Puget Sound Nostalgia

 I visited the University of Washington campus today for the first time in several years...I believe the last time I was here was 2004.  Though there's a lot of construction going on, as usual, many things are unchanged.  One is the Northlake Tavern, which was already an institution when I began going there upon turning 21 in 1972.  I have been back several times since I graduated in 1973, and the pizza has remained constant...absolutely delicious!  My old roommate Dick and I scarfed one down together, just as we did when we attended the UW all those years ago.

Denny Hall, built in 1895, remains on campus, still looking like a medieval building as it did decades ago.  Inside, however, remodeling has been done and it's considerably nicer than when I was in school.

This mosaic is in Bagley Hall, a chemistry building where Dick took many of his classes.

The Lizards here are matriculating at the UW!  They're showing their studious side in the classic Suzzallo library.

The Broken Obelisk at 40 has corroded a bit, but remains prominent in Red Square.  It was erected during my tenure at the UW.

Alas, my old dorm is about to meet the wreckers ball.  I was a charter mamber of Unit 5 when it opened in the fall of 1969; the name was soon changed to Mercer Hall.  Dick and I were roommates here in winter and spring quarters of 1970.  The Kingsmen played at our dorm party in the center courtyard twice while I lived here.  And now, after just 42 years of service, it's about to be demolished.  The car park has already been dug up.  I'm not sure what they're replacing ol' Unit 5 with, but its demise is sad to a former resident.

The previous day, rain fell for the first time this

 August.  Before the precip began, the Olympics were bathed in a beautiful glow as seen from the other side of Hood Canal.

A tug tows a barge across the tranquil waters of Puget Sound, near Port Townsend.  I've always liked being by the sound on such a day, with gray skies, light wind, few people, and a brooding aura of tranquility.

A house on Officers Row at Fort Worden state park, near Port Townsend.  This is where the movie Officer and a Gentleman was filmed.  The fort was used as a coastal defense post from the early 1900s to 1953, when, of course, it became obsolete.

This is the big kahuna slug!  This fellow is a good six inches long, which probably makes him the alpha slug at Fort Worden.