The Birthday Boy and his Day

My Birthday gift to DER was a day away - it certainly was a selfish gift.  It was a good restorative day.
We went to Ebey Landing State Park.  Ebey Landing was once one of a series of WWII era gun emplacements intended to protect Puget Sound.  It is not the most extensive of them.  It is smaller than Fort Casey and Fort Worden.

One of the entrances  to the facility used to store ammunition and materials is shown here.  In this place all the small rooms are off to the left of this one short hall.  We didn't explore much because we hadn't brought more light than DER's keychain flashlight.  The exit is shown from the inside below.  Obviously some efforts have been made to remove graffiti

When this emplacement was built, they made brick tree wells to allow existing vegetation to thrive as they covered the concrete bunkers with soil.

 There are warning signs all around the hillside that caution you about falling into one of these overgrown tree wells.

Along the networks of bike trails you will see this structure that was once support for the water tower, small wild flowers and Rhododendrons in the wild.  We were there too soon in the year for a beautiful display of blooms.  Another year.....  I didn't take pictures of the heavy "tinder" in an area that is just left alone.  As most of our hiking is on maintained trails, this was a surprise to me.  This was a second growth forest.  There were no real tree giants to be seen.

We had a picnic with a view of a shimmering sea.

 

We didn't cook but I liked the shape of the rusty curlicue on the grill that was available.

A walk in the woods led us to a small lake being fished by a bald eagle.

And we enjoyed walking along a typical rocky Puget Sound beach populated by ribbons of kelp. driftwood, seagulls and....

.

......the endless fascination of seafoam waves approaching the shore.