Lured to Port Townsend, tricked into staying

This mural adorns a building in Port Townsend’s Yacht Haven district. Nice.

We have been to Port Townsend before — many times, in fact. It’s less than two hours from home (we used to live even closer), and it has lots of boats and sights and restaurants and shops and culture and a Wooden Boat Festival complete with sing-it-yourself sea shanties. It also has a ferry terminal we use to get to Whidbey Island and points north and east.

There’s always a reason to go. Here’s another: Fort Worden State Park, one of Washington’s premier parks. Camping, trails, beach strolling, kayaking, history, and lots of fresh air, and even a new brew-pub-looking place serving food and beverages. For us, a bonus: we know some people who live in Port Townsend, so we can obtain Local Knowledge, and maybe a free beer. It could happen.

Also, eye candy:

Eye Candy everywhere. Pt. Wilson lighthouse, Admiralty Inlet, Whidbey Island, distant Cascades, and some kelp. Not a bad place for a stroll.

Just over a low dune from this vantage point: our campsite at one of the park’s two campgrounds, just a few weeks ago in late June. It was a pull-through site with full hookups — although the way the site was configured, our sewer hose wouldn’t reach. (The more camping we do, the more I think pull-through sites are best for motor homes and coaches; back-in sites seem to work better for towables like Toto.) We opted to be cautious with liquids and waited until the day we left to dump, and that worked fine.

Admiralty Inlet is just over the dunes there. Yes, we had an ocean view if we stood on the truck.

The Beach Campground is just fine. Squeaky-clean bathrooms and showers, well-spaced sites, lots to do within walking distance. You can reserve, I think, up to a year in advance; we got our site (I would call it a preferred site, one of the best) about 9 months in advance.

Sense of solitude: Not available in this campground. But all the campers were laid-back and the sites are well-spaced.

Note: staying here (or anywhere near the north end of Whidbey Island) means the occasional overflight of subsonic military aircraft. Those navy pilots are flying around honing their skills and probably shooting high-speed photos of attractive RVs. Possibly. Anyway there is a little noise from these and it can make terrier eyes get bigger and rounder. Good to see our pilots helping to protect us all from evil despots and imperialist governments or maybe space aliens. It could happen!

Some sights around the park:

A Marine Science Center ($5 donation) awaits at the end of a pier, for those who long to touch sea stars.

Mount Constitution (on Orcas Island in the San Juans) is the long, flat ridge in the far distance on the right. We’ll take Toto there someday, too.

Point Wilson Lighthouse, Fort Worden State Park

The park was a fort, once. We took Wally and Tyler, our intrepid terriers, on a longer-than-expected walk through some of the fortlike trappings, and will soon report on that stroll. For the moment, though:

In about 18 months of Toto travel (so far), Fort Worden is Sooz’s favorite. Works for me too.