Safety, Sanity, and Salvation

During these insane times, we all have to find our own personal balance between safety and sanity. It can sometimes be a delicate balance. Too much safety, and we start to feel like the walls are closing in on us. But let go to preserve our sanity, and it’s easy to let down our guard in protecting ourselves from the risk of COVID 19 exposure. We have to each find that tipping point to know we did our best at staying healthy without completely stripping all joy out of our lives….because joy is as much an asset to our health as worry is a detriment. Continue reading

Slack Tide

I ended up staying my maximum allowed 14 days in the quaint little Point Hudson Marina.   Slowly throughout the day after the mass exodus following the Wooden Boat Festival, the marina began to come to life again as a new crew of RVers settled in and weekenders moored their yachts in my back yard.  Every day was spent Continue reading

Port Townsend’s 40th Annual Wooden Boat Festival

I’m not sure where my fascination with wooden boats comes from…a most unlikely passion for a person raised on a land-locked farm in Central Texas for the first third of my life.

My first introduction to sailing came in an attempt to make the PE requirement at the University of Texas more palatable.    Bobbing around on the Colorado River in a twelve foot Laser while the instructor screamed at me through a megaphone from a rowboat, it’s a wonder I ever set foot on a boat again. Continue reading

Harvest Moon

We interrupt this blogcast from the Port Townsend 40th Annual Boat Festival for a quick music break.

If you are not familiar with Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” do yourself a favor and click on the link or go to Youtube and have a listen to one of the best “feel good” tracks of all time, while you enjoy this slide show of the Harvest Moon, straight from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Continue reading

Hull Raising

Now within striking distance of Port Townsend, my “pinnacle of summer,” I needed a place to hole up for the Labor Day weekend before I and a few thousand of my like-minded friends descend upon the small town for the 40th Annual Wooden Boat Festival.   The Evergreen SKP park in Chimacum, Washington seemed like a convenient place to ride out the holiday weekend, particularly with their $5 per night dry camping lot. Continue reading

A Love Affair with Architecture and Ambiance

I am not so naive as to think my love affair with Port Townsend wasn’t tinted through sky-blue glasses.  The weather was nothing short of perfect by my standards.  Waking up to chilly mornings under the down comforter, looking out across the Sound blanketed in a soft, willowy layer of fog.  Long before the alarm starts to shriek, I am awakened by the haunting sound of laughing gulls echoing across the Point.   Continue reading

Boats, Books, and Brews!

I always manage to find something I love in every town I visit, which is why my friends have often told me before, “You should write travel brochures, because you always make me want to go there.”    But in all the places I have visited, I can’t recall ever being in a town where I have found so many of my passions all in one place as Port Townsend.  I am falling for this little town, and falling fast… Continue reading

This is How I Roll…

After a very brief overnight stop at the 7 Cedars Casino along Hwy 101, I roll into Port Townsend on a brilliant sunny Monday.  I have reservations to stay at the Point Hudson Marina, yet another find that I lifted from the Wheelingit blog.   I arrive during the midday heat, the marina smells of low tide, and there are enough laughing gulls to make a Hitchcock fan think they have arrived in the midst of a remake.  Continue reading