Great Hike

It's been warm and sunny all weekend and we spent Sunday afternoon hiking in the woods above Fort Worden. The weather has really been amazing this weekend. I can only imagine how beautiful it will be when summer arrives in full force.

Ezzy and Levon had a great time with Dante, one of their new friends from Rose Wind. Dante and his family are one of many unschooling families up here in Port Townsend. The kids spend a lot of time together with nature hikes, gymnastics and next month we start soccer!

We really love exploring all the old abandoned buildings and batteries here. There are long dark hallways and stairs leading to deep empty rectangular rooms where no light ever gets in. Rusty doors, dark tunnels and jagged metal all juxtaposed with the stunning natural beauty of the woods and waterways that surround the peninsula. It's all abandoned with the exception of the deer and wildlife that are always present. Very cool.

More great pics of our hike: http://photobucket.com/ftworden

Fort Worden, along with the heavy batteries of Fort Flagler and Fort Casey, once guarded nautical entrance to Puget Sound. These posts, established in the late 1890s, became the first line of a fortification system designed to prevent a hostile fleet from reaching such targets as the Bremerton Naval Yard and the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett. Construction began in 1897 and continued in one form or another until the fort was closed in 1953. The property was purchased as a state park in 1955.

J

Twisters

Ezzy is in an unschooled gymnastics play-group. It's a very small gym that's set up in the top floor of the old Post Office in Port Townsend. It's only about 6 blocks from our house and there are about 25 kids who attend regularly. He has a lot of fun and gets to burn off some energy.

Levon tried it once, but didn't really want to do it again. They're in another gymnastics/trampoline class in Silverdale one day a week also. But that one is about an hour drive. Here's some pics of the Twisters group.

Oh yeah, it was really nice today. Clear, sunny and in the high 40's. Feels like summer!

J

Winslow Cohousing

Visited Winslow Cohousing on Bainbridge Island this past Sunday.

Had a wonderful time and really enjoyed our tour and common meal. Really nice place with about 30 residences and a lovely common house. They even served chili with meat... my kind of place!

It was pretty rainy while we were there and from what we understand, that's fairly typical. I'm getting spoiled living in Port Townsend. It only sprinkles every morning for about an hour then clears up and the sun comes out for a good part of the day.

The community is very walkable to downtown Bainbridge, and it's a 30 minute ferry ride across the sound to Seattle. If you worked in Seattle, this would be the place. I borrowed a few pics from the web and I'm pretty sure the last one from the cover of the cohousing book we're all familiar with is of Winslow cohousing. They claim to be the oldest cohousing community in the country.

J

Eco Village

Spent yesterday visiting the Port Townsend Eco Village.

Gorgeous property! Really beautiful community with wonderful people. We had a chance to tour the grounds and meet everyone. I sat in on one of their monthly business meetings and later we shared a common meal, homemade blackberry wine and good conversation.

They have an enormous 2 story barn/shop/artist spaces on the property. They started construction a couple years ago and are still in the process of finishing the interior spaces. When completed it will be an amazing space and a huge gathering place for work, creativity and fun. Standing in the "great room" upstairs I could almost hear the caller yelling "dosey do" as the bluegrass band kicked into full gear!

The day was a mixture of rain and snow and I forgot my camera, so I borrowed a few pics from their site.

We'll be spending more time getting to know our new friends over at the Eco Village.

J

Seattle

Took a trip over to Seattle today. It was "slightly rainy" which is always better than "mostly rainy" so we hopped on the ferry out of Bainbridge and made our way across the water to Seattle, which from my very limited experience is "always rainy".

Needed a few things not easily found on the peninsula, like Macbook replacement batteries and an REI.

We also had the chance to go visit our friend Arnold who works at a very cool vegan eatery just outside of downtown Seattle called Thrive. Very good vegan/raw food... if you're into that sort of thing. Later we stopped at a Taco Bell so I could eat.

But we had a fun visit with an old friend and eventually made our way to the giant flagship REI store in downtown. Three floors of very cool outdoor gear heaven. I decided I need to start about 7 new hobbies so I can buy all the cool gear.

Sorry for the lame photos.

J

Best Gym in Port Townsend

Found this little gem hiding behind a coffee shop, video rental place and natural health and beauty shop. It's a no-frills 24 hour, let-yourself-in and lock-up-when-you-leave, mom and pop gym that has everything you need and nothing you don't. And if you think it looks small, you're right, I can touch the ceiling with my fingertips if I stretch a little. These pics represent the whole downstairs. The upstairs is about half as big with a couple of treadmills, a heavy bag and a speed bag.

The owner Dwayne, is in his 70's and looks like a strapping 50 year old! He's a welder and built most of the racks and equipment himself. This really is the "Best Gym in Port Townsend", I'd even go so far to say it the Best on the Olympic Peninsula!

There's a similar one in Grover Beach, CA that I used to go to. Complete with 1970's era posters of Arnold, Lou and Frank to inspire you to greatness!

Caity would love this place ;)

Ah... feels like heaven.

J

Yes, it's cold...

Woke up this morning to a little surprise. I'm sure it's not all that uncommon in March. It's currently 40 degrees outside so this won't last.

Oh yeah, this is the little house we're renting until the end of May.

J

Rodents of Unusual Size

Our backyard seem to attract quite a few of these things. They're pretty much everywhere around here, but especially in our yard.

J