Blast from the Past: In Another Life Perhaps?

June 1982

Look what I found while I was scanning our pile of photo albums and loose photos?  (Actually, what I found was the original, which I thought was long gone.)

No, it's not 1882 ... it's 1982.
And no, that’s not our grandparents.

Go ahead, laugh all you want — we collapse into giggles whenever we catch a glimpse of this one.

We've always had the ‘travel itch’.  Long trips, short trips — the length never mattered.  Back in 1982, we didn't have much spare cash, so most of our travels consisted of day trips.  Usually we drove to our destination — at times 300 miles (480 km) each way — just to explore someplace new.

On this occasion, we splurged a bit and took a day trip on the Princess Marguerite II, a ship that used to ply the Salish Sea between Seattle, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia before it was taken out of service in 1989.  This photo was taken aboard the PMII on our way back to Seattle.  What made us do it?  Who knows; it’s not like our budget allowed for something so frivolous.  But I'm glad we did as it shows that we do have a playful side that we let out every once in a while :-)

If you'd like to see more from our trip to Victoria, click here.  We sure packed a lot into that one day!

Blast from the Past: Richard Gere Wasn’t There

31 October 2010

Happy Halloween!  Everyone is dressing up in costumes, so I thought we’d don our youthful guise and take a walk down memory lane.  The year was 1982 and we were living in Washington State.  One weekend in June, we went to Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend.

The fort is on Point Wilson, an area discovered by Captain George Vancouver in 1792.  The first fort, constructed in 1855, was named Fort Wilson.  Its mission was to protect Port Townsend from the Indians.  The fort was abandoned in 1856, and remained so until the 1900s when it became part of the harbor defense system for Puget Sound.

Fort Worden, along with the heavy batteries of Fort Flagler and Fort Casey, guarded the nautical entrance to Puget Sound to prevent a hostile fleet from reaching such targets as the Bremerton Naval Yard and the cities of Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett.  The fort was named in honor of Admiral John L. Worden, the commander of the ironclad Monitor in the Civil War battle with the Confederate ship Merrimac.

Fort Worden is the only army installation
named for a naval commander.

In modern popular culture, the fort is known as the locale for some of the scenes from the movie An Officer and A Gentleman (Richard Gere, Debra Winger, Louis Gossett Jr).

Battery Kinzie (1912-1944) was part of
the harbor defense of Puget Sound.

But it’s not that we walked in Richard Gere’s footsteps that brings a smile to our lips when we think of our weekend getaway.  At the time, we weren’t even aware of that little tidbit.  Rather, it’s that we camped in our car!

We pulled into a campsite, surrounded by camping trailers of varying sizes, and proceeded to set up camp.  We hung sheets inside the car for privacy; built a campfire; grilled hot dogs for dinner; and even made scrambled eggs for breakfast the next morning.  Smaller in stature, I slept on the front seat; Mui had the more spacious back seat as his sleeping quarters.

Welcome to our campsite!

Until our visit to the park, we’d never
seen a beach littered with driftwood.

Taking a stroll to the lighthouse.

Wilson Point Lighthouse (built in 1870).

Enjoying a cold brew on the pier.

How do you like our tabletop grill?

Would we repeat the experience now that we are older and wiser?  Definitely; but we’d do it in a bit more luxury.  In fact, I think this state park would be the ideal location to start our full-timing life in our “condo on wheels.”  After all, we did start our bricks and sticks married life in Washington State.