Eye Witness Birch Bay Driftwood Confirmation

Over the years I have mentioned, a time or two, including a mention or two via a blogging on this particular blog you are reading right now, a chunk of driftwood on the beach at Birch Bay State Park in my former home zone of Washington.

Over the years I have asked various Birch Bay visitors if this chunk of driftwood still exists. I have received a photo or two of a chunk of driftwood located on the Birch Bay State Park beach, but I was unable to determine via the photo documentation if this was the chunk of driftwood which lingered in my memory.

So, the morning of August 12, David, Theo and Ruby's Uncle Jake drove me to Lynden, with our route taking us along the full crescent of Birch Bay, including entering the now restricted access state park area.

I soon saw the chunk of driftwood which haunts my memory. Uncle Jake stopped the vehicle allowing me to exit and snap the photo you see above.

The chunk of driftwood of my memory appears to have greatly shrunk. Or maybe I have grown greatly bigger.

This chunk of driftwood is the stump of a cedar tree. Cedar lasts a long time, even when sprayed regularly with saltwater.

A day later I was able to relatively confirm this chunk of driftwood has been at this Birch Bay location for well over a half a century.

That relative confirmation came from Aunt Judy, after I mentioned Jake and me seeing the iconic chunk of Birch Bay driftwood the day before.

Aunt Judy told us that Uncle Mel had told her about playing on that driftwood when he was a kid. What with Uncle Mel having been born in, I think, 1940, hence the fact this chunk of driftwood has been being played on for well over half a century.

I told Aunt Judy that when one Googles "Birch Bay Driftwood" a photo shows up of Aunt Judy's two eldest offspring, Jeff and Sheryl, sitting on a log in front of the chunk of driftwood.

Moments ago I repeated this act of Googling to discover it is via me that this photo shows up when Google searching. In one of my ubiquitous bloggings about this chunk of driftwood, titled Birch Bay Driftwood Confirmation From Lynden Via Tacoma I wrote the following...

Then this morning my little sister, Michele, emailed me the photo you see here, gleaned from our Aunt Judy's Facebook page. My best guess as to the identity of the two little kids is that those are my cousins Jeff and Sheryl.

So, it was from Aunt Judy, via sister Michele, I got the photo above which now shows up when one Googles "Birch Bay Driftwood".

I pretty much have almost zero regrets regarding my latest week in Washington.

But there is one regret.

I regret that our plan to have a picnic at Birch Bay State Park did not materialize. It's not the lack of a picnic I regret. What I regret is not getting the opportunity to get a picture of me on this chunk of Birch Bay driftwood with David, Theo and Ruby onboard with me.

Perhaps there will be a return to Birch Bay at some point in the relatively near future. There was some talk about buying a timeshare in the appropriately named Sandcastle Resort...