Christmas at the E

Our Daughters family went to California to spend Christmas with the California side of the family, she left two nights at the "E" for us .

The Beatles Saved the E back in the 60's when the hotel was having some financial problems.  

The elevators have a big monitor that has revolving scenic backgrounds

The best happy hour is at the Edgewater's Bar "The Six Seven" (The Edgewater is built over Pier 67.

The Admiral found the Beatle's room was on the second floor, see
 http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Beatles-stay-at-Edgewater-helped-mark-its-place-1305857.php

On Christmas Morning we walked down to the ferry dock and rode the Ferry to Bremerton Across Puget Sound and through Rich Passage to Prt Orchard and the Bremerton Ferry dock.

Crusty Trawler at the Bremerton Marina

Kinda of slow on Christmas Morning at the Bremerton Marina

The Ferry docks are right downtown Bremerton adjacent to the Naval shipyards.

The USS Turner Joy (DD-951), famed Navy destroyer from the Vietnam War, is now maintained and administered by the Bremerton Historic Ships Association.
see  http://www.ussturnerjoy.org/

The Sail of the USS Parche see:
http://www.onr.navy.mil/focus/blowballast/images/sub/opdiagram.gif

Parche has quite a history, much of it still classified
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Parche_%28SSN-683%29

The Water Feature is actually two blocks long and unfortunate for us not running on this Christmas Day

Looking out across Sinclair Inlet I thought of Buzz and Terry who flew out from Austin and helped us for two weeks sail Wand'rin Star up to Port Townsend and prepare her for the road trip back to Texas.

You can see across Sinclair Inlet to Port Orchard where we took our just bought Wand'rin Star on our first Shake down cruise from Poulsbo, Liberty Bay  http://www.portofbremerton.org/marina/port-orchard/port-orchard-marina

 

The park is this close to the Ferry dock.

And this close to the Puget Sound Naval Ship Yard

Hook'em Horns!

Another restoration project. I remember talkinng to a fella in Deer Harbor who had just pulled in to a slip about his incredibly beautifully restored 50' Wood Chris Craft motor yacht. He told me it took 3 people working on it for 3 years 6-7 days a week to get her in Back to Bristol condition. 

The Ferry is returning to tack us back to Seattle.

These barges are Salmon nurseries. 

This is what makes the Pacific Northwest the finest Sailing grounds on the Planet, Thousands of miles of sailing in relatively protected waters and endless Islands to explore. 

The Capital of the Pacific Northwest.

There has been a slowdown of dockworkers as an attempt to reach a new Labor contract so there are ships stacking up all around waiting to get in and unload. 

This is a series of shots from the same sunset taken from our waterside room at the E. Ususally I just select 1 or two but I want to show the ever moving kalidascope of colors due to the constant change in weather, fog, cloud cover, sunlight. 

Zen and the Art of Sailing

Christmas at the E

My Daughters family took off to California to enjoy Christmas with all of the California Family led by Nona and Pappa Tom. L and R graciously left behind a two night stay at the most fun water front Hotel known locally as the "E" AKA Edgewater. This fit in perfectly with our Christmas plans as we planned a day trip to Bremerton by walking on the Ferry and enjoying the trip across the Sound to the Navel town of Bremerton. We had read a bit and knew the ferry docks were right downtown and there would be plenty for our walking tour. I was hoping the Naval Shipyard would be a bit more visible but there is plenty of security and big buildings so you can't see much of all that. Going by the picture on wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puget_Sound_Naval_Shipyard_and_Intermediate_Maintenance_Facility if we had our car we could have driven to the other side of the ship yard and probably had a good view of  the ship docked there but I'm not sure.
Of course being Christmas Day nothing was open so we just did our usual self walking tour and for a few hours and timed our return to the ferry dock. There is a Naval Museum close by but again it was closed so we had to settle For the Bremerton Harborside Fountain Park and of course the nearby Marina. The Ferry Ride always promises the best view for Happy Hour.