Interrupted
My Life Thus Far
Pritchard Park
I got an earlier start to the day than on Tuesday, but I'd be lying if I said I got up early. For whatever reason, my body decided to wake up at 5am, but after chatting with Corey on messenger for a bit, I fell back to sleep... and didn't wake up until 10am! So there went my early start.
I stopped at Central Café for breakfast (apple turnovers and a hazelnut almond milk latte), and while sipping my coffee flipped trough my Urban Trails guide. There are so few hikes I haven't done already and several trails I don't have any desire to go on (I'm not driving 30 minutes for a nature trail less than 1 mile roundtrip). Gig Harbor has some great municipal parks, but I honestly don't feel like driving 40 minutes to go to a city park when I've got those kinds of parks closer. I'd rather go the opposite direction and find myself 30 miles into the Olympic Wilderness. That sounds like a much better idea to me!
So, I settled on the park I couldn't find on Tuesday. Pritchard Park. In my book there's a really great picture of the Seattle skyline and my curiosity wanted to see what that view looked like in person. The answer would be not nearly as impressive (someone had a great camera with a fantastic lens), but I digress...
Finding Pritchard Park wouldn't have been so hard had my book not given directions in north, south, east, and west. As much as I love hiking, rarely do I need to know what direction I'm facing and I definitely don't know when I'm driving. Particularly when the guide is telling me to go west at a roundabout. What? It's a fucking circle. Am I supposed to hold a compass as I drive in a circle? Well, no. I figured out that Fiona tells me which direction I'm pointing in, but only after I've committed to a turn. So, I ended up going the wrong way (just like on Tuesday) with no good place to turn around. For whatever reason, I just kept driving around until I stumbled upon Eagle Harbor Rd. The road the park is on. Only, I wasn't sure which way on Eagle Harbor I was supposed to be going (fuck the east/west bullshit, ugh). I went right, because it felt right... and I was right!
What I found when I got to Pritchard Park was a mixture of emotions. Mostly sadness, empathy, and disappointment. The park houses the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial dedicated to the first wave of Japanese Americans who were shipped to internment camps during WWII. The old dock is still there and has been partially converted into a beautiful memorial. It's still a work in progress, but what they've done is beautiful and very touching. I'm still feeling a little weepy, so I was exceptionally moved by it and could really feel myself putting my family in their shoes. What it must have felt like to leave your home. Your life, for what must have been totally unknown. How scary, and totally unnecessary. I can't wait to see what the finished memorial looks like. There are plans for an interpretive center and a whole complex of other facilities.
The rest of the park is still very much under construction and has little to offer other than a sandy shoreline. The site was the home of an old creosote plant (in fact, the area used to be called Creosote and had it's own town when the plant was active). Now it's a Superfund clean up site because by the 1980's the EPA realized that coal tar is bad for the environment, so it's a continuous battle to clean out Eagle Harbor and restore the adjacent lands to their original state. Which will take time since the plant was there since the 1880's. The maps at the park and in my guide said there are a few trails weaving through the 50 acre park, but I only found one well used one. The other two were almost impossible to find under leaf litter and they didn't appear to get much use. A huge chunk of the park is off limits due to the clean up.
It's a good place to bring the kids on one of our summer evening outings. Or for a beach day (the shoreline restoration is done, and it's been transformed into a beautiful sand beach). I want them to see the memorial for sure, but as far as revisiting for another hike. Nope. It didn't even break 2 miles. Looks like I'm going to have to venture further to quench my desire for aggressive hikes. I need to get a forest pass.
All day I've been thinking about the fact that Corey is here in Washington. I haven't seen him since 2013. It doesn't feel like it's been that long, but it has. Crazy. We've tentatively planned to take the kids on a hike next Thursday, but we'll see. He still has to talk to his girlfriend about it. I wonder what it's going to be like... seeing him after all this time. I guess you could say I've got a teeny case of the nerves about it.
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