Ah, I can see you have a FORT in mind. There is no FORT, really. The whole area is the Fort, the land itself. The "blocking fort" ARE the bunkers -- on top of the bluffs and at water level. There are two other forts in a triangular shape -- one on Whidbey Island and one on Marrowstone Island. The idea was if any boat came into the waters of Admiralty Inlet, one of the forts bunkers' big guns could take them out.

The bunkers are all still there. They were going to jackhammer them away, but they were made from imported Belgian concrete and they just would NOT break up.

So you can go crawling around in all sorts of bunkers. Some of the rooms have had their doors welded shut, for safety reasons. But there are plenty to explore.

These three forts aren't on an estuary, however. It is ocean water, but not the ocean. The Pacific Ocean stops about where the Northwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula is kind of south of Vancouver Island, in Canada. Things get narrow there, and the ocean waves can't reach. Or something. So there are bodies of water that ships and boats follow going east, then they turn south to Seattle, which is on the coast of Puget Sound.

It's all very confusing. I can never figure out which way is north. Port Townsend has water on three sides, fer pitys sake!

Oh, and they did remove the big guns, even as they left the bunkers. You can see where they were and get a good sense of how big those guns were.

None of the three forts ever shot in anger. Just practice.

Exactly! "Shop fronts" only.

So when are you coming to America? It is beautiful in my part of the country, albeit very young by European or even East Coast standards. We are very proud of our oldest building. I think it was built in 1875 or something. Maybe even later. Ha.

From a fellow Halifax / Dartmouth native who also recently visited Vancouver and Vancouver Island, I feel your pain. Although, I'm now in North Carolina rather than China, even this relatively small geographic hop makes me feel out of place at times.

I hope all goes well with your move and you can continue to contribute to the sift. Good luck!

WEWT! Take a ferry from Vancouver Island to LA!

Can't wait.

No seriously, you can't. You'll be like, dead.

I go to North Beach and stare at Vancouver Island. Perhaps you have seen me waving?

>> ^nanrod:

Hey I'm like Sarah Palin, I used to be able to see you from my front porch. Well, only in the winter when the trees in the cemetery lost their leaves, and only with a decent set of binoculars. Looks like a beautiful little town, closest I've come to it was a roadtrip from Victoria to Seattle via Port Angeles to see Aerosmith.

Interesting, the filmmaker is from (a little island off) Vancouver Island.

http://www.moneyasdebt.net/

Thanks for your comment, I just heard Rees this morning for the first time on CHLY Radio.
You may know it's the University of Vancouver Island's independent radio station found at 101.7 fm

In reply to this comment by fissionchips:
I've found myself clicking on your profile a couple times recently because of your fantastic posts. Where do you know of Bill Rees from? He's one of my favourite lecturers.

Here on Vancouver Island one has to work, get cold and wet, chased by bears, or pot growers, to find any colours. With gold steady at over $1000/oz a prospector can expect to now make a little more than the full-time kid at McDonald's. I know two miner hermits, same region, ajacent claims. The first claim-staker lives in a nice big house, gets a new truck every other year. The other guy hangs around outside the lodge, mooching cigarettes and picking butt-ends from the ashtray. (He's probably the guy with all the gold.)

In the early to mid-nineties I was an oyster farmer on a very isolated little island, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Every couple weeks or so I'd take my little motor boat to the nearest village, where I'd chill for a few days with a crew of birders and naturalists working for the Federal Gov't. After a few beers, etc. out on the deck of the government house in the village, one cat would break out the high-end government audio and play recordings of different bird calls, bringing various anomalous birds into view by f**king with their adorable little minds. (This guy is the Elvis of the BC birder community.)

Anyway, I saw him coax an Anna's hummingbird to fly into his mouth.

Actually this story has a tragic ending.
Luna was a young orca who got separated from his pod up here around Vancouver Island, Canada.
He took up residence in a bay outside a resource community where he became a celebrity with locals and tourists for activities like this. He would often play with boats or pop up near the piers to watch people.
Because orcas are social animals, he adopted humans as his family when his own family was unavailable.
Some thought it was cute, some thought it was annoying -- when killer whales play with boats they can do a lot of damage, however unintentionally.
Eventually, our Department of Fisheries came up with a plan to capture him and return him to his pod further south.
Regrettably, the stupid local native band decided that Luna was the re-incarnation of a recently deceased chief and they sabotaged the reunion efforts several times.
Luna was killed shortly after after he was torn up by boat props. Marine biologists figure he was probably playing with the boat in his usual manner and miscalculated the pull of the props.

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
Stanley Park is a must. The Capilano suspension bridge was cool too, if a bit touristy. If you have time, take the ferry over to Victoria Island and check out Butchart Gardens. There is also an awesome pub called Irish Times in Victoria.


It's Vancouver Island, but close enough...

The guy who built the Irish Times just opened up The Bard and Banker. Which is to British pubs, what Irish Times is to Irish pubs. He also owns the Penny Farthing Pub, which is like, ancient in Victoria.

This is so sad.

When I was visiting the Greater Vancouver area last summer I saw a shitload of hookers around, especially by this mall in the town of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, an otherwise nice city. They were probably out for the tourists and ship crews..

Well then, I'm not sure what Fedquip is smoking over there on Vancouver Island. On the mainland we usually say 'hey hoser, thanks 'eh'

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
As they say in Canada, de nada. (Well that's what Fedquip told me.)

Thats my hometown, most of that footage was the lake cowichan district, with a bit of shawnigan thrown in for the mix. All of this was taken on vancouver island about 100km north of the capital, Victoria BC. The most beautiful place to grow up. I have friends still working for Hayes forrest services, small world.

I used to live in Penticton, BC. Sure miss that place.. lots of fun times in beautiful British Columbia. I toured around Vancouver island alot and there's lots to do there, nice place to live.

Thanks for asking Krumzy, I just moved to the West Coast last summer, so I just experienced my first Vancouver Island "Winter" (it snowed twice, it's still snowing out east) I can tell ya, if Eastern Canada gets these types of winters as a result of Global Warming most people won't complain.