Point Hudson Marina – Riveted

Last Day in Port Townsend

Laura Domela — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 23:41:54 +0000

Here we are all cozy tonight at Point Hudson Marina:

It rained a bit this morning. Today we mostly worked here on Airship, except when it stopped raining we walked into town to get a stubby screwdriver so we could finish the fix of the Wallas diesel heater. We picked up our overnighted glow plugs up at the marina office and once we got back the heater didn't take too long to fix and put back together. Yay heat!

I took some iPhone photos while walking through town today:

And there we are on the far right:

Kevin didn't take any photos with his iPhone because his iPhone is underneath our boat about 20 feet down. Sad face.

More Fun in Port Townsend

Laura Domela — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 17:13:32 +0000

We arrived in Port Townsend yesterday afternoon and headed for what's becoming our usual slip at the Point Hudson Marina, then met up with several friends who were camping here for the weekend: Dave and Ann Zimmerman of Advodna (and their two daughters, Wynne-3, and Mae-9 months), and Kathy Harderson, who is here with a group of gals called The Tin Can Gypsies…all with their super cute vintage trailers.

Dave and Ann had us over for an early dinner at their Airstream. We hadn't seen them since last March when we stopped for a visit at their farmlet in Petaluma, CA, and it was really good to catch up! (Plus, they have a new family member since then!) They're on their way to Vancouver Island and then north to Alaska in their Airstream. We'll miss them in Juneau by 10 days or so, dangit!

This is Mae and Dave on the beach before dinner last night. Would you get a load of those dimples!?!?

Anyway, after a delicious dinner, we stopped in at the vintage trailer camp and met up with Kathy's group and ended up walking down to the boat to give a quick tour. (I think we had 13 people on Airship at once!) We had to disturb this cute little guy to get to the boat. Sorry buddy!

Sunset from the dock:

After the tour of Airship, we went up to the Tin Can Gypsy camp and hung out around the Costco campfire for the rest of the night with the vintage trailer gals and another cool couple camped here in an Airstream.

A little later, we noticed a couple of guys walking past and checking out the vintage trailers, so we invited them to join the party. Meet our new friends Dwayne and Octavio from Poulsbo, WA.

I took a few photos, but most of them were blurry, because…dark…campfire…wine….whatever. This is the one that wasn't blurry.

We had a few more random party-joiners as the evening went on…it was a fun night with a lot of great folks! I wish I'd have taken more photos of the trailers, but trust me, they were all fabulous. Here are a few details from the inside of Kathy's little Shasta that I took earlier though:

This is the chandelier inside her bar cabinet:

Photos can't possibly show you how amazing this little trailer is. It's a perfect work of art and we just LOVED it.

At dinner with the Zimmermans earlier, we'd made a plan to take Dave and Wynne for a little cruise this morning, and last night before we left the campfire I told anyone else who wanted to come to show up at 9:30 this morning. This morning, Kevin said "How many people did you invite to come with us last night?" and I said "All of 'em!" :)

Turns out we only had two other takers, Dwayne and Octavio, so it was a beautiful cruise for 6 today!

Wynne, looking for whales:

Our route from this morning:

We saw only one seal, but the weather could not have been better and everyone seemed to really enjoy getting the view of town and the Olympic Mountain backdrop from the water. We may walk into town in a bit, and then meet up with Dave and Ann for dinner again tonight.

Here's yesterday's route from Anacortes to Port Townsend (about 30 nautical miles):

Wandering around Port Townsend

Laura Domela — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 22:48:39 +0000

This morning's sky:

The trail around the point:

That little trail winds around in just in front of a bunch of the waterfront RV spots and campsites (all with spectacular views). We love this location!

Airship from the RV park:

Today was another full work day at the boat. We took a break this afternoon to run some tax stuff up to the post office and grab some lunch (and get a walk in). Luckily the post office is up a ton of stairs and a big hill so we got a little more exercise than just a walk to town and back.

The post office building is very cool (built in 1893). I'm not sure why I didn't snap a shot of the exterior, but here are some details from inside:

We had to sign and mail a tax thing, so we waited in line to buy stamps and borrow a pen. (Note: get a pen for the boat.) Here's a good example of how we amuse ourselves with silly dialogue in public (but this time, we were whispering because this post office felt more like a library):

Me: I'll distract 'em by buying stamps while you borrow a pen to sign that with.
Kevin: I think we can do those two things at the same time.
Me: Yeah but it'll take more time.
Kevin: We'll be fast.
Me: I know we will, but they might not think we'll be fast, borrowing and pen and stuff, arriving with unsigned documents to mail. You know how they can be.
Kevin: Might you be overthinking this?

Then, with the postal clerk:

Me: We'd like to buy a book of stamps.
Her: (Vanna White-ing to the pages of stamps under glass on the counter, indicating I should choose a design.)
Me: How about the hearts? Kev? How about the hearts?
Kevin: The hearts are great honey.
Her (to Kevin): Good answer.

Kevin is signing and sealing the envelope to the IRS.

Kevin: We're going to send a heart stamp to the IRS.
Me: No we're not.
Kevin: The IRS needs love too.
Me: No. The IRS has money. They don't need love.
Postal Clerk: (Also insists we don't send a heart stamp, pulls out a single stamp from her special envelope for us to send to the IRS. The picture on it was a portrait of some stern-looking man in a black suit from history, and she sticks that on the envelope instead) and then says, satisfied, "There!"

We stopped on the way back through town at Waterfront Pizza and shared a caesar salad and some pizza for lunch (it was still FABULOUS pizza…and the salad was killer as well).

I took a few photos of some of the downtown architecture in Port Townsend on the walk back.

