Thinking about What We Wonder At
February 23, 2017
Pacific coast
“Men go forth to wonder at the heights of mountains,
the huge waves of the sea,
the broad flow of the rivers,
the vast compass of the ocean,
the courses of the stars,
and they pass by themselves without wondering.”
— Saint Augustine
What are we passing by?
Summer at the Beach: Day Trip to Westport, WA
July 18, 2016
Westport, Washington
What is summer without at least a few days at a beach? My husband and I took a day trip from Seattle to Westport, Washington. The Pacific Coast is about a 3-hour drive from our home in the city. Hours at the beach and nothing to do but watch the waves and clouds, settle down with a good book, enjoy the parade of families and dogs and surfers frolicking in the water, listen to the rhythmic pounding of the breakers and waves lapping at the shore — quintessential summer. My husband brought back enough fish for supper. I brought back a few patches of sunburn (yes, I burn even under cloudy skies) and a few good photos.
I do love our ocean beaches.
A patch of blue
Bluff overlooking the beach at Westport
Dune path
Seagull
You never know what you’ll find washed up on the beach.
Sand dollar
Some views from the jetty:
Surfers, Westport, WA
Seattle Day Trip to Jetty Island
August 12, 2014
Yesterday my friend Carol and I escaped the sultry 90+ degree heat in Seattle and sat on the beach at Jetty Island in Everett. This was an adventure of sorts, since neither of us had ever been there before. Jetty Island is a manmade jetty, just three minutes by a little passenger ferry across the channel from the Port of Everett. In the summer, the port runs a free 60-passenger ferry to the island. Everett residents can make advance reservations to secure a place on the boat, but since we were not able to make reservations, Carol and I arrived early and got seats on the first crossing of the day.
The 2-mile long jetty offers plenty of sandy beach, and yesterday’s mid-day low tide exposed even more sand. Kids and families in neon-colored bathing suits toted equally colorful shovels and buckets for a day of play on the beach. Running was the order of the day — kids scampered from place to place — it was rare to see a child walking. The cool breeze and salty air were refreshing antidotes to the heat of the city.
It’s no wonder that Jetty Island was the winner of the 2013 Red Tricycle Totally Awesome Award for Best Family Escape and Getaway. Visiting Jetty Island had long been on my Summer To-Do List, and we picked a perfect day to discover this unusual place.
A Sunburn of Girls, a Lark of Boys
August 8, 2014
“August Bank Holiday – a tune on an ice-cream cornet. A slap of sea and a tickle of sand. A fanfare of sunshades opening. A wince and whinny of bathers dancing into deceptive water. A tuck of dresses. A rolling of trousers. A compromise of paddlers. A sunburn of girls and a lark of boys. A silent hullabaloo of balloons. ”
— Dylan Thomas, from Quite Early One Morning
On the beach at Golden Gardens, Seattle
Kids on Rialto Beach, Olympic Peninsula
Diving platform, Green Lake, Seattle
Oh, these summer days. Dylan Thomas says “The memories of childhood have no order, and no end.” I love how he describes the August Bank Holidays of his childhood. How apt and evocative are his poetic words — so full of summer life. I wish I could write like this!
Circumambulating Seattle 4: West Seattle to Downtown
July 3, 2014
“But most of these far walks have been taken just for the joy of walking in the free air.”
— John Finley, “Traveling Afoot,” from The Joys of Walking, ed. Edwin Valentine
“Increasingly, walking itself became a source of happiness, something to be enjoyed in its own right, bringing an intensity of experience and a sensual awareness of surroundings that grew more addictive by the miles.”
— Nick Hunt, Walking the Woods and the Water
View of downtown Seattle skyline from Alki
At this point in my multi-day project of encircling the periphery of Seattle, I no longer questioned why I was walking these segments. I simply enjoyed the journey. I was especially looking forward to this day’s walk because I knew I would have Puget Sound in sight almost the entire day. I was reminded of how beautiful Seattle’s location is, with distant mountains to the west (the Olympics) and to the east (the Cascades) and the gentle waves of Puget Sound lapping its shores.
I started my walk from the Barton Street Pea Patch at the intersection of Barton Street SW and 35th Avenue SW.
Sunflower
Barton Street community garden
I followed Barton Street west and downhill to the sound. The Fauntleroy ferry was disgorging cars and passengers. It would have been a lovely day for a ferry ride to Vashon Island, but I stuck with my plan to walk.
Ferry to Vashon Island
Disembarking
I followed Fauntleroy Avenue SW to Lincoln Park, a heavily wooded space with playground, picnic tables, and below the bluff, a beach with paved walking and biking path. Families, joggers, and dog-watchers enjoyed the beach.
Picnic table under the trees, Lincoln Park
Beach at Lincoln Park on Puget Sound
Exercising with beach rocks
The Seattle grunge look — starting early
Seattle is a very literary city.
From Lincoln Park I headed north on Beach Drive where I was separated from the beach by a row of waterfront residences. As I approached Alki Beach, I discovered a set of 27 constellations embedded the sidewalk, West Seattle’s own “Avenue of the Stars.”
