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 Dwight Peck's personal website
Summer
2004
The
Olympic Peninsula in Washington, USA
You
may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a
good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught
up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
Dungeness
Spit and Whidbey Island
Sequim's
chief enduring claim to fame -- its John Wayne statue and display of memorabilia
at the marina. Actually, there's another claim to fame, an intricate late-19th
century system of irrigation ditches meant to spread the mountain run-off around
a bit. Though deep in the centre of the famously rainy Pacific Northwest, Sequim
apparently lies in the "rain shadow" of Mount Olympus and would be virtually
a desert otherwise.
Dungeness
Spit
The
lighthouse at the end of the Dungeness Spit, evidently the longest natural spit
in the US or something. The Dungeness
National Wildlife Refuge extends five and a half miles out from the coast,
frequently only about 50m wide, and a brisk walk out and back along the beach
takes about four hours.
Kristin,
a wildlife enthusiast, got to see quite a few seals and lots of seagulls, but
not much else on this trip. 23 July 2004.
The beautiful
lighthouse at the end of the spit. Evidently the last human lighthouse keepers
were withdrawn in the USA in 1994, in favor of automation, but since vandalism
invariably results from that, "the New Dungeness Chapter of the United States
Lighthouse Society was formed on September 3, 1994 and obtained, with the aid
of the USLHS, a five-year renewable lease with the Coast Guard. Since this time,
the New Dungeness Chapter has manned the lighthouse. The chapter adopted, as its
mission, the following goals: To Protect, Preserve and Man the lighthouse. Two
or three couples (or some combination of 4-6 adults and a few children) are transported
out every week at the lowest tide possible along with enough supplies and personal
effects for a week. While out at the lighthouse for their week, the keepers have
duties, including cleaning, repairing and maintaining the buildings and keeping
the lawns in good condition. The keepers are also responsible for conducting tours
to those stalwart persons who are able to make the walk out."
http://www.dungeness.com/lighthouse/index.htm
Well,
Lighthouse Society, keep up the good work.
Lighthouse,
with the humongous driftwood that's piled everywhere along the western and northern
Olympic coasts.
Driftwood
on Dungeness Spit, with our motel on the far side of the Dungeness harbor and
the mountains of the interior on the horizon.
Nice
walk. Time for dinner.
Whidbey
Island
The
Whidbey Island ferry, between Port Townsend and . . . Whidbey Island.
The
New York Times on a short ferry ride.
An historical
blockhouse on Whidbey Island -- the kids in costume were filming some sort of
historical reconstruction thing. A massacre or something, perhaps.
Kristin
visiting her friend Lana from New England College in Arundel, England, reunited
for the first time since.
The Loganberry
Festival at Whidbey Island, 24 July 2004. Loganberries were invented in
1881 -- by James Logan, in fact -- a cross between blackberries and raspberries,
flourishing here a while ago and now being brought back. This land had been bought
up by evil tobacco companies, but recently, through community action, bought back
again for folksy festivals of just this sort.
Kristin
and Lana touring the festival grounds
Home-made crafty things
Kristin
and Lana viewing llamas or alpacas or something
At Lana's forthcoming
house in the forest
Leave-taking
on Whidbey Island.
Leave-taking
from the State of Washington, in the forest of "Heart o' the Hills"
near Port Angeles, 25 July 2004.
From
here, it's back to Boston, then a drive up through the Adirondacks of northern
New York State to visit Marlowe in Ottawa, Canada.
Dwight Peck's personal website
Summer
2004
The
Olympic Peninsula in Washington, USA
You
may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a
good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught
up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
Dungeness
Spit and Whidbey Island
Sequim's
chief enduring claim to fame -- its John Wayne statue and display of memorabilia
at the marina. Actually, there's another claim to fame, an intricate late-19th
century system of irrigation ditches meant to spread the mountain run-off around
a bit. Though deep in the centre of the famously rainy Pacific Northwest, Sequim
apparently lies in the "rain shadow" of Mount Olympus and would be virtually
a desert otherwise.
Dungeness
Spit
The
lighthouse at the end of the Dungeness Spit, evidently the longest natural spit
in the US or something. The Dungeness
National Wildlife Refuge extends five and a half miles out from the coast,
frequently only about 50m wide, and a brisk walk out and back along the beach
takes about four hours.
Kristin,
a wildlife enthusiast, got to see quite a few seals and lots of seagulls, but
not much else on this trip. 23 July 2004.
The beautiful
lighthouse at the end of the spit. Evidently the last human lighthouse keepers
were withdrawn in the USA in 1994, in favor of automation, but since vandalism
invariably results from that, "the New Dungeness Chapter of the United States
Lighthouse Society was formed on September 3, 1994 and obtained, with the aid
of the USLHS, a five-year renewable lease with the Coast Guard. Since this time,
the New Dungeness Chapter has manned the lighthouse. The chapter adopted, as its
mission, the following goals: To Protect, Preserve and Man the lighthouse. Two
or three couples (or some combination of 4-6 adults and a few children) are transported
out every week at the lowest tide possible along with enough supplies and personal
effects for a week. While out at the lighthouse for their week, the keepers have
duties, including cleaning, repairing and maintaining the buildings and keeping
the lawns in good condition. The keepers are also responsible for conducting tours
to those stalwart persons who are able to make the walk out."
http://www.dungeness.com/lighthouse/index.htm
Well,
Lighthouse Society, keep up the good work.
Lighthouse,
with the humongous driftwood that's piled everywhere along the western and northern
Olympic coasts.
Driftwood
on Dungeness Spit, with our motel on the far side of the Dungeness harbor and
the mountains of the interior on the horizon.
Nice
walk. Time for dinner.
Whidbey
Island
The
Whidbey Island ferry, between Port Townsend and . . . Whidbey Island.
The
New York Times on a short ferry ride.
An historical
blockhouse on Whidbey Island -- the kids in costume were filming some sort of
historical reconstruction thing. A massacre or something, perhaps.
Kristin
visiting her friend Lana from New England College in Arundel, England, reunited
for the first time since.
The Loganberry
Festival at Whidbey Island, 24 July 2004. Loganberries were invented in
1881 -- by James Logan, in fact -- a cross between blackberries and raspberries,
flourishing here a while ago and now being brought back. This land had been bought
up by evil tobacco companies, but recently, through community action, bought back
again for folksy festivals of just this sort.
Kristin
and Lana touring the festival grounds
Home-made crafty things
Kristin
and Lana viewing llamas or alpacas or something
At Lana's forthcoming
house in the forest
Leave-taking
on Whidbey Island.
Leave-taking
from the State of Washington, in the forest of "Heart o' the Hills"
near Port Angeles, 25 July 2004.
From
here, it's back to Boston, then a drive up through the Adirondacks of northern
New York State to visit Marlowe in Ottawa, Canada.
 Feedback
and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative,  .
All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 24 September 2004, revised 30
January 2008, 15 April 2023.
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