Opening Day at Jetty Island

Today, July 1, is the opening day of Jetty Island. Since moving here, we have heard a lot about it but were not really sure what it was all about. So the kids and I thought we would see what all the hype was about. When we got to the docks we found out that today the parking was free. Then you have to find a card for the time of the ferry that you get to ride. So we got 4 tickets for the 11:00 ferry.

We had a little time before our ferry so we walked out on the pier and were so excited to see a harbor seal.

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Today, to kick off the opening of Jetty Island, the Pirates of Puget Sound were in attendance and ended up on our ferry!

In about 5 minutes you arrive at Jetty Island!

We attended the raising of the flags and the pirates made sure their flag was raised as well!

The pirates entertained us with some sword fights.

Then it was time to dig for buried treasure. They had an area where they buried all kinds of little treasures. We did not do very good and only found one pencil...but we sure tried.

At noon we attended a nature hike around the island. We learned a lot about the 5 different habitats on the island and about native plants. It was very interesting. We learned what an estuary is, saw a blue heron and a bald eagle.

After the nature hike we found a spot on the beach to hang out. There is a lot of driftwood to climb on and there was sand. It was also low tide and the kids wanted to walk out to the water. It took awhile and we talked about how we were like the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.

At 3:00 we went to the mudflats scavenger hunt. Every person was given a shovel and we look for sea creatures. And we found some cool things!

Jacob was the first to find something!

He found a pink clam!

Then he found a worm that none of the naturalists could identify.

Micah found a crab.

Jacob found a ghost shrimp.

Before we knew it, it was time to board the 4:15 ferry back.

It was a fun day and the kids want to go back again tomorrow!