Ocean Shores, Washington

On Saturday it was not raining so we decided to head for Westport, Washington about 50 miles from Ocean Shores by road to do some shopping. We stopped by this fence to watch the loading of a barge with wood chips.

This is the pile of wood chips they were using to load the barge.

View of Aberdeen Washington harbor

Stopped at the maritime museum at Westport, and it is mainly in an old Coast Guard building, but out back is this second building with this fresnel lens. It was ordered from France to upgrade the lighthouse located about 40 miles north of Westport back in the 1800s. The lighthouse used kerosene for the light source and the lighthouse could be seen for about a mile before this lens was used, after they added this lens you could see the kerosene light for 20 miles out at sea. The French packed the lens in barrels of molasses, and sent it around the horn and up the west coast to Washington. They also sent a cleaning solution to soak the lens clean after it arrived. (Red wine).

This is the working lighthouse at Westport, for $5 you can climb to the top and check out the view. We skipped that climb. It was a pretty good hike just to get to the lighthouse.