Adventures with Keith

We were lucky enough to have Keith come visit us this week. You may be wondering, who is Keith? Keith is my grandfather's cousin's son. Which we believe makes us second cousins once removed. Or, "a distant relative".

Unfortunately Keith was visiting during an extreme heat wave and it was in the upper 90s for most of his time here. (Note: while not uncommon in many parts of the country, this was very hot here where many of us don't have air conditioning.) In a successful attempt to escape the heat, we drove out to Fort Flagler on Tuesday where the weather was glorious. We spent some time walking along the beach and collecting shells.

Fort Flagler was a military installation turned state park which includes old military buildings and gun batteries where people can now safely look around and explore inside. I found the "plotting room" which was probably for doing math to determine where/how to aim the large guns, but sounds like where evil schemes could be hatched.

The tiny museum was filled with items from the area's time as an active military installation, including this charming barrel that stored drinking water but could double as a commode once emptied of water. Very efficient use of materials. 

On our way home, we stopped off at Ben's favorite ice cream shop and introduced Keith to huckleberry ice cream and take a picture of Nana eating Ben's favorite ice cream flavor to text to Ben. The visit was a success.

On Thursday, Mom and I took Keith to Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. We were lucky enough to see some harbor seals (not seen here because at the highest magnification level on my camera they looked like tan and grey blobs). I did take some pictures of Keith living his best tall person life. Poor guy! 

And then, intrepid traveler that he is, Keith braved Amtrack to take him home. I am sure he will have stories about that. Hopefully he enjoyed his time here and we gave him a taste of Washington that will make him want to come back.