Port Townsend

Thursday was road trip day.  And it's good we had an adventure planned because it rained all day.  And the wind blew.  So it was nice to be in a warm dry vehicle.  Our destination - Port Townsend.

But first we had a bit of drama.  The Midshipman, Benny Prennan, couldn't find her purse.  Or car keys.  The ship was searched from stem to stern.  The car was peered into.  Nada.  All purses, backpacks and bags of all sorts were emptied.  Cushions were pulled and inspected.  Still nothing.

Life must go on, so while the midshipman went to the showers, Captain Dave noticed that said purse was hanging in the midshipman's quarters.  In plain sight.  Upon the midshipman's return she inspected the purse and lo and behold the keys were inside.  Whew!

We still managed to get underway on time!  We gassed up the buggie, secured coffee and traveling breakfast items, and settled the pooch on this blanket in the back seat.  To get to Port Townsend we drive south on Fidalgo Island, across Deception Pass (you remember that...

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and then down Whidbey Island to the Coupeville ferry terminal.  It's about a one hour drive through beautiful country.  We arrived in time to catch an earlier ferry than the one we'd reserved.  This ferry crossing is more exposed to wind and strong current than most of the routes.  As a result it's subject to cancellations.  But we didn't encounter any cancellations.  We did encounter wind and currents and their effects.  On all of our previous trips, the ferries just plow through, a fairly smooth ride.  Today we got a real ride!  There was considerable roll (side to side) making it really fun trying to walk around in the passenger deck lounges upstairs.  We decided we better see how Simon was weathering the ride down in the car. We had to hang on with both hands to get down the staircases and back past all the cars.  Simon was of course sound asleep.  But we decided it was a smoother ride in the car anyway.

We arrived safely at Port Townsend and commenced our driving tour of points of interest since this was Benny's first visit to Port Townsend.  We took her past the marina, to Fort Worden (where they filmed the movie Officer and a Gentleman), Point Wilson

, Point Hudson marina (home of the Pt. Townsend Wooden Boat Festival).  Then we parked in the Historic District and looked in a few of the shops.  Port Townsend has an abundance of cute shops in a charming downtown setting.  Except no one in this group is really a "shopper" for that kind of stuff.  We were just killing time until Sirens opened.  But we did stumble across a spice and tea shop the kept Benny & I interested for about ten minutes.  Then our noses went into overload and we had to get out and breathe some fresh air.  And Hey, it was time for lunch!

Sirens

Benny opted for "vegetable juice".

Pam & Dave went with the traditional grain drink.

And lunch was beef stew for Dave & Pub Burgers for the gals (and Si who got half of a burger).

In keeping with the Sirens toast...

...we headed out to The Pourhouse.

For "another one".

The Pourhouse is a taproom and bottleshop in Port Townsend run by a nice young couple.  We recommend it as a stop next time you head to PT.

Then it was time to get in line for the ferry home.  We had a long enough wait to afford everyone a nap.  The crossing back to Whidbey Island was far smoother.  Which was a good thing given the fullness of our tummies.  

This was our first trip back to Port Townsend since buying Asilo.  We had originally thought we might move her down to Port Townsend, but after today's visit, we're very happy with Anacortes as a home port.  We prefer the feel of the town, the availability of services to the marina and the proximity of great cruising grounds.  So the trip was very worthwhile.

Full tummies or not, we all felt the need for some green food.  So when we finally got back to Anacortes we introduced Benny to our pizza spot, Village Pizza.  It's pretty traditional, and good, pizza.  And it's next door to a pub called The Wheelhouse that was hopping.  Since we overheard that the big table next to us on the pizza parlor side was being set up for a kids birthday party, we opted for The Wheelhouse.  It was a good choice.  Meanwhile a little pizza and some salads hit the spot.

After a long walk with Simon we adjourned to the good ship Asilo to work on a plan for our next adventure.

Stay tuned!