Where Gumbo Was #459.
It started with a spontaneous online search in late summer for a friend I hadn’t seen nor heard from for something like 35 years. Presto! There she was in Port Townsend, Washington and an email address. “Is that you,” I ask. “It is,” says she and we proceed to do some serious email catching up. Then it occurred to me I have 2 other friends from whom I have an open invitation, in Bremerton, about an hour from Port Townsend and it became clear. Road trip. When my garden has finished in the fall.
One date planned then put off a week, October 18th became blast-off day after 19 months of an intense relationship with home. It seemed momentous. Remembering that at the most normal of times, carrying bags to the car, locking the door and driving away always precipitates short-term separation anxiety, after so long it was bound to be worse. It was, but experience helps, one foot in front of the other and I was on the road, stress of departure easing as I pointed the car west, rolled downhill on California Highway 20 toward the Sacramento Valley. A right turn at Marysville, then straight for 754 miles.
Downtown
James & Hastings Building, 1889.
L, Eisenbeis Building, 1889. R, Siebenbaum Building, 1903.
Catherine McCurdy Building, 1887.
City Hall & Jefferson County Museum of Art & History, 1891.
Port Townsend has a Downtown and an Uptown. I’ve heard parts of other cities so designated but in this case two streets, Washington and Water, running parallel to Port Townsend Bay, are the heart of the historic business district, officially "Downtown." It was there the money was made to build the impressive Victorian-styled homes on the bluff above with views over the bay and beyond, "Uptown." Downtown is literally down, Uptown is literally up.
A city bus descending Jefferson St. from Uptown to Downtown.
Uptown
The Rothschild House Museum, built in 1868 . . .
. . . with a view of Downtown & the bay.
George Starrett House, 1889, now Ann Starrett Mansion Hotel.
Jefferson County Courthouse, 1892.
Uptown Saturday Farmers Market, Tyler St. at Lawrence.
Though clearly an historic town, Port Townsend feels remarkably up to date, 19th century buildings restored with newer construction supporting, rather than detracting from, a distinct feeling of place. One cannot help but see how much the town is loved by its residents and though visitors are accommodated, the town is what it is for those living there, shared but not surrendered.
I stayed on the more rural side of town, almost at the end of the road to North Beach, at Tess’s Guest House, a quiet and comfortable apartment for relaxing after days of visits with Sarah, lunching at Khu Larb Thai restaurant on Adams Street, or just wandering on my own, taking in what the Port Townsend community has to offer a visitor.
Point Hudson Marina
The Pilot's Cottage, vacation rental facing the marina.
Port Townsend Boat Haven
The overcast and sometimes wet weather was expected. It’s what it does there. But the literal damp didn’t dampen my enjoyment of this personable town that seems to manage it’s 10,000 citizens well in just 7 square miles, retaining an uncongested small-town feel, much better somehow than my California town of 13,000. Built at the end of a peninsula, like a mini-San Francisco, you’d think there’d be a feeling of limitation, but there isn’t. It must certainly be the water, the graceful transition from land to openness all around, space on which nothing can be built to impede the view, just the ferry passing to and from Whidbey Island.
Congratulations to Jonathan L and George G for correctly identifying Gumbo's destination of the week.
For a well-drawn history of Port Townsend I direct you to Jonathan L’s post with his nighttime views of the town.
And more stories are here.
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