July 26

Today John took me to see his ole Navy digs on Whidbey Island.  It was exciting to see where he spent time on two different occasions, even if it was over 40 years ago.  We had several interesting stops, first at Deception Pass Bridge.  The bridge was completed in 1935 at a cost of $450,000.  In the 1990s it costs more than that just to paint it!

In Vancouver we saw logs floating on the waterways.  Today we saw a mass of logs being moved in the bay by two tug boats.  We probably watched them for 20 minutes.  The lead tug has a "v" shaped ropes tied to the logs and they were pulling them.  The second tug would move around keeping the mass in order and moving them to stay in a pretty straight line.  There are several lumber and paper mills in this area, so who knows where they ended up.  Looking down from the bridge it looked like a flat game of pick up sticks.

We hiked down to the park along side of the bay and this is an image of the bridge--note the fishing pole in the lower right hand corner.

After leaving the Deception Pass Park, we went into the community of Oak Harbor where the Naval Air Station is located.  That is where John went to school to learn how to work on the A-3 aircraft, and then stationed there assigned to VAH-10. The squadron's mission was to basically be an airborne gas station, refueling the aircraft that were awaiting their turn to land on board the carriers.  I made one cruise on the USS Forrestal and another one on the USS J F Kennedy.

We found his old watering hole, the Oak Harbor Tavern and went in for a beer.  Here he is holding the squadron sign for his unit.  The joint hasn't changed much in 42 years!

Had another great seafood lunch at a place called Flyers--Navy guys own it and the food and service was great.  It was really nice being able to see where he spend a lot of time.  Of course all the businesses there now weren't around when I was here. 

Oh, the surprise---On Wednesday afternoon we will be picking up John's oldest grandchild, Evan Sawyer, at the Seattle airport.  He'll be joining us while we visit the Space Needle, Olympic National Park, Mount St. Helens and then into Oregon for Crater Lake National Park, sequoia and red wood trees, and making our way back via Nevada and Utah.

Evan is 14, loves to fish and is his Papa's pal.  It'll be a fun few days!