Seattle Stakeout

Team Breitmann crossed over the Columbia River on a soggy morning and on into the 42d State added to the Union. It  is known as the Evergreen State......The Great State of Washington!  The state was named after our first President; George Washington and is the second most populous Western State, right behind California.

We set up camp on Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM),  near Tacoma.  We camped on the portion of JBLM, formerly known as Ft. Lewis.  The base was named after Capt Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame. This base has 25,000 soldiers assigned to it and they are constantly training.  We hear the staccato of .50 caliber machine guns, artillery, the occasional Chinook, Blackhawk and Apache helicopters along with C-17s flying right over head to do air drops on the Lewis drop zones!  Ah, the sounds and sights of freedom!

Hailey sets up her own Fort on our campsite!  Appropriately named, don't you think?

Hailey raises the Colors in front of Ft Hailey!

Hailey shows me the "decorations" of flowers she made to the evergreen trees on our campsite.  

Hailey demonstrates how to "chill" during our first week here in Washington, State.  We really needed to slow down and "regroup".  The girls finished out the "school year" and are taking a week off before we jump back into school.  With us traveling and not doing school every day, means we gotta pretty much do school all year round. Thanks for showing us how "chillin' is done, Hailey!

Heidi practices her face painting on her sister, in between selling their famous fudge!  They completely sold out of fudge.

We take a trip to Seattle and get our picture taken in front to the famous Pike Street Public Market.  Opened in 1907, the market is one of the oldest continually operated public farmers' market in the United States.

Heidi and Hailey enjoy some fresh seafood right in the market.  Here, Heidi had some clam chowder and Hailey some shrimp cocktail. 

Heidi shows off one of the largest shrimps that we've seen.  We  each had a couple of these! 

Hailey really enjoyed the floral portions of the market!  We bought a HUGE bouquet of sweet pea arraignments for $5. 

Heidi shows of some Rainer Cherries that she bought.  We ended up eating them all as we wandered around!  Good stuff!

After we attended a local church called The Little Church on the Prairie, we went out exploring and stopped at Ft. Nisqually, a reproduction of how it might have looked in 1855.  Two of the buildings on the site are original, the rest are period reproductions.

Ft. Nisqually was the first European trading post on the Puget Sound and was a completely private business venture of the British-owned Hudson Bay Trading Company.  It was never a military outpost.  The location of this venture was chosen as a central location for the fur trade because of excellent ship anchorite, its convenience for overland travel, the friendliness of local Indians and outstanding prairies for grazing animals and growing crops.  The diagram above show what the outpost might have looked like in 1855.  

A view from inside the Fort.

Heidi discuss the finer points of cooking circa 1855! 

Hailey was fascinated with the blacksmith shop and the live demonstrations!  Here she watches the foot powered wet stone in action. 

Here the master blacksmith shows Hailey a knife he crafted.  The handle is from an elk with a hand hewn steel blade. 

Hailey inspects a beaver pelt at the Fort's supplies store.

Hailey tries her hand at grinding beans into coffee using a period reproduction coffee grinder. 

Hailey tries out a typical bed that a family child might have "enjoyed" while living at the Fort.  These beds were certainly not for someone who would expect a soft mattress, that's for sure!  Can you say, board stiff! 

One of the local Indian tribe ladies shows Hailey how she does bead work. 

A typical "home school" primer circa 1855.  I made sure the girls noticed the scripture in the lower middle!  

Heidi tries her hand at a typical 1850's childhood diversionary game that taught hand-eye coordination.  It involved holding two sticks, one in each hand and using them to toss a ring in the air and catching them on the opposite stick.  Not as easy as it may seem!  

We celebrated the 4th of July here in the Seattle-Tacoma area.  We visited many local festivals in the area.  Here Hailey, our lover of sidewalk chalk, admires an artists work.  

Here's Hailey on JBLM awaiting the fireworks.  In the tent in the background, there was the 59th Army Band that played music before and during the fireworks display.  I must say, this display was the absolute finest fireworks that I have ever seen...bar none!  Way to go Army!  As we celebrated, we remembered the price paid to declare our independence and the price of freedom...it is not free.  Here is a portion of the Declaration that we celebrate each year:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with one another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.  That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.  Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are suffer able, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.  But when a long ration of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, its is their duty, to throw of such Government, and to provide Guards for their future security.
Happy Birthday USA!  God Bless America!
Till the next posting!