“By the sea, By the sea, By the beautiful sea; You and me, You and me, Oh how happy we’ll be.” There is a song, I think from the 20’s, with this line – and this is about all I can remember from when my mother was playing the “oldies” in the 40’s & 50’s.

WP Weekly Photo Challenge is “Sea” and we are by a sea that we don’t see very often – the Pacific. How different from the Great Lakes’ Shorelines and the Gulf Coast of Florida. We don’t normally see a rocky beach.

The sea smell is different and this surprises me because I spend time near the salt water Gulf of Mexico. Where we are now has a stronger smell of fish and seaweed and salt. I always take in great big, deep breaths when I am close to large bodies of water and the smell feels familiar to me even if it isn’t.

There also is a lot of driftwood where we are in Northwest Washington.

I remember when I wanted to decorate our yard with driftwood, big pieces that had washed up on the the Lake Michigan and Lake Superior shores. I really wanted them but J. didn’t think hauling it up from the beach and then transporting it home was a good idea. I think he remembers too, because he asked if I wanted to take some home when we passed a big pile of it today. He must be confident that 30-some years have cured that crazy obsession. I am finding it a little tempting because there is so much of it on the beach here, and he has a bigger truck bed…

A similarity between the Pacific coast and the other coasts I love is the presence of lighthouses. Michigan has a lot of them and I have collected pictures of several. Yesterday I took this picture of the Admiralty Head Lighthouse that operated from 1860-1903.

Next to the lighthouse is a bunker with big guns – at first we assumed they were from WWII but these were actually built in 1906 and decommissioned in 1951. The forts were built to protect the passage to the Bremerton Navel Ship Yards across the Puget Sound from Seattle. I am uncomfortable with war and the machinery of war, but then remembered that Michigan has forts on it’s “seas” although from an earlier period and made of logs. I guess each country has to protect it’s borders from other people who don’t play nice and that includes invasion by “sea”. As I have gotten older and know more I realize that there aren’t many time when it is easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys – history books are biased by who is telling the story. Did I say I don’t like war?

I am in a peaceful, happy mood today so enough about war and forts. I offer you the “sea” version of the peace dove.

But even these have stolen a pork chop from my grill and a slice of pizza from my hand. Life is messy.