Living Our Dream: Visit to Port Townsend

We have made whale watch boat plans for tomorrow and we wanted to do a trial run to get to Port Townsend where we board the boat, to see where the place is, where we park, how long it will take us to get there (in rush hour) and also to see the town - if it was worth our time to come back another day and browse.

Wooden boats in marina

Glad we did the trial - would have been very unnerving tomorrow morning to try to find the place, as it was, we road around for a bit then I called the cruise company and asked specifically how to get to them, we are lost! Found them. After stopping in to talk with them, we drove around the waterfront and found a parking spot, got some ice cream and then visited a wooden boat shop. That was pretty cool to see the wooden boats all lined up and some in stages of repair. Heck with shop looking - we want the water. We are drawn to the water it seems, so many years spent sailing on Lake Erie still has a big heart tug for us. As we walked one of the piers, we noticed some kids getting ready to head out on their Optimum little sailboats and struck up a conversation with a gentleman on the pier intent on staring at the kids and their progress to get into the water. His grandson was one of the students, second year in that sailing school, and he was concerned that he still won't "get it" after this stint of school. Being a native of Seattle area, he said he has 10 boats, sees one he likes and gets it. Just keeps adding to his collection. He couldn't leave the area - the water means so much to him.

Mt. Baker in background

In the distance across the bay, looking north, we could see Mt. Baker rising above - looked like it was floating in air and continuing looking to the east we could see the Cascade Mountains. In front of us (to the east) we saw Mt. Rainier. As we were watching various boats out in the bay sailing, our eye caught one particular one - the same sailboat design that we had. Makes sense since that sailboat was built in California, seems natural for the ocean which it was built for. Took some great pictures to remember, then started our drive back. But first stopped in the very active Port Townsend boat yard. Some very massive boats with various stages of work being done. Even saw our sailboat up on jack stands. Ahhhhh. Drove to the back of the yard and saw where they were scrapping (scuttling) a couple of boats - one looked like it had sunk.

Sailing school - Optimums

Drove up in the upper street where all the Victorian homes are. Port Townsend is called the city of dreams - the railroad magnets back at the turn of the century thought that Port Townsend would be the ideal deep water bay and bought all kinds of property and put these big Victorian homes on it, anticipating that Port Townsend would one day be the 'place to be'. Then when the powers that be said - nope, Seattle was going to be the center, Port Townsend fell into disrepair. Revival of these homes is complete and the town is a tourist mecca. Art galleries, boutiques, fancy this and that shops, restaurants, all catering to the people coming and going on ferries out of Port Townsend. We saw enough to say enough. Will have to go back tomorrow to catch our boat ride but that will be it for Port Townsend. As they say, after tomorrow - been there, done that.