OTR: Port Townsend, WA (On the Road)

Oh Port Townsend. There is just so much to write about you. PT is a quaint little Victorian town on the Olympic Peninsula. They have a vibrant arts community as well as many local farms and gardens. We've always lovingly called PT the little "granola town". This time we stopped and stayed with Farmer Scott's parents, Bob and Donna who live in PT. This was a fun, exciting adventure for us - where to start...

Can you see that little lump in the grass?

Easiest I think is sharing about for this trip is the little baby fawn. An hour after we arrived and parked, one of the neighbors noticed a little baby fawn inside his fenced garden area which was closed up. He opened the door and let the little fawn outside. Well, it could barely walk and stumbled across the road to kind of crash into a cyclone fence of sorts. It lay there for hours while we all kept our distance and watched. Animal control was called and we were told to wait for 24 hours to see if mom would come back. Agh - the agony of waiting and watching this poor little baby and yet we knew better than to get to close or to even touch it. Hours and hours go by and still nothing. We ended up going to bed, continuing to peek out the window and still nothing. As we woke up the next morning though, the first thought was to check on that little fawn. Who was now missing. The boys scoured the area where it was and there were no signs of trauma and so we all decided it was momma who must have come for the little one in the middle of the night. Phew! Another adventure in PT.

Dakota on the top of one of the many bunkers.

View from the point of Ft. Worden. Mt Baker in the background

The next day brought one of my favorite things - real life home schooling! We set out with lunch and a map in hand and were off on our almost 3 mile hike around Fort Worden and exploring all the bunkers on Artillery Hill. I need to say, I'm not a history buff. Or war buff either. But walking through these bunkers, seeing the places in the ground, where very, VERY large guns were housed and hidden to keep our country safe, is nothing less that amazing. You can almost picture the men walking through, loading the weapons and practicing their shooting. Fort Warden, Fort Casey and Fort Flagler made a fortified triangle at the entrance to Puget Sound. If for some reason someone was able to get past one, they surely could not get past all three. Luckily, it was never tested. The forts never had to fire on any enemies.

Still, learning first hand, living, breathing, United State history (and Washington state history as well) is one of our favorite things to do.

Dinner at the Owl. Photo credit Bob Logan

All of this fun and really, there was one more thing that we enjoyed together and that was The Owl restaurant. They make the most amazing sandwiches, salads, soups and pasta. They use local, organic chicken as well as locally raised beef from small farms. I don't know the people who own and run it, but it is now one of those places we look forward to visiting while in PT and truly one of those "must visit" locations. All in all, it was a great trip and we enjoyed our sunny days in Port Townsend.