Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington

Port Townsend has to be one of my favourite towns in Washington. The majority of the buildings plus the huge grounds of the Fort Warden State Park are from the turn of the century. Earlier in the day we explored the State Parks on Whidbey Island and arrived in Port Townsend late afternoon, just in time for dinner.

We managed to hit a few art galleries before they closed. There’s some quirky street art around as well.

Sirens Pub and the Pourhouse Taproom

A local we were chatting with recommended Sirens Pub for both great beer and great food. There’s an upstairs and a downstairs, each with different menus. This is the view from the downstairs patio…
…where we had an excellent IPA and watched a kingfisher doing his thing.
The downstairs menu was light, so we went upstairs. We had difficulty choosing from the upstairs menu, everything sounded so good. Ultimately we chose bacon-wrapped cheese-stuffed jalapeños as an appetizer (wow)…
…followed by shrimp tacos with Pico de Gallo for our main course. Wow again. Great recommendation – thank you stranger! (Just after we ate, a friend sent us a recommendation for the Fountain Cafe, saying ‘It’s fabulous. Go early.‘ We never made it to the café but it’s on our list to try out the next time we come to Port Townsend.)
After dinner we walked over to the Pourhouse, a taproom with a great selection of beer on tap.

Waterstreet Hotel

This is our room. We picked the cheapest room, one with a shared bathroom. The room was stunning but we forgot to inquire how many rooms would be sharing that particular bathroom. My unofficial count has only two bathrooms for eight rooms. When it’s busy that could be a problem. Still, the history and the price trump this minor concern.
This is the hotel when we stumbled back from the Pourhouse Taproom in the evening.
This is the view of the foggy inlet the next morning – not from our room but from the suite in the front. Just imagine waking up to this. Next time I think we’ll go for that room, damn the expense! A quick note: ten years ago we camped at the Fort Worden State Park Beach Campground, a particularly scenic campground. Because it’s so popular it’s wise to reserve ahead of time, especially in the summer and on weekends. http://www.fortworden.org/stay-here/#camping