Port & Fort

BACK IN TIME: It was cold, windy and very, very gray, but I was happy to see it wasn't raining when we awoke this morning in Port Townsend, because on our agenda was a walking tour of sprawling Fort Worden.

Named for US Navy Rear Admiral John Lorimer Worden, commander of the USS Monitor during the Civil War, Fort Worden is 433 acres. It was originally built as a US Army installation to protect the Puget Sound area, and it served as an active US Army base from 1902 to 1953. In 1957, the State of Washington purchased it and for years it was a juvenile detention facility.

By 1973, it had been converted to a state park.  Today museums, campgrounds, a theater, schools and more dot the grounds.

We spent about four hours exploring the state park at the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula, on Admiralty Inlet.

We clambered around so many abandoned battlements. In a way, it reminded me of seeing ancient Mayan ruins in Mexico ... although these were hundreds of years newer. Can you find CJ and Annabelle standing atop a lookout?

Here they are inside, scanning the horizon for any enemy threat.

They decided to let this cargo ship go on through. ...

The guns and soldiers were long gone. All that remained were the beat up battlements with their decaying concrete and rusted metal. It was nice to try to picture them in all their glory, with hundreds of troops running 'round ...

 

A few of the battlements had their blueprints on a sign nearby. Below, CJ and Annabelle sit at the site where those plans were draw up, by engineers, long before they had benefit of computers or even calculators.

We scaled sketchy, steep staircases and ventured through the concrete bowels of bunkers. 

We braved tunnels and trenches.

 

Most of the subterranean parts of the battlements were tomb like, but every so often we'd encounter a rare 'skylight.'  

Mostly things had been stripped bare, but once in awhile we'd stumble across a gizmo from generations gone by - in this case an antique generator. 

 

There's a century-plus-year-old lighthouse at Fort Worden. It's more stubby than stately and is in disrepair, but it had its own charm, as lighthouses do.

 

 

 And we saw lots of deer- and deer droppings - today. 

I have more photos, but our motel has no Internet access (I know, the HORROR!), so I'm using Christian's cell phone to create a Wi-Fi hot spot and it works but is s-l-o-w. It's a miracle I got this much posted. So, until tomorrow, from Port Townsend.