Day 66: Sequim to Dungeness

From the Caboose in Town to a House on the Beach

View From our Windows-Seaside-Lighthouse on the Dungeness Spit in the Distance
We hopped houses today, but we really didn't go very far.  The Caboose was in downtown Sequim, while our abode for the next 4 days is about 15 minutes north in Dungeness (yes, the crab is named for it), and is right on the water, just outside Dungeness Bay and officially on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. However, it is an unincorporated town, so all the houses have Sequim mailing addresses-- thus today is really a Sequim-Sequim.

 But, I'm getting ahead of myself-- let's return to our last morning in the Caboose.  We woke early again for breakfast at 8:30A Sharp in the dining car-- even on a Sunday.  As we neglected to provide pictures from yesterday, we are remedying that now.
Lisa at Our Table in the Dining Car


Menu and Table Setting for Today's Breakfast

Just as you enter the car, you see this reserved table setting.  The couple who currently run the place keep this table set in memory of their parents who created the resort as a labor of love.
Reserved Table in the Dining Car
(In memory of those who lovingly created this special place)

After breakfast, we packed up our stuff and took a few final pictures by which to remember this quirky but special stay.

Bob at the Back of Our Track 5 Lavender Caboose


Final Selfie on the Caboose

We took this short video of the train yard as we drove away.  The first silver car you see is the dining car, and the rest of the cabooses are some of the other ones in the yard.





Trains behind us we headed for the beach.  As I noted it didn't take long to reach the new house, so we spent some time driving around the Dungeness area.  It is quite an interesting mix of small homes with little to no view, grand houses on or overlooking the beach, small lavender farms, huge old farms (we saw lots of cows and chickens too!), and a fancy golf course with houses to match.  Most of the fancy houses had beach views or mountain views, but a few lucky ones had both.

 One particularly interesting subdivision stood out for having its very own small plane air strip. A you can see from the picture below, the houses are quite grand, but depending on how active the runway is, they may be quite noisy.

Dungeness Subdivision-- grand houses, great views, and a neighborhood air strip

Once we arrived at our house, we found that it was indeed right on the beach-- but we don't get much wave action because even though we are not technically in Dungeness Bay, we are shielded by the very edge of Dungeness Strait-- which you can see in the main picture for this post.  The house came with a really good telescope, so Bob was able to get this close-up of the Light House (which is a 4.5 mile walk, that is only completely accessible at low tide-- so we will probably skip that one as I don't think I can make a 9 mile round trip during a single low tide).

Closeup of New Dungeness Lighthouse, located at the end of the Dungeness Spit

The views from both sides of the house (which has plenty of big windows) are spectacular from both directions.  This shot was taken from the front of the house which faces the mountains:

View from the Front of our Dungeness Beach House-- Facing the Mountains

And this one is of the water.

Out the Back of the House-- Facing the Water

The tides are pronounced here, and you can really tell the difference between low (pictured above) and high tide.  Unfortunately at the lowest point of the tide, flocks of seagulls descend on the beach presumably for easy access to fish and crabs.  Here's a video:






However, they disappear almost as quickly as they swarm--  here's another shot of the same piece of beach about 20 minutes later:

Beach Vacated by Seagulls

And, special for Mom-- here are a couple of  pictures of the inside of the house:

Looking Down from the Second Floor


Looking Up and Across From the First Floor

After settling in, we headed out to stock up on groceries for the next few days-- and even bought some tomatoes using the honor box on someone's front porch. We'll start dinner once I post this.  So, a fitting way to finish is with a Sunset over the mountains. (Water is to the East, so only sunrises from that direction.)

Sunset Over the Mountains (Taken from the Kitchen Window)

--Lisa

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 33: Seward to Cantwell (Denali National Park)

Image
The Mountains Turned Red, The Leaves Turned Yellow, and The Rain Turned Lighter The Leaves Have Started to Turn in Denali State and National Parks We began our day with a major rainstorm in Seward that promised a yucky day of driving. M decided that she had taken all the bumpy, dusty, muddy, gravely road abuse she was going to take without fighting back, and she greeted us with a low-coolant warning when we turned her on this morning.  I think it was just a cry for attention (and perhaps a car wash) because a few miles later she dismissed the warning and gave the all clear. However, since there is only one BMW dealership in the entire state of Alaska, in Anchorage, which we just happened to have to pass through on our way to Cantwell, we decided to stop there and have the coolant topped off.  Bob was obsessing about not having an appointment, but I assured him that all we needed to do was show up, and M would be topped off with no problem and no charge. Luckily, I was cor
Read more

Day 76: Astoria, OR to Ontario, OR

Image
Cars, Airplanes, and Snow! Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum, Hood River, OR As we checked out of our hotel in Astoria, OR this morning we watched our last ship go by. Kaimon Galaxy: Inbound in Astoria, OR Then we hit the road, bright and early.  The drive to Ontario was about 500 miles and was supposed to take a bit over 7 hours.  If all had gone as planned, we'd have arrived around 6PM while it was still light and we had plenty of time to grab dinner and relax before our next leg tomorrow. Not long after we left Astoria, we came across this giant Weyerhauser papermill in Longview, OR. Weyerhauser Papermill in Longview, OR Here's how the rest of the trip went: You'll probably have noticed that part of the trip took place in the dark, and part of it included driving through snow.  Clearly the best laid plans can go awry, as ours did-- thanks to mother nature, arbitrary variances in time, and car museums. As we were driv
Read more

Day 3: Bumming Around Butte

Image
A Copper Mine, an Abandoned Copper Pit, and a Mineral Museum Entering the Orphan Girl Copper Mine in Butte, MT We began our day with a tour of the Orphan Girl copper mine at the World Museum of Mining. The picture above is us standing at the entrance of the mine, with LED-lighted hard hats waiting to descend. Back to that later. This was a diverse museum indeed.  Not only were there mine and mining related exhibits, like the one below featuring fluorescent minerals... Fluorescent Minerals at the World Museum of Mining (Note that Lisa and her Tumi backpack also fluoresced under black light) Lisa with her Tumi under black-light But for some strange reason there was also a large exhibit of sci-fi related action figures, like this set of Star Trek figures shown below.  Perhaps someone thought the copper mine was a place where no man had gone before. World Museum of Mining Star Trek Exhibit (Go Figure!) The World Museum of Mining also included a bunch of
Read more