This the James House, built in 1889 (up the hill and across the street from the post office:

Francis Wilcox James, a businessman with a vision for Port Townsend, arrived in 1853. He held several jobs before opening his own mercantile business. He reportedly made his fortune during the Civil War by converting gold into unsecured green backs at 35 cents to the dollar. He reinvested those gains in U.S. bonds at a 15 percent discount.

James built this house in 1889. It gave him a clear view of Port Townsend and the shipping in the bay. His wife, Mary, died seven weeks after moving into the house. In 1909, he married his housekeeper. He was 77 and she was 24. The marriage ended in divorce, and James died in 1920.

The house originally cost $10,000 to build. It is a fine example of Queen Ann architecture. The complex roof and chimney forms were considered modern at the time it was built.

This is the Hastings Building, built in 1890 by architect Elmer H. Fisher:

From the Sequim Daily Photo:

Fisher was a Scotsman who designed a number of Port Townsend buildings starting around 1887 and simultaneously opened an office in Seattle, where he designed more than 50 buildings immediately after Seattle’s great fire of 1889.

The Hastings Building, above, was built at a cost of $35,000 to $45,000 and completed in 1890. It has a 38-foot inner courtyard topped with a glass skylight and has housed businesses from dry goods to a reputed bordello. Today the ground floor houses retail businesses and the upper floors are not occupied. Descendents of the original family still own the building and are working on an ambitious restoration of the structure.

Layered signage on the side of this building:

This is the N.D. Hill building, built in 1889:

We're back at the boat working now. The otters just showed up again and rolled around looking cute on the dock again.

We'll probably work a bit into the night and then get an early start across the Strait of Juan de Fuca tomorrow morning. We're planning to spend a few days in the San Juan Islands before we go back to Anacortes for a bit.

Otters in the Office!

Laura Domela — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 14:55:48 +0000

Today's gonna be just a regular work day for us, but it's gorgeous out and we have a killer view, and look!!! Otters to keep us company!!

More Port Townsend, Again

Laura Domela — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 02:37:44 +0000

I know you want to see more photos of Port Townsend, don't you?

After work we rode our bikes around some more, enjoying the gorgeous weather. Where we're staying (Point Hudson Marina and RV Park) is just beyond all those docks in the above photo, on the right.

Back at our campsite we grilled up some salmon for dinner with an arugula salad, and then headed back into town on the bikes to catch the movie Chef, playing at the Rose Theater. What a great theater…popcorn with real butter, and a little bar of seasonings to choose from. I put Parmesan, brewer's yeast, a little salt, and chili powder on mine. Kevin did Parmesan, yeast, and a hickory smoke seasoning. Yummy! The movie was super cute…we really enjoyed it!

After the movie (at 9:15pm) it was still light out, so we rode back to the Airstream to grab jackets and happened upon a couple from France taking a photo of the trailer. The man said they LOVE Airstreams in France and we invited them in to take a look. They were sweet. Also, just before we arrived there were apparently several otters right down on the dock! Dangit! We missed 'em! (The couple from France showed us photos though….they were right there!! So cute.)

We headed back into town and rode along the waterfront a bit…windy tonight, but beautiful.

Tomorrow we're off to Bellingham!

Bicycling Around Port Townsend

Laura Domela — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 22:02:03 +0000

This afternoon we took a break and rode our bikes over to Fort Worden State Park to check it out. It's nice…seems like a great place to stay…but I like our spot here at the marina way better. But that's just me. You might prefer Fort Worden. Full hookups, beach right there, a cute little laundromat, a lighthouse. In fact, you'd definitely like it better. Forget I told you about the marina campground at all.

The fog came in and hung around for a little bit this morning, but it's back to being sunny and clear and perfect now. Whew! Every single time we've been to Port Townsend it's been perfect, Chamber of Commerce weather. (It's not usually like this…you can tell by how excited the locals always are.)

More Fort Worden:

The lighthouse:

After checking out the Fort Worden campground, we headed over to the Safeway in town to gather some groceries. We used our Reclamation Department bags as panniers, and I put my Brooks basket on for carrying stuff back home.

Cutting back across the peninsula:

Riding through town along Water Street:

The Airstream and Point Hudson Marina RV Park taken from across the marina at the Northwest Maritime Center:

We put our groceries away and walked not very far at all over to Doc's Marina Grill for some lunch (we shared some fish & chips and a crab louie salad, both very good). We sat inside by a window, but they also have a nice big deck with lots of outside seating, and they'll give you a loaner straw hat to wear out there when it's really sunny (there are no shade umbrellas at the tables). It's pretty cute though…all these people wearing straw hats on the deck. Right outside our window I registered two middle-aged women wearing straw hats with pink and purple fabric on them, eating salads…but then, oh hang on, no…it's two 20-something guys with muscles eating salads! Pretty great.

Tomorrow night we're going to ride our bikes into town and check out the Rose Theater (on Leigh & Brian's recommendation).

And now, back to work!

Oh yeah, here's our route:

Point Hudson Marina

Laura Domela — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 13:24:23 +0000

We're at Point Hudson Marina and RV Park for a few days (in Port Townsend, WA). This place is just about perfect as far as I'm concerned. Boats going in and out, the halyards softly tapping with the wind against sailboat masts, seagulls, a nice sea breeze blowing through the Airstream, all the windows open…you get the idea.

We'll be mostly working today, but the office has a fabulous view:

Looking left from the Airstream front door:

Looking straight out the back:

We're in one of the two sites at the very point with no hookups, which is no issue at all for three nights as long as we aren't under a bunch of trees that block the solar panels (we're not). Also, the dry camping sites are only $20/night. I think there's Wi-Fi here too but we arrived after the office was closed so we haven't gotten the password yet.

After we finish up with work we'll get the bikes out and go explore a bit (and stop at the grocery store for some supplies).