
We checked out the views for a while around the park, then made our way home. 

To avoid traffic, we went back by way of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which allowed us to explain the famous mishap of the "First Tacoma Narrows Bridge", and check out the new bridge that opened just last year.

It was one of those Sunday drives that everyone remembers, but not enough people do anymore... including us!

< Back to Currently