Leg 2-Day 3- Port Townsend

Today we had breakfast ( omelette, hashbrowns and ham) before an on-shore coffee at a neat coffee shop that has a similar atmosphere to Weed’s in Calgary. Then we each went on our own voyage of discovery and met later in the day at Propolis brewery for a beer.

I added to my collection of quirky signs, the first two give a feel for the ‘vibe’ here. The third, at the entrance to the court house, confirms that we are not in Canada. [that was further confirmed when I saw a guy driving around in an old armoured jeep-like vehicle that had 3 large machine guns mounted on it and at least one had a magazine fed into it!]

I wandered around the upper residential area in the old town, and it is populated with old homes , most of them restored/kept up. The older downtown is mostly old, 19^th century built brick buildings. These were built in the hay day of Port Townsend. This was THE major port in the late 1800’s, 1000 or more sailing cargo ships would pull in here; ( easier to reach than having to sail down the sound to Seattle). The waterfront had one bar per 75 residents and almost as many bordellos: to extract as much cash from paid-off sailors! This shipping traffic coupled with the promise of the railway ignited the building boom. The double whammy of the cancellation of the railway and the introduction of steam, killed the boom and many buildings sat empty for a long time.

Now it is a busy hub for all things “wooden boat” and what appears to be a thriving art’s culture, along with tourism of course. The rest of the photo’s show the marina near the Maritime centre and examples of the town’s buildings.

Tonight was a vegetarian dinner to use up our veggies before crossing back to Canada tomorrow: tomato soup, salad, corn on the cob. Am going to make up a batch of pita bread dough tonight for bread for the next few days.

We expect to be away relatively early , heading for Oak Bay and the wooden boat show in Victoria.

Wind forecast is sketchy, may have morning wind but looks like it will fade away in the afternoon...which is the opposite of the last few days....fingers crossed!

Weather from now until Richard leaves looks to be cloudy at best and rainy at worst. Let’s hope we at least get some wind with it!