I like big beaches....

 try riding your bike on the beach, and take a picture of that....it ain't easy! I did it and I didn't crash, but I came ---- that close to falling over. Owww!
I have to go to the edge of the dirt, where the saltwater meets the edge, and gaze. I think about things, big thinking thoughts. I think how small I am.
I think about what is swimming out there. I think about a sailing ship setting out in 1600something and sailing across the wide wide ocean. I read a lot of Joseph Conrad. And I feel small.

my vintage Schwinn gazes out ....and she feels small.

The 3rd day we drove over that big huge ass Astoria bridge. It is very high, and I was getting scared. I drive over the Narrows bridge all the time...but it feels different.

This is me, not feeling so calm, but looking like I am.
I'm a pretty good actress.

Looking up into the beams of the bridge....

Finally we drove to the beach near Fort Stevens. It was windy and very warm. It was windy. It always is. The wind flies down from Alaska and over from Japan.
It is windy wind.
The sand moves all the time. It swallows anything it wants to swallow. There used to be an asphalt road here. Now, not so much. I don't think the State of Oregon spends much time sweeping and moving the sand back on to the beach where it belongs. ;-)

It makes waves in the sand.....everchanging patterns.....
each wave of sand is about 3" - 6" wide....

we walked out to the shipwreck....

It looks tiny from the top of the parking lot, but it's the height of  a two story building at the front of the bow. When it was a ship...you would stand on the top deck and gaze out to America, and wonder what in the flippin' hell you were doing out in the middle of the ocean.

The Peter Iredale, from Liverpool England, was a four-masted steel barque  sailing vessel that ran ashore on the Clatsop Spit at Fort Stevens on October 25, 1906, on the coast of Oregon en route to Portland while trying to find its way through the mouth of the Columbia River.  It was abandoned after it couldn't be pulled back out to the sea. The Captain was found to be innocent of any wrongdoing after an official inquiry. 

This is a picture of a 4 masted barque, the Kaiwo Maru (King of the Sea), from Japan.





I was amazed at the blowing sand and I took a tiny movie of the wind and the sand blowing....blowing....blowing....

Thank You !

It's early....the house is quiet...I'm baking yams and making a peach cobbler. the funkoma's are spending the day with friends and family....about 20 of us. I think about history,progress, the lovely earth, and meeting and eating on this day. I live just few blocks from the site of the first sawmill in Washington.
On April Fool's Day 1852, Nick Delin was preparing the ground for industry. After he smoothed out the ground around what is now Twenty-fifth and Dock streets in Tacoma, Delin hired Sam McCaw, a young Irishman who lived near Steilacoom and had a team of oxen, to drag the foundation timbers into place.1979, Murray Morgan

Situated on scenic bluffs that were home to the Puyallup Tribe and other native peoples for millennia, the city possesses a natural harbor admired by the sound’s earliest Euro-American explorers.

The Puyallup River flows from the slopes of Mount Rainier and enters Puget Sound in a broad delta at the head of a bay. The Puyallup tribe had several settlements on the delta and they called the area that would be Tacoma Squa-szucks. The natives fished, hunted, and trapped and never had to go far to earn their livings.
www.historylink.org/

This is Broadway, where the shop is. Not much has changed.

The Helm/Fulcrum party.....Group Hug....Saves Art.....

OOOh boy. Art, View, Beauty, Youth, Age......Smartness and Talent.....
TacomaOpolis.....was too much fun......Saturday night....
It is so much more wonderful to meet in person...To see and chat in Real Time.....


Got to meet Laura H....wow! The amazing Andrea.....another wow! The makeup and hair created for the fashion show was mesmerizing......
And Erik, the Booster, shot me.....and Laura.....I always look red...like red wine. And really, it is OK to disagree on issues.....that really gets the Ideas a'flowing......
Erik knows this......(hellooo) Winky!

Always a pleasure to see Trish and Julie.....and so many more that I didn't get to say Hi! to.....


Now being part of the downtown scene of Art.....Music......Merryment.....and General TacUrban Life.....

Mark was there too.....He spent a lot of time chatting with Ryan.....who just arrived in Our Fair City from the other Washington.....DC .....that is....
Ryan was just hired by Lemay to oversee the proper restoration of The Cars.....
That is a big Job.....Ryan stopped in to amocat/funkoma checking out the n'hood....we meet so many people late in the day.....(so much is closed after 5....not us!)
I told Ryan about the party and he decided to go.. I think it was a wonderful and weird and wild intro to the best side of Tacoma.....


I'm biased.....but Antique Row....that chunk of Broadway is the best street in Tacoma..... The only other street that might vie for that title.....

was/is 11th Street.....Murray Morgan bridge into the Tideflats......that street...that bridge...that destination...is the Heart of Tacoma...
to me, it's the Real Gateway.....
fuggedabout Pt. Defiance....Job Carr's cabin....BORING.


We got it all....From the Stadium district to the Eastside as it curves around the Dome... and back around up the hill and over the E. 34th st Bridge....and down Tacoma Ave past the Cop Shop, thru Old Town to Stadium......and back down Broadway.....
Ummm, Yummmmmmmy !

Bridges of Size

Clicking the title link will take you to The Tacoma Historical Society website and please notice the clickable link on the left side to take you to the article titled : ~~~
Murray Morgan Bridge Saved
er, uh, wat ? I 99% support the City of Tacoma head-butting or suing the necessary people who Forgot To Maintain the MM bridge.....
(darn it, I can't believe I forgot to maintain the bridge)
because the fact that it had to be closed is pretty convincing evidence that it wasn't maintained.....ya know !
I loved that damn bridge.....Mark & I drove over it to get to one of our favorite spots in Ttown..and I have the pictures to prove it......




What is it with Tacoma and Bridges ??



Well, here's a little photo essay on footbridges....please enjoy !