The Great Escape

WEST POINT: Last week a Groupon popped up for a night at a hotel in Silverdale, Washington, which is almost due west of us, over on the Kitsap Peninsula. 

The price was right, and so I bought one. We headed over there Sunday morning, driving down through Tacoma.  Here we are crossing the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Our route took us through Bremerton. None of us had ever been there before, and we know it to be a big Navy base, so we were looking forward to checking the place out. 

As we drove into town, we spied some BIG ol' ships in various states of "they've seen better days." 

One of them was the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, which was decommissioned on May 12, 2009, after nearly 49 years of service. Here she is back in the day. ...

Unfortunately, the ships were docked right next to a highway, and there was nowhere for us to park to take a better look. (We also couldn't access the naval base, of course.)

We did check out a waterfront park in Bremerton. There, the USS Turner Joy, a warship from the Vietnam era, was on display.

We passed on the tour, as it would have set us back $38. We can tour big ships for free on the Seattle waterfront from time to time.  (You can take a free, two-minute tour of the Turner Joy via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RsnHDOtwMMI)

The waterfront park hosting the Turner Joy was a great place to soak up some sun. Here, CJ and Annabelle sit on a large stone memorial bench for a Navy Captain.

 From Bremerton, we continued north to Silverdale.

There, we stopped at another waterfront park, Silverdale Waterfront Park, to be specific.

The park was hopping, and many of the visitors were military families.

This park also had a military memorial, with flags representing the various branches of the service ...

and a neat map of the world, with the continents made out of concrete.

From the park, between the flagpoles, we could see our hotel.

Situated right on Dyes Inlet, the Silverdale Beach Hotel was lovely.

Tonight we learned Dyes Inlet is named for John W. W. (that's not a typo) Dyes, a taxidermist with the Wilkes Expedition of 1841.

There was a nature trail along the water's edge, crossing through the hotel property. From an interpretive sign, we learned more about the feathered (and underwater) friends in the neighborhood.

We saw some real live herons ...

and even a bald eagle flying overhead.

As we wandered the trail a bit further, we came across a big ol' rusty contraption.

 

Fortunately, there was a sign there to tell us it was a saw from logging back in the day.

We did spend some time indoors too, specifically in this lovely pool. The kids swam Sunday afternoon and night, and Monday morning. 

It was a whirlwind getaway. By noon, just 26 hours after we left home, we were back home in Seattle (having taking a ferry from Bainbridge to downtown Seattle). 

The commute gave us time to help prep CJ for his state standardized tests he'll be taking the next couple of days. And as soon as we got back home, we were right back to Einstein. Good news - we passed our homework and tests for the week. We're halfway done with this class and still hanging in there!