This is one of our new favorite spots in the South Sound: Lakebay and Penrose Point State Park. This is where we moored last night, on a marine state park buoy, and it looked JUST LIKE THAT. Amazing isn't it? It is so very still here.
We took the dinghy into shore (past the marina and cafe, closed during the week in the winter) and tied up to the state park dock so we could go take a look around.
That's our dinghy out there at the end of the dock:
Before we went to the dock, we headed for a shallow cove, but it proved too shallow (and too COVERED with oysters and shells) to nicely beach the dinghy.
We walked out on the beach a ways and I've never seen so many sand dollars (alive!) in my life. I think I only recently learned what they looked like when they're alive (at an aquarium on the Oregon Coast)…they're dark purple and covered in fuzz. Here's one:
(Though I can't be certain of its aliveness since it was on the beach, and not underwater.)
Many sizes of sand dollars (those little ones are about the size of a quarter):
The rocks on this beach reminded me of the show we saw at the Glass Museum in Tacoma last week. The colors and textures were endlessly cool:
We returned to Airship and took the chairs to the upper deck, popped open a beer, and just sat mostly in silence as we took in the beauty and stillness of this place.
Here's what it looked like early this morning:
It's starting to burn off now, and we're off to hike some trails.
Here's our track from yesterday – 36 nautical miles total. (Our friend Cari drove out to Jarrell Cove and we took her on a short cruise down to McMicken Island and back. The mooring buoys at McMicken looked great, but I'm glad we decided to go further on to Lakebay.)
