A day trip around Puget Sound

[bigmacbear]

gmjambear and I decided to go exploring yesterday, with a day trip around Puget Sound.

Our first stop was Olympia, where Washington's state capitol is not a single building but a sprawling campus. We took a look around the grounds, where monuments to various war veterans and fallen heroes are situated, waiting for the top of the hour when there would be a guided tour of the Legislative Building (the one building on the campus which best fits the notion of the capitol building). Across from the Legislative Building is the Temple of Justice, where the state Supreme Court meets; Gary did his best Supremes impression while posing for a picture in front. ;-)

At the beginning of our tour, our tour guide mentioned the pivotal role in Washington state history of one George W. Bush. No, not our current president, but the first black settler in what is now Washington state, then merely a sparsely-settled portion of the Oregon territory. In another odd coincidence, the W. stands for Washington, so like the area in which he settled, Bush was named for our first president.

At the conclusion of the tour, we visited a bust of George Washington on the third floor balcony just over the main entrance, and like other visitors, rubbed his nose for good luck -- the effect of which, multiplied many thousands of times, is that his nose is much shinier than the rest of the statue. I was tempted to sing "The bust of George Washington in the state capitol / had a very shiny nose" to the obvious tune, but it wouldn't scan properly. ;-)

On leaving the Legislative Building we saw a wedding party posing for pictures on the steps. I'd noticed on the web-based events calendar that the wedding was scheduled for five PM in the Sunken Garden; this was about 3:15. Gary wanted to yell "Don't do it!" at the couple but we both agreed that would be extremely rude. We hopped on a shuttle bus for downtown and the Harbor Days festival.

Before reaching the festival proper we stopped at the Saturday farmer's market at the north end of the Port of Olympia. We stopped at a "Bavarian sausage house" for lunch. Gary had a bratwurst and I had the Louisiana sausage which was considerably spicier. Walking out toward the harbor we found and climbed a large observation tower, watched some pirate re-enactors and a horde of festival-goers aboard the Lady Washington, a tall ship used for filming The Pirates of the Caribbean (it portrayed the HMS Interceptor in the original film but was not used in the sequels).

Later we wandered down through the festival where there were a number of tugboats open for public tour. We boarded the Olmstead, which was one of the larger tugboats moored in the harbor awaiting the tugboat races which are, according to the schedule, commencing as I write.

After we'd had our fill of this festival we hopped on one of the last shuttles and retrieved our car from the capitol grounds. After a quick stop at the post office to send off a birthday card for my sister, we continued around the end of Puget Sound on US 101 and state route 3 toward Bremerton. We made a quick stop in Shelton because there was a scenic overlook decorated with a huge wheel from the bandsaw of an old sawmill.

When we arrived in Bremerton it so happened they were having a festival too: the Blackberry Festival. (The actual fruit, not the high-tech handheld device. ;-) Wandering through the festival I noticed a bearish politician pushing election literature. On the way back through the festival after dinner, I took a closer look at the signs and said to Gary, "Damn, he's a Republican." ;-)

We had an excellent (if expensive) dinner at a harbor-side restaurant; I had king salmon, Gary had seafood linguine, and we both had their delicious blackberry lemonade they made for the occasion. As we finished eating we realized we'd be late for the ferry to Seattle and hurried around the loop just in time to board.

As we got underway I got a few snaps of the sunset over the Olympic Mountains in the background with downtown Bremerton in the foreground. We both took some night shots of Seattle as we approached, but they came out a bit blurry due to having to keep the shutter open for a longer time than the motion of the vessel allowed.

All in all, a fun little excursion. Pictures are forthcoming.

Comments

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

Oooo, sounded like a fabulous day was had. I may see if my sister in Enumclaw will be around tomorrow and perhaps take a day trip out that way for a change. Yeah, take the ol' truck out for a good road trip, yeah, that's it, take the truck for a road trip!!! ;-)

Anyway, isn't Olympia interesting?

When you can, take a trip up and into Bainbridge Island across the Agget pass bridge and go into the town of Bainbridge. My middle sister lives on the island and has been since 1985 and then hop on the ferry from there back into Seattle. It's a lovely trip.