There are few things that Maurie and I enjoy more than taking time to explore. We love to check out new parks, or new towns, or as yet (to us) undiscovered corners of our neighborhood. So, what better way to spend our wedding anniversary (number 12, for those of you counting) than a day exploring a part of the region we have never visited?
For the trip, we selected Point No Point Lighthouse and County Park at the north end of the Kitsap Peninsula.
We packed a lunch and some extra food, loaded up the car, and made a bee-line to the ferry terminal on the Seattle waterfront to catch a ferry to Bainbridge Island. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but we’re kinda suckers for a ride across Puget Sound on one of the Washington State Ferries.
Point No Point Lighthouse
We arrived at the lighthouse ready for a bit of food before loading up for our walk.
There’s a duplex right next to the parking lot which has a vacation rental unit on one side, and the office for the US Lighthouse Society on the other. Just beyond the duplex yard is a bank of trees and a nice bent-wood bench facing northeast from the lawn
Maurie enjoying the view
We wandered around the point and made our way down the beach, taking time to look at birds, as well as the usual beachy sights like rocks and shells and driftwood piles. Rather than trying to write a lot about it, I’ll defer to letting some pictures tell the stories…
Crow posing on pole
Crow picking at a fish bone
Lighthouse from observation platform
Herons in the marsh
Marsh at the park
Looking the wrong way for the bird
Heron close up
Drift log shelter
Glacial erratic
View down beach
Neat shell with gravel
Trunk of tree
Flotsam face
Tree on beach
View through hole in root cluster
Drift log to become an art “canvas”
The drift log above, and some of the work below was the inspiration for some of what I wrote in my poem Point No Point.
Stacked rocks
Stacked rocks
Stacked rocks
Stacked rocks
The artist with her work
You can see where Maurie got the inspiration for stacking the stones in the video here. It was sent to me through Facebook a month or so back, and it just had us spellbound watching him work. Maurie decided to have her shot at it while we were on the beach.
Rock close up
Me standing on the erratic
Tribute to 12 years
Sunbeams down beach
Eagle in the tree
Lighthouse from the bluff
Happy Couple
Lighthouse in settling fog
After our walk down the beach and back, we decided to try to find a couple of geocaches. Ok, so we looked for one on our way back to the car and struck out. But there are lots of them in this area, so we decided to steal batteries from the camera to power the GPS and try to find a couple of others. We did find the other two, but no pictures of the searching and finds here. You gotta do that for yourself!
We made our way down to check out the beach front park (Norwegian Point County Park) in Hansville. There were a bunch of cormorants (hey, and I just noticed, a gull!) out on the pilings along the beach.
Cormorants
Cormorants
After Norwegian Point County Park, we drove up to Buck Lake Park for a little wander before we made our way home.
Twilight at Buck Lake
Moon over maple
Twilight at Buck Lake with Cattails
We had a great day, all around. It was great to go check out a new place we’ve not been. As we drove away, we were sure we’d be back up there again. Hopefully soon!
Writings and Ramblings 