After the Olympics, I was to be dropped off at a distant cousin's house back by the Sound. So on our way out of the park I got a free shower at the park's hot springs resort and put on a clean change of clothes. With some time to kill we explored the Dungeness Recreation Area, containing a five mile "spit" into the Juan de Fuca Strait.
The Spit.
The sliver of land was pretty cool, actually, with large driftwood and some sea monsters.
It was around dinner time when I arrived at my cousin's. Despite having never met them, her and her husband were absolutely great to me, being genuinely welcoming, kind, and fun to visit. It was a good time getting to know them, sharing stories, eating delicious food, etc.
The next day, after coffee and a good breakfast, I was given a tour of their village before being kindly driven down to Tacoma where I was to meet another friend.
Tacoma has, as I was told, the second largest city park in the U.S., behind only Central Park. Besides containing the Tacoma Zoo, Point Defiance Park contains gardens, forested trails, ocean boardwalks, and beaches. The friend I was visiting worked at said zoo, so after wandering around for a while, I met her there.
Japanese garden within the park.
I have mixed feelings about zoos, but the joy of seeing exotic animals is always accompanied by at least a bit of sadness, if not aggravation, from the zoo environment. Nonetheless, I got the inside scoop on zoo protocols and management thanks to my friend who has spent many years working within the volatile zoo industry.
But with business aside, here is a tiger.
And a really cool tree.
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