Departing Port Townsend - Anticipating the Next Visit

It's Labor Day and time for us to be heading south.  Our adventure started six weeks earlier as a way to celebrate our thirtieth wedding anniversary.  The time has flown by as we discovered new places, to hike, bike, and kayak.

Thirty years ago, Port Townsend was one of the stops on our honeymoon.  We stayed at the Heritage House B&B at the corner of Washington and Pierce St., today it is a private residence.

On honeymoon in 1986

As it looks today in 2016

As a lifelong gardener and tree planter, I'm always amazed how little folks understand landscaping.  Over the past thirty years the landscaping of Heritage House has changed little, and yet in that same amount of time Laura and I have landscaped three different homes from scratch.  Below is our current home's backyard when we purchased it, basically fence to fence grass.

Backyard when we move in

Less than fifteen years later we had transformed our blank canvas into a private urban park with a pond, running stream, and our own forest.

Fifteen years later the backyard is an oasis.

Point Hudson Marina and RV Park

We've had the pleasure of staying at Point Hudson both in the harbor aboard our former boat and in the RV Park in our motorhome.  When we visited in 2008, we got to enjoy the Fourth of July fireworks from the beach as we looked in the direction of the Point Wilson lighthouse.

Bayliner 3870, Celtic Myst visiting on July 4, 2008

Much has changed near the harbor since our 2008 visit.  Back then there was a large vacant waterfront lot that had once been home to oil storage tanks that were still there in 1986 when we visited the town on our honeymoon.

In 2008 the Northwest Maritime Center was still just a dream

The Northwest Maritime Center overlooks the marina

The harbor remains a wonderful place to view wooden boats.

Looking Ahead

We've already booked our next trip to Port Townsend.  This time we will be trying out one of the waterfront sites looking north.

The tree marks site #328, our spot reserved for our next visit. 

The view from #328 back to our current site

The waterfront sites have picnic tables.

The view toward Point Wilson Lighthouse and Fort Worden State Park.

While our trip ended on an overcast day, our spirits we lightened with the thought of returning in a few months.  The six weeks working from the road had been awesome.  I could not have picked better-looking office views.  Between the work, there had been a great deal of exploration by boat, foot, bike, and car.  We had met some new folks, introduced family to a region of the country we love and reaffirmed that one can balance work and life.

Live well, Laugh often, Love much