Fort Nisqually

This whole weekend the weather is going to be craptastic.  I want out of the house even more so and WA weather isn't  cooperating.

During a brief interlude of sunshine J and I decide to go for a drive.  He wants to go check out the new gun selection at the BX across the way so he does and I stay in the car.  I'm not going to do any extra walking right now if I can help it.

Before we decided to leave the house we had decided to check out Dupont which for us is across the interstate and down two exits.    That was our next stop after the BX. 

We arrived in Dupont only to find out that the Dupont Historical Museum was closed for the day and would reopen on the following day.  Okay so that is life.  For some reason its closed on all Saturdays.

So I suggest a drive to Tacoma to the Point Defiance Park where we can drive around and see things.  Guess what we found?  We found the Nisqually fort.  Not the original one which was no more but originally located in Dupont.  The newer version, from the 1850's was open.  Yay!

Oh and it was living history day, even better!

We buy two passes to the fort and amble about.  I of course, thanks Endometrin, have to hit the restroom.  Thankfully they have modern facilities.

Me on crutches looking at some of the written exhibits about life back then.  Its not that I'm not impressed, I am, but its not that old to me.  My grandmother's house was built before these dwellings.  I've been to Trier, Germany and walked about a building built in 3 B.C. E.  This stuff is still nice to look at and imagine how things were back then but not all that impressive.

Maybe its just because I found out less than 24 hours before, yes the doctor called me back on Friday, that my foot is worse than we thought.  Not only do I have a strain, which is torn tendon and muscles, I also have MULTIPLE Degenerative Osteoarthritis.  I was told by the nurse, whom I called back after their message, to stay off my foot this weekend, rest, ice, compression and elevated it.  So here I am walking about the exhibits for 4 hours.  I'm stubborn when it means I have to rest.

The kitchen of Doctor Tolmie's family at the fort looks pretty awesome.  I grew up with a wood stove used to heat our house.  I think I'd love this particular model since it has an area to roast coffee beans, a seperate tank to heat water, a large oven to bake food but there is one draw back, the kindling has to be rather small to fit into its burner.  Oh well I'd still like to have the chance to cook with it.

I inwardly chuckled when they had the butter making going on.  Butter making isn't a novelty to me, I've done it before by hand and with my Kitchen Aid stand mixer its a cinch.

The small coffee mill was almost identical to the one I used to grind beans with as a kid.  My brother and I would fight over the task of doing it since it was so fun.

But all in all the fort living history was rather interesting.  If you are the type of person like me that grew up doing a lot of the tasks that they HAD TO DO back then you'll find it quite enlightening.  I know well what its like to wash clothing in a tub using a scrub board.  I've lost skin on my thumbs doing that task.  I make candles, soap, butter, lip balms, weave, knit, sew, oh heck I'm a Donna Reed.

My next attempt at culinary skills will be making my own crackers and cheese.  No seriously I want to learn to make my own crackers and my own cheese from scratch.  Just another feather in my cap.

J loved the blacksmith exhibit and he learned quite a bit from the two men running the place.  I was watching the fellow in the photo above smith a clip for his leather apron.

Really this is a good place to take your family for a weekend of fun since the Zoo is also located within the same park area.  Don't let my lack of fun attitude make you think otherwise, I'm used to places like Fort Ticonderoga which is older.