The wind's gone, but so is the sunshine and we're left with a grey sky and scattered showers as the barometer, once again, rises. Most of the work on Cambria is finished, either legitimately or because we can't find the parts we need in the local chandleries, so, between the two, it's the perfect time for a day off!
Our friends, Jeff and Karry, drove up to join us in the afternoon and we went to Fort Worden where they filmed the movie, An Officer and a Gentleman. It's also the home of Point Wilson Lighthouse which was open for tours, so we took a climb up to the light for a look around. Unfortunately, today wasn't a day for a great view, but we had an interesting conversation with the Coast Guard Auxiliary volunteer about how lighthouses across the country are fading away due to advances in technology – radars and GPS – rapidly taking their place.
I always find a good ghost story interesting. It's not that I'm a believer; I've never had an experience to guide me one way or the other on the issue. But I can see the possibility which was enough to give me goosebumps when I read that several wives of the men stationed at Point Wilson Light had seen a shadow of a woman in the keeper's quarters. Footsteps could be heard leaving the room and, as the wife would turn to look, there was nothing there. Thought to be the spirit of a woman whose daughter was lost in one of the numerous shipwrecks in the area, she's also been seen wandering around the grounds in a long gown and heard rummaging around the upstairs bathroom – sometimes so loudly that neighbours in the attached duplex would call out to see if anyone was home. The men stationed at the light have never seen or heard her, with one exception. A visitor staying there and sleeping on the couch, awoke to the feeling that someone was smothering him. He sat up, clutching his throat and saw a figure of a woman in the kitchen. When he got up to see if she had attacked him, she vanished. Our tour was limited to the lighthouse, so we didn't see or hear anything ourselves and can't give our two cents one way or the other. But it's fun to imagine.
After a quick walk around Battery Kinzie, a 1910s artillery emplacement and part of what once was the triangle of defense in Puget Sound, we went back downtown for an early dinner at Waterfront Pizza topped off with homemade ice cream at Evolution – just what the doctor ordered after a long week on the hard stand.
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