Location: Fort Casey State Park || Klallam and Tulalip land
Date: 11/12/19
Activity: Exploration!
Sorry for the lack of updates! I’m now in grad school working on my masters in addition to working retail full-time, so we haven’t been doing quite as much adventuring lately (no camping at all this year!) Now that I’m into the swing of things with balancing school, work, and life, I’m going to try to post a little more diligently. (I may even get to some of the backlog of adventure photos that have built up.)
Jamie and I took the kids to Fort Casey! I hadn’t been there since my entire 5th grade class did an overnighter there (“Camp Casey”). I remembered how much fun it was to run around in the old fort, and thought it would make a great outing for the kids.
We also brought along our newest companion! Jamie adopted Banana at the beginning of September. She’s been learning all about leash manners, manners with other dogs, manners with humans…she’s learning a lot of manners. And she’s doing great! She’s quite clever, and has been quick to figure out the ins and outs of being a city dog. She’s a delight to have around, and she always makes us laugh with her crazy antics. [Also, yes, we know she’s a bit plump. She’s already lost more than 4 pounds and is on her way to losing more! Follow along to watch her get slimmer with every adventure!]
It was cool and drizzly, so there was hardly anyone else there, which is just the way we like it!
We may have gotten a bit silly with our unsupervised antics (yes, we loaded her into the gun…CANNONBALL!!!), but Banana was on her best behaviour.
I kept checking to see if the kids were interested in getting out of their backpack, but they were quite happy to take in the experience through the mesh.
It took a while, but eventually Leeloo got used to the weird echoing sounds (the Fort is like, 100% concrete) and decided to chance some exploration!
She had fun stomping around the one end of the fort, and even dragged me into some areas that were pitch black to human eyes! Thankfully Jamie had his phone flashlight handy!
A grandpa playing with his grandkids and making spooky yelling sounds proper freaked out Leeloo, so we decided we’d go check out the light house, which is a good ways away. On the walk over, it started drizzling again and Leeloo decided she’d had enough of this outing and asked to be let back into the backpack.
The lighthouse is pretty cute, and seasonally has an interpretive center and gift shop available. Today was not seasonal, unfortunately.
The field we’d crossed to get to the lighthouse was COVERED in lots of different kinds of poop (rabbit, deer, goose…???), so we decided to take a different path back to the car. See those quail? They’re probably pooping on the lawn, too.
Sieh decided that he wanted to get out and stretch his legs for a bit.
And by ‘stretch his legs’ I of course mean ‘eat grass like some sort of tiny fluffy grazing animal.’
I let him wander and graze for a bit, and then it was time to go.
Goodbye until next time, Fort Casey! You were fun!
Other photos of the fort:
This was definitely the freakiest part of the entire fort! It was like something out of a horror or survival video game. Jamie was too scared to even make it past the threshold, but I went all the way in! I couldn’t really video or take photos because it was pitch black, so just imagine something super scary. One whole room was covered in moths…just the one room.
This place is like an old playground: super fun because it’s super dangerous! I’m not kidding, when you’re on the very top level of the fort, there’s no railing. You could just fall off, lol! Let’s just say that this place is not up to current building code, and is DEFINITELY not ADA-compliant. Though they’re adding in a sidewalk for a bit of increased access?
I love a good blasted tree.
Peaceful birds, yo.
This sign is so delightful. In my opinion, the park shop should sell gear with THIS printed on it.
There’s so many cool places to take photos here! I’m in some sort of guard towery-bunker thing!
If you squint, you can see Jamie doing his very best Kilroy impression.
You can actually get down to the beach from the top of the fort.
Obligatory Washington state ferry photo.
Photos just look so much more interesting when you take them from inside a concrete box!
This is apparently where they kept their dragons tethered.
This area was neat, but only one part of it wasn’t blocked off. Makes you wonder what all the extra dangerous stuff is that they have to protect us from.
Camp Like Noodle 