Juth of Fourly

As you can see, I’ve changed the title of the blog to better reflect who I am (after being retired for several years, and finally achieving my wishes and moving to Tacoma.
We got down in the storage room and moved some stuff around in preparation for getting the heavy stuff set up on Thursday.
About 10 o’clock we heard the sounds of a jet flying and it kept up, and kept up. Big Al went charging outside thinking someone was doing an air show, and it took us a little while to locate him, but there seemed to be an F-15 doing loops, barrel rolls, Immelmanns, low level passes and generally “slipping the surly bonds of earth” and “dancing the skies on laughter-silvered wings.” We hadn’t seen anything about an air show on the TV, or in the paper (when we read it), but he must have been performing for somebody out on the Sound. At any rate, we benefitted from being on top of the hill and getting a ring-side seat to the turns and high acrobatics. As Big Al said, “That’s the reason I wore blue for 20 years.”
After the impromptu air show, we went out for brunch. Following brunch we got in line for the ferry to Vashon Island.

We didn’t have to wait very long before we were driving onto the boat.

The Tacoma Yacht Club is right next to the ferry slip, and we could see all the “toffs” sitting on the terrace, having cocktails on this glorious, sunny day. (Temperature when we left Point Defiance – 66 deg.)

There were lots of little boats out on the sound, bouncing around on the swell.

When we got over to the island we visited the little town of Burton, the settlement that’s the farthest south.

Then, we rode around the bay to Docktown. Vashon is shaped like an elongated right-handed gauntlet pointing south, with Burton on the hand (to the west) and Docktown on the thumb (to the east).

The tide was far out, as you can see. There was a nice little park with play equipment for the kids.

After driving almost to the tip of the thumb, we turned around and went out to the lighthouse that is on the base of the thumb across the bay from Federal Way and Sea-Tac Airport.

The lighthouse is still working, and was open for tours today.

There are several coast guard relay stations and antennae there along with the lighthouse.

The juxtaposition of the old lighthouse with the very modern radar equipment is interesting.

They were having a little local picnic and festival out by the light, but Big Al’s back wouldn’t let him walk that far.

But we really had a good time people watching and sitting on a bench looking at the sound.
We rode all the way (15 miles) to the northern end of the island where you can get a ferry to Fauntleroy (West Seattle) or Southport, and then we returned to Tahlequah (the landing at the south end) to catch the ferry back to Point Defiance.

We got to the landing just in time to see the ferry departing.
But it runs every hour, and I can think of worse ways to waste an hour than sitting in the sun watching the boats on the water, and listening to kids firing off firecrackers on the shore.

Particularly when Mt Rainier is presiding over the whole scene with its feet in the clouds and its head in the brilliant blue, sunlit sky.

The tide was running pretty strongly and the captain really had to crab the boat to get it into the slip (but he’s handled much worse conditions – fog, wind, rain, etc. – before, and I feel sure a little thing like the tide coming in didn’t bother him).

Big Al seemed to like sitting in the car, while I jumped out and took pictures and felt the breeze in my face. (Temperature 72 deg)

;
The 15-minute crossing was uneventful, and we got back to Franke Tobey Jones in time for me to fix hot dogs for supper before we go up to see if we can see the fireworks over the sound from the second floor sunroom. They won’t happen until 10 pm because it’s light so late, so most of you, gentle readers, will already be in bed.
Happy Fourth of July to all of you!

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