trip home to AZ

After Next Adventure was pulled and the hull washed on Thursday, Sept 29^th, we spend a few days cleaning and packing up for the trip home to Az. We left our boat on the hard for the winter, said goodbye to boat friends and left Anacortes on Monday, Oct 3^rd. Catching a ferry south of  Coupeville on Whidbey Island, we traveled across Puget Sound to Port Townsend.

The Port of Port Townsend is located on the northeast corner of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. It is known for the large number of old wooden boats, with any number of craftsmen to assist with upkeep. The town is lined with classic Victorian buildings and colorful homes on the hillside. Although the port was used for a couple of hundred years due to the safe harbor, it did not become an official town until 1851 with logging and farming the main industries. Population increased and property values skyrocketed during the 1890’s when the railroad had agreed to reach Port Townsend. Unfortunately the rails stopped in Seattle and the economy took a nosedive. It was not until 1927 that the town recovered with the construction of the pulp and paper mill. Today the beautiful town buildings lend an old world feeling to the area. It also has a definite “hippy” culture alive and well.  One resident told us, as he pointed out the beautiful Victorian building downtown, that the building had been build in 1889 as a house for gambling and prostitution. It remained in that business, continuously occupied, until the mid-1950’s.

Hotel in Port Townsend

one of numerous wooden boats

50's diner

Victorian house in Port Townsend

Fort Walden Military Base, constructed in 1897 to prevent hostile fleets from reaching shore, was closed in 1953 as a military base and became a state park in 1955. An Officer and a Gentleman was filmed there.

Lighthouse at Fort

We traveled west along the northern part of the Olympic Peninsula through Sequim, the home of 30+ lavender farms and around

Lake Crescent

. High mountains and clear, blue-green water (due to nitrogen levels which discourage algae growth) cast long shadows on the lake.

We turned south towards the Hoh Rain Forest on the west side of Olympic National Forest. Rain measures 12-14 feet per year! Yes, we hiked and camped in the rain, but it was lovely and smelled so clean. Very few visitors this time of the year so trails were empty as we hiked. Sitka Spruce grows 200-300 feet tall and many are covered with moss and licorice herbs. The forest floor is entirely covered with ferns, moss, herbs, shrubs, maples, lichens, so the spruce seedlings often get their starts on fallen tree trunks called nurse trees.

 

Continuing down Oregon highway 101 we passed through numerous small villages, maybe 5-6 houses and a small lumber mill. You can easily see the results of the logging industry as we traveled this area.

reminder

northern Oregon coast

Into Oregon, staying on highway 101 along the coast, we stopped in Tillamook to tour the Tillamook Cheese Factory and of course purchase some goodies. Cheese became easier to store and transport when the settlers had too much milk and butter to keep or sell.

We next toured the Tillamook Air Museum housing 30+ vintage flying aircraft in a blimp hangar built during WWII. The hangar was constructed totally of wood due to the war materials being used for planes and ships…and the fact that wood was available and plentiful. K-class blimps, housed on both coasts, accompanied conveys that were the targets of enemy submarines. As long as the blimps were in the air performing surveillance, no convey was hit. I have attached the web site if you are interested. http://www.tillamookair.com/html/bldg.html

2 wooden hangars had been constructed but one burned in the 1996

                                         K-class blimps were housed in Tillamook

 Women flew but were not recognized as part of the armed services until 39 yrs later

  Remember this entire stucture was wood...this gives you an idea of the inside roof

Throughout the trip down the Oregon coast, the rains continued, low-hanging clouds often were so thick it was difficult to see the shore if we stopped at one of the numerous viewing points along highway 101. But these are some of the pictures to give you an idea of the rugged coast, angry waters and beautiful shorelines.

We passed through dozens of small tourist and fishing villages. Many were very quaint with welcoming stores for the tourist, while other rural villages appeared to be the same as an unchanged 1950 town. Towns were quiet due to the season being almost over for beach activities, but we did see surfers riding the waves! Many fishermen in small boats were seen along the coastal towns in the bays and rivers with salmon plentiful.  We also had a large number of bike cyclists along the route. Dairies dotted the landscape in northern Oregon; timber and logging continued throughout the coastal areas; cranberry bogs were evident in the lower coastal area.

The huge Oregon sand dunes were incredible! Dune buggies looked like ants on a large piece of cake at a picnic.

The Avenue of Giants was very impressive with the huge redwoods.

California brought more rain, high mountain lakes and fields of crops. In Fresno and San Joaquin Valley we saw mile-long fields of almond orchards, rice patties, spaghetti squash, pumpkin, pistachios, grapes and grains. It appears that we eat much from this area of the country.

We are safely back in Mesa. I will pick up the blog next spring when we go back to boating. Thanks for following along with our adventures!