Sunshine and sandals–at last!

Leaving Port Townsend this morning, my sense of direction and mental compass was totally shot – there are stretches of water here and there and I’m never quite sure what’s where.  Our route south, to Gig Harbour, eventually, began with this spectacular bridge as we headed for our first stop at Port Gamble.

An absolutely delightful small town with white picket fences and beautifully maintained homes along the main street, it looked especially lovely in the sunshine.

We’d read about the General Store and seeing it open, we felt we just had to step inside and take a look.  How pleased we were that we did!  Greeted with a cheery “good morning!” we were welcomed inside, and in no time at all had discovered the great breakfasts being served in the restaurant at the rear of the building.

We liked it so much in here that we even forgive the grocers’ apostrophe!

Now, our hotel, The Bishop in Port Townsend wasn’t so bad, but breakfast consisted of one individual serving of cereal, one individual carton of milk, one individual portion of orange juice, one cling-wrapped croissant, a foil wrapped pat of butter and an individual portion of jam (x 3) left outside our room in a basket.  Since we had just two dining chairs, we ate it from the coffee table – and a joyless affair it was too.  So when Mark started pining for corned beef hash, it didn’t take much for us all to agree that a second breakfast was in order.

Sometimes, it’s good to humour the driver - one never knows what might be around the corner.  The Quilted Strait is a great quilt shop and well worth fifteen minutes of our time!

Next stop was Poulsbo which was settled by Norwegians in the 1880s but continuing to maintain a Norwegian/Scandinavian character and sometimes referred to as “Little Norway”.  The main street was occupied by several businesses with a Scandinavian influence – the Viking Bank, Sluy’s bakery and Thor’s Needle and Hammer amongst others.  (You’ve guessed that last one was a tattoo parlour?)  Finding a couple of rare old US railroad histories in the well-stocked book shop, Mark was happy to have made that stop.

Last stop of the day was at Chicos, just outside Gig Harbour.  I frequently get emails from them, offering all kinds of deals of which I have no chance of taking advantage.  It was a different matter this morning, however.  For one day only, there was a money off deal which could be very useful, especially if they had the particular item I had in mind in my size.  I didn’t need long to decide if I wanted to take a look.

As it happened, I didn’t make use of the offer at all, because the three things I chose were all priced at 50% off anyway.  Good stuff!  Whilst I tried things on and pottered about the shop, Mark and Mary were entertained by the comings and goings, the stories of the staff and their customers and both felt they’d learned enough to write a book!

And here we are, at last.  The Maritime Inn at Gig Harbour.  Far more our style than The Bishop, we were greeted with a glass of wine from a Washington vineyard and breathed a sigh of relief on seeing our lovely room.  The sun’s shining and we’ve had a great dinner at The Tides Tavern, watching as a seaplane arrived to take a 60th birthday group out.

Mind you, those cushions are ganging up against us!!

Snow? In sandals?

The sun was shining and there was a bright blue sky this morning, revealing the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula to us for the first time.  We were planning to drive to Hurricane Ridge in the National Park so were thrilled to see such great weather today.

The Park Rangers offered friendly advice about deer, bears and unpredictable drivers on the road up the mountain.  Though we saw deer a plenty, including the tiniest fawn, sadly, no bears put in an appearance.  The road was good and it was hard to imagine that we’d driven from sea level to 5700ft in less than an hour.

 

That meant there was snow.  Lots of it!  And some of us had not come prepared…

Fortunately, the paths were cleared and though it wasn’t exactly baking hot up there, the sunshine was beautifully warm on the skin.

The views were magnificent.

A few people were going on snow-shoe walks, others were carrying inflatable donut type sledges and some were clearly setting out for a day of high level activity.  I was pottering about in my sandals!

But hey, what did it matter?  We enjoyed our time there, feeling so pleased that we’d made it up to the summit before the cloud came in.  As we prepared to leave, we could see it billowing up from the valley below.

We made our way back down to Port Angeles, where we’d read about a sculpture trail at the Art Gallery there.  We arrived to find that the summer exhibition of students’ work had just begun, too.  This turned out to be the highlight – the work was superb and all three of us found plenty to fascinate us.

