Fort Worden

Today we got up bright and early to head to Ft. Worden for what I refer to as "day camping". Some of our friends are up there for the weekend actually camping, but we just went up for the day and came home.

Ft. Worden has a very interesting history. Let me paste in a background for you:

Fort Worden, along with the heavy batteries of Fort Flagler and Fort Casey, once guarded nautical entrance to Puget Sound. These posts, established in the late 1890s, became the first line of a fortification system designed to prevent a hostile fleet from reaching such targets as the Bremerton Naval Yard and the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett. Construction began in 1897 and continued in one form or another until the fort was closed in 1953. The property was purchased as a state park in 1955. Fort Worden is named after Rear Admiral John L. Worden.

But that is not all that makes this place exciting to me. It was where one of the greatest movies of all time, An Officer and a Gentleman, was filmed. During my childhood, my mom was very much in love with the young Richard Gere. She loved this movie and watched it...oh, about 862 times. Which meant I also watched it and eventually learned to love it as well. I can literally recite the lines along with the characters (Way to go, Paula...*clapping*...way to go...)

Jenny I know you are laughing at this right now!

Here are some (ok, lots) of photos from our day:




Driving out towards Hood Canal with a gorgeous view of the Olympics.















Our new bike rack!














We hiked all the way up to all the old artillery bunkers are. Here are Bella and Michelle.















The long hike is worth the view at the top! You can see the Cascades in the distance.











Jamie- Great to see you following the rules!










Ackley Family













This pic shows just some of the old bunkers. It amazes me that people are still allowed to go inside of them. It is almost completely dark down inside with lots of rooms and hallways and scary nooks and crannies.













Exploring more...


















Bella and I came up for some daylight and a little self portrait while I gave her a piggyback ride.












A weird labrynth of trails we found in the ivy.















Most of the abandoned structures have signs like this that give you a little background:














We stumbled upon an entrance to a weird little tunnel, so we thought what the heck, let's head inside.












Inside the tunnel
















Looking through the tunnel from the other end.















Inside the bunkers there is graffiti everywhere. I had Jamie pose as the Lusty Lady.












I found a patch of beautiful light so I made Jamie pose for me once again. She was a great sport!















Once we came back down from our bunker adventure, we headed down to the beach. Now let me share a little secret...I have a full-blown fear of tsunamis. I have nightmares about them and everything. Whenever I am in a tsunami zone, I always mentally plan my escape. Here I am looking scared next to the sign.















Before we reached the beach, we found a pair of glasses, which was really odd, because we'd found a pair of aviators up at the bunkers earlier. So what do we do? Put them on for pictures. Here's Don looking oh-so-studious.












So of course I have to put them on too. I was laughing so hard in this pic I thought I would pee my pants! (Nice hair, girl)
















Me and little Rowan on the beach. He was whining for me to put him down, but I wouldn't do it until he hugged me first.
















Back at camp...





















We got tired of constantly chasing after Rowan so we went and got his car seat out of the car. You can see he's none too thrilled with this situation.















Look closely at these next two...We had our friend Becky snap a pic of us and we were like "Take two, in case one of us has our eyes closed!" So the first one came out like this:











And the second one came out like this: