Thursday, August 13, 2009

Fort Casey


One of the days that we were on Whidbey Island we decided to go see some of the historical attractions. I did some research before our trip (like a nerd) on the history of the island. I love learning about Washington's past. One of the places that caught my eye when I was reading up was Fort Casey. I didn't really get too deep into what exactly we would find when we got there, but I've been to different forts before and I thought the boys might like it. The area has been turned into a state park, so I figured if it was boring then at least we could walk on trails or something. Grandma Shellie and the other "grown-ups" opted to stay at home and relax. We left Sawyer with them, and took the 2 younger boys and Billy and off we went.

The forts I've been to in the past have been recreations of old pioneer forts. Interesting to me, but not so much for younger boys. They were all kind of irked that I had pulled them away from video games, so on the way there I was really nervous that everybody was going to have a lame time except for myself. I couldn't have been more wrong.

When we pulled into the parking lot I was completely overwhelmed. This was like nothing that I'd ever seen in my life. It was awesome. Right on the edge of the water was a HUGE concrete compound that sprawled all down the coastline of Admiral Inlet. The kids started freaking out and running as fast as they could towards the fort when we let them out of the car. There were dozens of rooms, guard towers, gun batteries, giant 10" barrell guns, barracks, and tons more to explore. It was not at all what I was expecting. We were there for over an hour checking everything out, including Admiralty Head Lighthouse. Oh yeah, and deer! We could have spent another hour running around, but we had other places to see, shopping to do, and we had to get back to Sawyer.

These are just a choice few of the pictures that I took. If you want to learn a little more about the 119 year old Fort Casey, you can go here http://www.fortwiki.com/Fort_Casey. Or visit it yourself! It's worth the drive. I plan on trying to learn a little more and go back to explore some of the places that we missed. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad the kids enjoyed themselves. Hopefully trips like this will help spark their own interest in history.







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