- Lime Kiln Point State Park is a 42-acre Washington state park on the western shore of San Juan Island in the San Juan archipelago. The park is considered one of the best places in the world to view wild orcas from a land-based facility. Due to the unique bathymetric properties of the site, visitors on the shore can be within 20 feet of whales jumping out of the water (breaching and spyhopping). It houses one of Friday Harbor’s two lighthouses along with a stone lookout with picnic tables. The park was the site of lime kilns beginning in 1860, and one kiln has been restored as a public exhibit.
- Old Coast, New Coast: Sausalito, California (hakaimagazine.com)
Richardson Bay in Sausalito, California, is many things: a floating neighborhood of over 250 domiciles, an icon of the 20th-century counterculture movement, and a place to buy expensive art. It’s a place people write about and sing about, although none have composed the opera. Yet. (Proposed title: Raucous-ito.)