Port Townsend and Whidbey Island

Port Townsend is a sleepy little Victorian seaport with a few boutiques and restaurants.  It apparently bills itself as a cultural center of sorts, though we didn't see evidence of that, but then we didn't really investigate either.  It is one of only three designated National Historic Victorian seaports in the country.  Its primary business is the ferry traffic, carrying people, trucks, cars and "Maxines" to Whidbey Island which has a road, Deception Pass, to the mainland.  We had originally thought we'd have to go down the other side of the Peninsula and then back up through Washington to Canada.  This was a much more direct route, though I am sure we missed some great stuff on the east side of the Peninsula.

Port Townsend downtown

Coffee, salmon chowder and quiche for
breakfast

A great view

The ferry terminal

Here she comes

1st in line

Happily ensconsed on the upper deck

View of the town from the ferry

This guy was allowed on and off first.  Scary to
think of the weight this boat is carrying!

We picked a campground near the ferry, Ft. Casey State Park, which is one of the Washington State old battery forts.

The lighthouse at Ft. Casey

One of the remaining gun batteries

Is this a funny campsite, or what!?!

But, look how close we are to the ferry!

We also saw lots of big cargo ships and little fishing boats.  We were totally amused!  The most amazing of all was seeing one after another high performance jets (F-16s?) take to the skies and rock Maxine's boat with the incredible shock waves they produced behind them.  We took a billion pictures, but none that got the idea across.  It turns out that there is a naval air training station right across the way.

We took a road trip to the southern part of Whidbey and visited a lovely farm at Greenbank where we indulged in their wine tastings and snacked on their famous pies:  we tried marionberry and sea salt caramel apple.  We vote for the apple!  The wines were interesting:  especially the blackberry and loganberry which would be great on ice cream but, we passed this time.

They grow lots and lots of lavender here.

My favorite in the sculpture garden

Hi, there

Beautiful lady

Our friend, Lynne Mc Dougal, suggested a great restaurant
in Langley, where we dined on the famous local Penn Cove
mussels and had a martini!

We couldn't linger as we could hear Boo barking in Maxine down the street from our perch.  He is not a happy pup when we leave him alone.  He was hyperventilating by the time I got him and took him for a walk.  But we did find a great place for a walk.

Imitating the sculpture - But, how did I forget the rule?  Never
stick your butt out in public!

And a different but interesting rainbow at sunset.

We are now in Mt. Vernon, WA catching up on laundry and bills, shopping at a Camping World and awaiting a Monday appointment to buy new tires.  Chores are no darned fun!  City life is not agreeing with us at all and we are looking forward to heading to the Northern Cascades and Canada asap!    Ah, Wilderness!

In the meantime, guess what Boo got at
Camping World?  A new outdoor bed!

But he still loves his indoor one best of all!