Would your wish be to live within a ‘Driver’s’ reach of a Premier Golf Course?

When I was a little girl, I lived just a couple of miles north of what was at that time, a huge gravel and sand pit.  I remember several times a week driving by the pit on the way to soccer practice in Lakewood gazing out the window at the beautiful Puget Sound and distant views of the south side of Fox Island.  I used to tell Mom that, 'one day, I am going to build a giant house down there, right on the beach as soon as they stop digging gravel out of it.'  She would always smile at me and just nod her head not wanting do dampen my vivid imagination or slow my habits of dreaming big.

While attending both Curtis Jr. and Sr. High Schools, the 'Pit' became a place where some would gather in the hours of darkness to enjoy the scent of seaweed and sips of refreshment while building their own memories and friendships.  Just to the west of the gravel pit was conveniently the New Tacoma Cemetery-a place for teens to also explore and visit ghostly figures in the hours of darkness.

As I grew up, I decided not to wait for a someday opportunity to buy a slice of gravel pit heaven to build my castle upon and instead settled 3 miles north of the 'Pit' on a different slice of University Place landscape.  Good thing I didn't hold out for a piece of the Pit because today, it has been transformed into a magnificent seaside world class 18-hole golf course, Chambers Bay.  This is the home of the 2015 US Open, a links style course with sandy windswept dunes, undulating slopes in the fairways and mottled greens framed with wispy sea grasses.

The course is rimmed with a paved walking, running, dog loving trail. This golf course perimeter takes your breath away both physiologically and mentally as you scale the ups and downs of the hills kissed by tall Douglas Fir trees while hearing the whistle of the passing trains along the beach front.  Inclusive of the childrens play area, a dog park and remnant monoliths of industries gone by, there are few who could not have some sensorial satisfaction or activity quenched by this hidden fingerprint of Scottish descent with a Northwest flare–how grand it would be, and is, to live just a 'Driver's' reach from such a magnificent, mystical place.