As we continue our tour of the wonderful state of Washington, we are delighted by all the uniqueness we discover.

To get to where we were headed, in the most efficient way, we boarded the ferry.

For $50 it was worth the shortcut and the opportunity to be on the Strait of San Juan de Fuca.

What a super fun way to get from Point A to Point B... on the sea!

Our first stop was the darling town of Port Townsend. Few places in Washington can match Port Townsend's long saga of soaring dreams, bitter disappointments, near death, and gradual rebirth. 

The future town site was home to a band of the Klallam Tribe and smaller groups from other tribes. The first non-Indian settlers arrived in 1851, and Port Townsend, because of its position near the entrance to the sound, soon became Puget Sound's Customs Port of Entry and a bustling port, seemingly destined for greatness.

Optimists, particularly those with sizeable stakes in its prosperity, began calling Port Townsend such things as the "Key City" of Puget Sound and the "New York of the West," expressions of hope far more than reality. Not everyone shared these rosy views, and contemporary opinions about Port Townsend and its future ran the gamut from bullish hyperbole to scathing contempt.

Rumors of railroads fueled a building boom in Port Townsend that began in the early 1870s, but for the time being the city got by with a mix of agriculture, logging, and catering to the maritime trade.

Between 1880 and 1890, the town's population grew by nearly 400 percent, to 4,558. While this looks impressive enough in isolation, during the same decade Seattle's population increased by more than 1,100 percent, Tacoma's by nearly 3,500 percent, and Spokane's by nearly 5,300 percent. People were pouring into the Northwest, but the vast majority of them were settling somewhere other than Port Townsend.

The city had a brief bright moment in March 1893, when the federal government completed the Port Townsend Post Office, Court, and Customs House on the bluff above downtown. Construction had begun in 1885, and the steel and brick, sandstone-clad building was finished several years late and several times over budget. It was an impressive edifice, but almost contemporaneous with its dedication, people started abandoning the city in droves. Between 1890 and 1900 nearly one-fourth fled, leaving behind a population of less than 3,500. Port Townsend would never again be counted as one of the 10 most populous cities in the state, and it fell into a deep and prolonged decline.

A tour of the post office and its museum quality displays delighted.

And while the train never came, the dream of the railroad left behind some exceptional architecture and some amazing buildings to admire.

All that history (and there is way more than I can blog) made us hungry. This 35 year old hot dog stand called our name.

This was the first time, since COVID-19 arrived, that Steve and I ate out. Washington's strict adherence to the CDC's guidelines gave us the confidence to do so and it was a delicious choice.

Yes, I do love lighthouses.

We paused briefly at Fort Worden, one of the three "ring of fire" protective forts. You might recognize the parade grounds as this is where An Officer and a Gentleman was filmed. Steve and I actually spent a long weekend here in the 90s. That might have to be a flashback story one day.

Night had us camping here at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, home to one of the world’s longest sand spits, which shelters a bay rich in marine life. Eelgrass beds attract brant, shorebirds feed on the tideflats, and ducks find sanctuary in the calm waters.

Recognizing the importance of the fertile habitats, President Woodrow Wilson established this place as a refuge, preserve, and breeding ground for native birds, in 1915.

Not only did we explore nature, we received a lesson and trash and the length it takes to decompose. Diversity at its best!