The sculpture trail was a different matter.  Imagining something akin to a particular sculpture trail we love back home, we soon realised that this one was not quite in the same league.

Some of the exhibits had seen better days

Others were a little scary.  We soon became a little bored and began to play

One artist had written some notes to enlighten us about the inspiration which led to the work

I’m not sure if it added to my enjoyment of the artwork or not.

From here, we found our way back to Port Townsend, but made a small detour to Dungeness to take a look at the longest sand spit in the US

This was a huge contrast to this morning’s mountains – here we were looking at such a flat landscape, it barely shows on the horizon.

What a day! 

All aboard the Chetzemoka

We left Langley shortly after breakfast and headed for the ferry terminal, driving through wide open spaces and seeing few people about.

Perhaps that’s because they were all standing on top of this hill.  Why?

Anyway, we were soon aboard the Chetzemoka, a vessel bearing remarkable similarities to an Isle of Wight ferry.  Like excited schoolchildren, we leapt out of the car and went as high as we could to spend the whole journey on the “sun deck”, because the sun had indeed, got his hat on.

Half an hour later, we were landing at Port Townsend, on the northern coast of the Olympic Peninsula.

Five minutes later, we fetched up at our hotel for the next couple of nights, The Bishop.  In stark contrast to the Boatyard Inn, this is a Victorian themed place, and we have a “fireplace suite”.

It’s a bit like staying at your Nan’s.

Port Townsend itself is an interesting enough place with a couple of really good bookshops and and ice cream parlour – did we need more to keep us occupied for the afternoon?

A little patch of green with beautifully bright flowers had won some awards, too.

On our return to the hotel, we took a look at the guest book and discovered some pretty well known names amongst the previous visitors.  I wonder if they had the fireplace suite, too?

Shall we explore Coupeville?

Even though it was a dreary, drizzly morning here in Langley, we gathered ourselves together after breakfast and sallied forth towards Coupeville, a little north from here and situated in the “elbow” of the island.  As we drove, the rain became heavier and we feared that our morning would be best spent indoors, perhaps in a museum or gallery but more probably in a coffee shop!  As I understood it, there’s a lively arts scene in the town and we’d been led to believe that it’s worth a visit.  So, we carried on through the rain.

But lo and behold, when we reached Coupeville, the rain had stopped and there was even a hint of sunshine.  Woohoo!  We parked the van outside the (closed) Museum and crossed over the road to the Information Centre.

A bronze boy and a bronze dog were the only “life” we’d seen on the street so far, but sure enough, in the centre was a well-meaning but somewhat unhelpful woman who couldn’t suggest enough places to visit beyond Coupeville but when challenged to tell us what we needed to see in this, her own town, seemed totally stumped.  In answer to our question about a lively arts scene, we learned about the Memorial Day Parade and an arts week sometime in August, but for now?  Well, not a lot to report. We thanked her, gathered a few leaflets and maps and retreated to the car.  Driving back along the (closed) main street, feeling disheartened, we decided to head back to Langley which we felt sure could keep us entertained for a few hours.

The sky had brightened here somewhat by the time we set out once again, this time on foot towards the Village Pizza for lunch.  Very good it was too.  The guy there said that the weather would turn and the sun was due at 2.30pm and sure enough, out it came.  For an hour or two we basked in the warmth of the sunshine and wandered around “our” little town.

The rain had left everything fresh and green, the hanging baskets and small planted boxes along the street were pretty.  Why did we want to venture further this morning?  Langley is a charming town with plenty to see and do.

The Chocolate Flower Farm and Garden Shed had a fascinating usp, with specimens right outside

Whilst in the market in Seattle, we’d tried some Chocolate Mint herb, too – there seems to be quite a market for a chocolate garden!

