FUD,
Today’s PNW heat wave resulted in FNSJ suggesting that we travel to Washington’s first state park to seek marine air for cooling.
FNSJ really wanted to engineer a stream route on this beach.
It was a good idea. We are both slightly sun burnt though, as we have had only cloudy days in recent memory.
This is his fourth, perhaps fifth Spring as a stream engineer at this exact location.
He has mastered the science of diverting water.
I see a potential career as an Army Corps Engineer in Spencer’s future.
Thought you’d enjoy the pictures.
Tomorrow we are scheduled to roast here in the valley.
Fans are ready.
FNJ & FNSJ
They have been having themselves a record breaking heat wave up northwest in my old home zone. Meanwhile at my location in the South, I have yet this year felt HOT enough to turn on my air conditioning. I have turned on one of my ceiling fans a couple times this year.
Let's take a look at some more of the photos of Spencer Jack being an Army Corps of Engineer flood channel builder at Washington's first state park.
When I read that Spencer Jack had taken his dad to Washington's first state park in order to escape the heat and have some beach fun, I did not remember which state park was Washington's first. Deception Pass State Park? I Googled Washington State Parks to find it taking a few link clicks to finally learn which state park was Washington's first.
The scenery in the photos of Spencer Jack digging a creek channel did not look like Deception Pass to me. I do not recollect any sandy beaches on any of the Deception Pass State Park beaches. The Deception Pass beaches are rocky beaches, covered with little pebbles.
I went to the state's Washington State Park website's History page figuring that surely would tell me which Washington State Park was the state's first. Nope, no luck there.
From Wikipedia's Washington State Park's page there was a link to another Wikipedia page listing all Washington's State Parks.
On that list of Washington's State Parks I saw another suspect within easy driving distance of Spencer Jack's Mount Vernon home location.
Larrabee State Park.
And that was it. Washington's first state park was Larrabee State Park.
This sort of surprises me. Larrabee is an incredible location. But I would think that way back when it became a state park in 1923, the Larrabee location would have been quite an adventure to drive to. Even well over 100 years later the drive to Larrabee, called Chuckanut Drive, is one adventurous road, full of tight corners high above steep cliffs.
But, maybe back when the Larrabee became a park the Interurban already existed, that being a train which connected Mount Vernon in the south to Bellingham north of Larrabee. The rail bed of that long abandoned Interurban still exists, currently as a fun trail to hike and bike, taking one all the way from Larrabee to the Alaskan Ferry Terminal in Bellingham.
If I remember right the last time I biked the Interurban from Larrabee to Bellingham was with Spencer Jack's Uncle Joey.
Trying to find out which state park was Washington's first I learned a thing or two in addition to that bit of information. Such as what the word "Chuckanut" means. I've heard that name all my life and never thought to wonder what it meant, beyond assuming it was a Native American word.
The Wikipedia article about the Chuckanut Mountains educated me as to the meaning of the Chuckanut word and also includes the Larrabee being the state's first state park info...
The Chuckanut Mountains (from "Chuckanut", a native word for "Long beach far from a narrow entrance", or Chuckanuts, are located on the northern Washington state coast of the Salish Sea, just south of Bellingham, Washington. Being a part of the Cascade Range, they are the only place where the Cascades come west down to meet the sea. The Chuckanuts are considered to be a part of the Puget Lowland Forest Ecoregion. The range contains Larrabee State Park, the first State Park to be designated in Washington (1923).
The article about the Chuckanut Mountains lists all the mountains considered to be Chuckanuts. One can drive to the summit of several of them. Or mountain bike on the mountain's logging roads. I do not think there is any location within hundreds of miles of where I currently am located where one can go from playing on a beach to climbing a mountain.
Well, there is the shores of Lake Wichita and the trails to the summit of Mount Wichita.
For anyone who may be reading this who is located in the landlocked Texas town called Fort Worth. In the photos above those outcroppings of land you see rising out of the water behind Spencer Jack? Those are what are known as islands.
Islands are chunks of land surrounded by a large body of water. The water can be either the saltwater or fresh water variety. As in the island can be surrounded by the saltwater of an ocean, sea, bay or sound. Or a lake.
Digging a cement lined ditch and filling this ditch with polluted river water does not an island make. Thinking such makes anyone thinking such appear to be either foolish, or ignorant, or both. Building three simple little bridges over dry land to connect a town's mainland to an imaginary non-island and thinking this makes sense to so, also makes one appear to be either foolish, or ignorant, or both.
Vote NO on May 5 if you are among the few allowed to do so in Fort Worth, to put an end to the Panther Island madness.
And if you want to get an idea of what it is like to drive on Chuckanut Drive to Larrabee State Park, watch the video below...
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