Chimacum, WA

Jan 11, 2007
Current mood:excited

Chimacum



 
The Valley Tavern
I left the parking lot of the Valley Tavern saying goodbye to Mike and Amy and tightly hugging my baby boys not wanting to let go for the next six months. This is the hardest part. No amount of reasoning comforts the tearing that rips through your heart when part of being a divorced parent is doing what you know is right for the healthy, well-rounded growth of your children. My console comes from above and in the fact that my ex husband and I have maintained a very compassionate and respectful relationship. I thank God for that because I know how rare it is. He is an incredible man and even though he doesn't believe in faith the way I do, he has seen miracles in my life because of how I let all my major decisions be dictated by something higher.
Valley Burger!! :)~

 It does get easier as times goes along and the kids get older, in their aging comes understanding and anticipation for the switch. We have been doing this for almost three years and Mike and I realize that someday, we will have to make a choice on where they will live for the school year. But, for now, this works.
They have the best of both worlds. Life in the town that their daddy grew up in that has only one stoplight. In Washington, they live near their grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, where they get to play in the ocean and soak in the evergreen trees and play game cube with their dad on his big screen. In Colorado, they have access to a different way of life. They swim outside in the pool almost everyday in the summer, hike the red rocks and play in the mountains of Snowmass. They get to watch hockey games and play laser tag at the Sports Center and hang out with the new friends they have formed over the last few years.

Heading out Beaver Valley Road through the Chimacum Valley I can't help envisioning what used to be. There is a road off to the left about ten miles down. It's called the Egg and I. Yeah, it's a funny name for a street in the middle of nowhere and even funnier when you know that that there its actually a very famous place! The birth of Ma and Pa Kettle, a forlorn looking farming couple written a book by Betty MacDonald They look like hillbillies. And they really do exist. They live on the Egg and I and that was this area's first claim to fame. John Wayne made a movie of them and came here to film it. He fell in love with this area and continued to make films, eventually buying property north of here near Sequim. He loved to boat out on the straits and in honor of his dedication to preserving the beauty of the area, the locals named a marina after him. It's not unusual to run into his sons at the local QFC store just minutes down the road and every local video store has a section featuring his movies.


One of the only pictures ever taken of the Chimacum tribe before they were slaughtered.

 Chimacum Valley was named after it's inhabitants, the Chimacum Indians. There were five tribes native to the area before the white guys showed up. The Chimacum were notorious for their viciousness and brutality amongst the tribe and were not well liked. They dominated the fishing on the canal and in Discovery Bay, killing anyone who jeopardized their livelihood including women and children. Their viciousness had no prejudice. Finally, at the turn of the century, the four other tribes had had enough. They planned an ambush to eliminate the entire tribe by sneaking in by land and by water from all angles. By the end of the day's slaughter, all the Chimacum had been slain…except for a little girl and her sister who had inadvertently escaped when they were out picking berries. Their bloodline is the only hint of existence that this tribe ever existed and after knowing this little tidbit of information, it's almost impossible not to let your mind wander back a hundred years imagining what it was like to walk these beaches and climb the hills of the valley in freedom of fear.
It's still snowing as I near the intersection of Highway 101, the roads are icy but my son Casey and I have a dinner reservation at the Harbor Lights restaurant on the Tacoma waterfront at 8:00, eighty miles south of here and I'm starving!!

The Harbor Lights on the waterfront in Tacoma, WA


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