Views of Sequim, the Olympic Peninsula. . .and beyond
New Year’s eve here was a steady march of alternating rain showers and sunshine. We were lucky to be out on the road as a double rainbow celebrated a break between squalls.
My phone couldn’t capture the entire arc in one shot. And almost as quickly as I snapped these photos the rainbow faded. It was completely gone by the time I was back in the car.
One reason I love to travel is the visual excitement of new places, new things to see. I loved exploring Angra do Heroismo in the Azores Islands last year. Amazing views at every turn. This image may find its way onto a wall in my home.
I’d followed some birds across a parking lot, looking for a clear shot, when I looked down toward my feet. “Click!” One of my favorite photos of the year.
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Happy New Year!
There have been two pullouts at the Dungeness Recreation Area where vehicles can either pull through or park with a view out onto the Strait of Juan de Fuca and, to the north, Vancouver Island, B.C. and Washington’s San Juan Islands. Chunk by chunk these pullouts have eroded as wind and weather have taken their toll on the compacted sandy soil. For the moment this is the only remaining area where people and vehicles can move close to the view.
Three parking spaces are now out of service. I expect that soon, like the other former pullout area, this area will be barricaded by a fence.
When we moved to Sequim ten years ago we walked a path along this edge of the bluffs from the public campground at the north along nearly the full frontage of the park’s western boundary on the bluff. The views were wonderful. The left-hand fence, above, was one of the earliest barriers across the trail as the bluff began to slip. Parts of the path are now entirely gone. Some areas of the trail next to the campgrounds still come close to water views but the waterfront overlook trail is now long gone.
Our local MV COHO ferry celebrated her 60th birthday yesterday. The COHO is the Black Ball Ferry Line vessel that travels a 90 minute passage between Port Angeles, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia, my favorite means of international travel.
In her 60 years Black Ball notes that the COHO has carried over 26 million passengers and 7 million vehicles. She has a reliability record of 99.99%.
A chief reason COHO does so well is that she is taken out of service for maintenance for a month each year. She’ll be in drydock in 2020 from January 6th to February 6th.
It’s easy to forget there’s an entire city beyond the Capitol Mall in Washington D.C. But it was time to go home before we knew it. There’s always so much more to explore…
No visit to Washington D.C. is complete without a visit to the Lincoln Memorial. The Washington Memorial, not far away, pierces the sky with a tall, stark spire. The Lincoln Memorial allows a visit with the man himself. I shared my time with dozens of other visitors but it still felt personal. I asked him about the crazy times we live in. This is what he said:
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Our country would be immeasurably different had Lincoln lived.
It’s a beautiful memorial.