A Perfect Day in June - June 15th, 2013

Preston turned 5 on June 13th, but they celebrated his birthday on June 15th, because his Grandma and Grandpa Thomas were going to be here visiting that weekend. Preston had around 5 or 6 other little boys (and his cousins Gweneviere and Grace) come to his birthday party. It was held in the neighborhood park, just a block or so away from Jenni and Will's house. It was a beautiful little park, with a small lake with ducks, a covered picnic area, a large playground with swings, etc and lots and lots of grassy area. Jenni had some games for the kids, then Preston opened his presents. Will and James (Will's sister Elizabeth's husband) took the kids for rides in the kayak on the lake. Ron and I gave Preston a remote controlled red Mustang. Gee, I want one too!

Jenni had the food table all decorated like Thomas the Train, as that is one of Preston's favorite things.....trains! Will's mom Sandy made the cake to look like Thomas the Train.

Ron and I were going to go to the Botanical Gardens in Bellevue on the way home, but the sun was shining too brightly to get good pictures, so we just headed towards home. However, Ron was getting very sleepy driving, so we decided to stop at Mukilteo for a quick snooze in the truck. (hmmmm....that's getting to be a habit of ours!)

 

 

 

The Mukilteo park was really really busy, but we found a spot, and put the window shades up in the truck and relaxed for about an hour. The Lighthouse was open for tours, which is the first time that has ever happened when we've been there, so we decided to go up in to the lighthouse. It was constructed in 1906 and is still operating. It still has the Fourth Order Fresnel Lens, but runs on electricity now instead of oil.

The light runs constantly, even during the day. It stands at the entrance to the harbor at Everett....which is where the Navy Base is stationed.

We were interested to see how many different designs of Fresnel Lenses there were. This one is so much smaller than the light at Cape Meares....most likely because it doesn't have to project 25 miles out to see, but just a couple of miles across to Whidbey Island. The Mukilteo Lighthouse is one of the few lighthouses in the state of Washington that is kept up very nicely. Most of them are deteriorating, but Mukilteo is freshly painted, with a wonderful gift store located in the original Light Keepers house.

I couldn't get over how thick the glass was and how perfectly clear it was. Those Fresnel Lenses are really a feat of engineering, besides being absolutely beautiful. The light bulb that is used, is just a 150 watt thin filiment....it amazes me that it can project so much light. The tour guide told us that the light is reflected, refracted and magnified by all the shapes of the glass.

In a glass display case, they had another Fresnel Lens which was shaped even more differently....sort of a fisheye effect. It was a Fourth Order Lens as well.