Port Townsend, WA

Port Townsend is one of the most NW points in the Seattle area. We drove up this peninsula, but it is reachable by ferry from the eastern shore as well.

This is a side trip for touring and to see old friends. It's also, unfortunately, a spot to recuperate from a fall head cold.

But we got to have a really good dinner with Dan & JoEmily, friends of Alexis from her earliest days at Hughes Aircraft. Dan is Yakima-born, so he retired home with JoEmily to what is a really charming and lively community.

Port Townsend boasts a school for wooden -boat building (like Maine), the Wooden Boat Foundation. In addition, there is Brian Toss Rigging, whose founder, now deceased, is a legendary figure in modern boat rigging. His designated successor is Ian Weedman and they conduct classes for U.S.C.G. inspectors as well as rerigging vessels, usually with synthetic materials.

The town was bypassed as a terminal for railroads in the 1890s, and became a backwater until the hippies discovered it. It still has amazing buildings from that era. It was also where An Officer and a Gentleman was filmed, at Ft Warden. That is now a state park, and the officers quarters may be rented.Read more