Imagine Sailing Your Yacht To Fort Worth's Imaginary Panther Island

Saw that which you see above last night via the "You Know You're From Anacortes When..." Facebook page. 

The caption above the photo said, "Somebody has more money than we do. Largest yacht we've ever seen around here. There are 2 people on the flybridge, looking at them gives some perspective to the size of this beauty."

"Around here" is Anacortes, a town with a couple marinas, a ferry terminal and Spencer Jack's Fidalgo Drive-In.

I can not tell if the boat is moving through Guemes Channel, heading west to the San Juan Islands, or heading west towards the San Juan Islands via Burrows Channel. If it is Burrows Channel that would make the land in the background Burrows Island. If it is Guemes Channel that would make the land Guemes Island.

I do not remember there being little islands, as seen above, in Guemes Channel, so I'm going with this being Burrows Channel. Let me check the map app on this computer to see if I can clear up this serious issue...

Well, the map show little islands by both of the bigger islands. But, the little islands near Guemes Island would not have homes looking out at them, as shown in the photo at the top. But, Burrows Island would have homes looking out at it. There is a big marina called Skyline Marina, on the mainland across from Burrows Island, with a lot of houses built on the slopes above Burrows Bay, with that area known as Skyline.

When I see something like the photo at the top, or this map, showing islands, my inclination is to comment for the umpteenth time that it is so bizarre that the landlocked Texas town called Fort Worth, for most of this century, has been slowly trying to build a ridiculous mess originally called Trinity Uptown, then Trinity River Vision, eventually morphing into the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

A myopic vision which has slowly seen three little freeway overpass type bridges being built over dry land to one day connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, if a cement lined ditch is ever successfully dug, with the Trinity River diverted into the ditch, making the imaginary island called, already, Panther Island, where there is no island, and never will be any sane person's idea of what an island is.

Part of Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision is to see what they are calling a Town Lake. The size has varied over the years of Boondoggling along, ranging from as small as 12 acres to as big as 33 acres.

Part of the vision is to see a houseboat district on the lake. 

One day there may be a lake, and maybe there will be houseboats floating on the little lake, but I think I can say for absolute certainty there will never be a big yacht sailing to the imaginary Panther Island...

Questionable Washington Driftwood From Spencer Jack

Incoming email from Spencer Jack and my Favorite Nephew Jason.

Subject line: Driftwood Photo Request

The email including four photos of driftwood on a Washington beach, one of which is that which you see here, with Spencer Jack looking at you through a hole in a chunk of driftwood.

Do Texas beaches on the Gulf Coast get littered with driftwood? I suspect not, what with there not being a lot of streams flowing in from forested mountains.

Reading the following text in the email I eventually figured out that these particular driftwood photos were taken on Guemes Island, one of the smaller San Juan Islands, accessed via ferry from Anacortes, that being the town where Spencer Jack has his Fidalgo Drive-In with its world famous hamburgers and blackberry milkshakes.

I do recollect that last summer, my dad made me stop the car so he could take a picture of a lone piece of driftwood that he believes was the one you two enjoyed playing on as children. Spencer and I were looking for a larger pile in Birch Bay, such as the pile Spencer and I found today after school when he took me over to Guemes Island to beach comb.

That is a lot of driftwood.

Regarding driftwood, the majority of this particular text message regarded the search for a specific chunk of driftwood at Birch Bay, up north in Whatcom County, a few miles south of the Canadian border.

You have asked me on multiple occasions to send you a photo of Spencer playing on the Birch Bay driftwood.   Spencer and I attempted to locate at Birch Bay what I thought would be a massive collection of driftwood that one could not miss on multiple occasions.  

I believe I reported back to you years ago that I could not find the driftwood that you spoke of playing on as a child, only a chunk here and there scattered around the shoreline of Birch Bay near the state park.

My Favorite Nephew Jason is much too young to be having age related memory loss. How did he forget that he and his dad and Spencer Jack did find that chunk of Birch Bay driftwood, the finding of which he mentioned in the same email he says he and Spencer Jack were unable to find that illusive chunk of driftwood?   I blogged about the finding of this chunk of driftwood multiple times.

Awakened By A Thud Before Finding Photo Of Birch Bay Driftwood

Birch Bay Driftwood Confirmation From Lynden Via Tacoma

Going Down A Birch Bay Water Slide With Spencer Jack Looking For A Big Chunk Of Driftwood
Going To Birch Bay In Washington With My Nephew Spencer Jack

I will end this blogging with a look at that chunk of Birch Bay driftwood which I thought was fun to climb on when I was a few years younger, way back in the previous century....