Beach Drive turned into Alki Avenue. The point here was the original landing spot of the Denny Party, Seattle’s first white settlers, in 1851. Later they relocated across the Sound to establish Seattle on the shores of Elliott Bay. Today the beach is one of the city’s favorite recreation spots, especially on summer days.
Blue bottle house
Alki Beach
Alki has its own miniature replica of the Statue of Liberty, which commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Boy Scouts.
Picnic on the beach
Flowered house on Alki Avenue
Alki Avenue turned into Harbor Avenue SW and now the views over the water took in the Seattle skyline.
Recreation and industry on Elliott Bay near downtown Seattle
The next stretch of my walk took me away from the relaxing beachfront and back into the city’s industrial area. Pedestrians are prohibited on the West Seattle Bridge, but I had access to a nice bike trail across Harbor Island on an older, lower bridge. I passed over the Duwamish River, and Mount Rainier gleamed hugely and whitely on the horizon.
Bike path along the lower bridge
Under the West Seattle Bridge
Duwamish River with Mount Rainier
Duwamish River looking toward downtown Seattle
My final trek was along East Marginal Way South past the shipping docks. The Starbucks headquarters punctuated the skyline in the SODO (south of Downtown) neighborhood. I passed an historical marker near 2225 E marginal Way S on the spot of the world’s very first gasoline service station (1907). Who knew that Seattle played a role in this part of our country’s driving history!
Loading docks and shipyards
Starbucks headquarters
East Marginal Way South
Bike path into downtown Seattle
Ferry coming into the downtown terminal
I ended my walk at the downtown ferry terminal.
Total walking distance: about 12 miles
The Sky, the Sky!
August 1, 2013
Waiting for sunset at Golden Gardens
The sunset sky over Elliott Bay, Seattle
Another rare, cloudless evening watching the sun set over Elliott Bay in Seattle. We enjoyed a picnic supper at Golden Gardens and then stayed at the beach until the sun went down. A perfect summer day.
” . . . the vastness of the sky will naturally lead the mind to contemplate infinities; it is wholly apt to associate the sky with expansiveness of the spirit, with joy and freedom and holiness.”
— Anthony Esolen, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child
“Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.”
— Matthew Arnold, from “Dover Beach”
Sea stacks at Ruby Beach, Olympic National Park
“The seashore is a most advantageous point from which to comprehend the world. The waves forever rolling to the land are so far traveled coming home and leaving again.”
— Henry David Thoreau
The next morning, we stopped at two more beaches before completing our road trip to Olympic National Park: Ruby Beach and Kalaloch Beach. Ruby Beach was less wild than Rialto Beach, and Kalaloch Beach seemed tamer still. I loved seeing how different the beach landscapes were from one another.
Ruby Beach in the morning
You could walk for miles.
Sea stacks and tidepools, Ruby Beach
Caves in the cliffs, giant logs
Ruby Beach
“To me the sea is a continual miracle: The fishes that swim — the rocks — the motion of the waves — the ships, with men in them. What stranger miracles are there?”
— Walt Whitman
The tidepools around the barnacle-covered rocks teemed with anemones and star fish. The waves carved artistic patterns in the pebble-strewn sand. So much to see and explore!
Anemones
Brilliantly colored star fish
Beach art in the sand
Lovely pattern in the sand
Ruby Beach
Piles of driftwood, Kalaloch Beach
Walking along Kalaloch Beach
“There was no end to the joyful exaltation on this edge of oscillations.”
— Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds
The Pacific Ocean at Rialto Beach, Olympic National Park
The last half of our Olympic National Park road trip took us to several Pacific coast beaches. We stopped at Mora Campground on the way to Rialto Beach to pitch our tent, as we planned to have a picnic supper at the beach and stay until sunset. We didn’t want to have to set up our tent in the dark.
Our campsite at Mora Campground
The beach was two miles from the campground. We passed the Quillayute River as we neared the end of the road. Straight ahead was the endless ocean, the mighty Pacific.
Quillayute River
Sea stacks at Rialto Beach
Fourteen shades of gray
“The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach.”
— Henry Beston
This was my first time at Rialto Beach. It’s a wild coast, with waves crashing and casting up sea foam onto the pebbly beach. Sea stacks added interest to the horizon line. Weathered driftwood lined the upper beach. The water was cold, but irresistible to children (and adults).
Rialto beach
The wild shores at Rialto Beach
Our beach chairs
Driftwood
The sky
Waiting for sunset
“There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.”
— Victor Hugo
Moon Snail Project # 85: A Miracle of Design
April 27, 2013
Moon Snail Shell # 85, watercolor painting
“See what a lovely shell
Small and pure as pearl
Lying close to my foot,
Frail, but a work divine,
Made so fairly well
With delicate spire and whorl,
How exquisitely minute,
A miracle of design.”
— Alfred Lord Tennyson, from “Maud”
Removing the Day’s Wrinkles
July 29, 2011
Costa Rican beach, 2008
“The beach is a good spot for spending that transitional hour between day and night as the waves roll up and slide back, tugging out some of a busy day’s wrinkles.”
— Sonny Brewer, A Sound Like Thunder
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