At the next corner, we stumbled upon a little more yarn bombing, with a label attached offering details of the nearby yarn stores.  One was just across the street, so of course, we dropped in.  KnittyPurl proved to be a delightful store with a fantastic selection of yarns and patterns – some beautifully knitted samples too.  I was smitten with a single hank of Malabrigo which was the colour of a gorgeous Tiffany window – purples, blues and lime green.  I dithered – should I bring it home or not?  In the end, I decided not…since I wasn’t too sure what I would do with one skein, beautiful or not.  The friendly assistant told us of a recent YarnShopHop they participated in (which might explain the preponderance of yarn bombing?) and generously shared the freeby pattern they offered to participants.  How kind…

Further along we spotted more yarn bombing and later, learned that only a few days ago there was trouble.  Hmmm.

Quite a few pieces of knitting survived in spite of the upset and we thought they added to the charm and added a bit of personality to the town.

There was a well stocked quilt store in this courtyard, together with several interesting independent bookstores.  What a great place!

We’d shopped yesterday in the Star Market but entered through the Main Street door rather than the car park, thereby missing the glorious planted roof of the car park attendant’s booth.  The Star Market is a fun,quirky store with heaps of personality and this little feature fitted the character perfectly.

Around the corner, the planters of the Moonrakers bookstore were another shining example of the lovely, individual nature of the businesses in Langley.  Of course, we went inside and spent a happy half hour browsing the shelves which were full of less run-of-the-mill titles – not a bestseller or a blockbuster in sight!

With one last stop in the Whidbey Island Soap Company (leaving with a great lavender and bergamot shower gel), we were nearly “home”.  There was just time to step outside onto the beach to take a few driftwood photographs before the rain began again.

Langley is such a great place to be, full of personality and with huge individual charm.  Wherever we went, we were greeted with a warm welcome and we were happy to potter and browse.

Sorry, Coupeville.

Off we go

But first, look at this!  We ate dinner at the Steelhead Diner again last night and feeling a little more awake than last time, I could take a closer look (and photograph) the fishing flies.  This one was labelled with the following details:

 

Isn’t it pretty?  Love the purple!

Anyway, Hushpuppies were on the menu and Mary suggested we give them a try.  They tasted good, even if she did think that any self respecting Southerner wouldn’t recognise them!

This morning we loaded up the car and set off immediately after breakfast (at Lowells again) having put together a picnic of delicious cheese, bread and peaches from the market.  We were heading north, eventually to cross the bridge over to Whidbey Island, where we had rooms booked at The Boatyard for a couple of nights.

First, a little retail therapy at an Outlet mall, though none of us were really in the right frame of mind and our only purchases were one bag and three soft drinks!  Though there was a Chicos outlet there, we noted that almost everything was labelled “Chicos Additions” and was, we suspected, made for the outlet market rather than being reduced “real” stock.  Highly coloured, very patterned and mostly made of synthetic fabrics, these were generally not to our taste at all.

On then, through the rural scenery of dark greens under grey skies, towards La Conner, a small town noted in our guides as being worth a visit.

Spot on – a fine main street with a handful of individual shops in historic landmark buildings.  Just right for a potter about around lunchtime, especially since the sun had come out by now.  We looked around a couple of stores, one of which had several lovely things to tempt us, but we resisted the urge to buy and returned to our picnic instead!

La Conner was a delightful place and we very much enjoyed our stop.  I love this little corner with the poppies, their colour looking especially good against the pale grey clapboard building.

From here, it was a breathtaking ride through the lovely Skagit Valley and on towards Anacortes and the bridge over to the islands.

Such a blue/green landcape, this, becoming more wooded as we reached Whidbey Island.

Whilst the others photographed the view, I was looking closely at the wood, thinking that these patterns could prove useful for the NYC art course next month!

Finally, we reached The Boatyard Inn and boy, were we pleased with our (ok, Mark’s) choice!   We have a wonderful suite overlooking the water, complete with comfortable sitting area and fully fitted kitchen.

After eating out three nights in a row, it’s great to buy in a few bits and pieces and sit and watch TV in such comfort!  Mary, too, has a similarly well equipped room and the warm welcome from Mynda, the innkeeper, was delightful.

We have a fair bit of driftwood to explore tomorrow, too!

So, overlooking the Saratoga Passage, we’re sitting here eating M&Ms, drinking Blue Moon beer and watching the 25th Anniversary performance of Les Mis on the TV.  How good is that?