Port Townsend is proper old school. As a Victorian seaport, It’s one of those quaint charming places that make you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. (And of course I’m singing Kylie now). There are no chain stores here – this place is full of one man band boutiques selling jewelry, books, antiques and ice cream. They have a shop that sells nothing but spices and tea. And not forgetting the record shop. You know you’re onto a winner when they have a record shop.

Port Townsend definitely over-indexes on art galleries and vintage clothing. The alluring sign in one of the shop windows offered Nautical, Victorian, Steampunk and Pirate. And I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a fancy dress shop. Eclectic, unique and retro-uncool yet cool, I’d say it’s impossible to not like PT.

The CoLab co-working office, upstairs in the red brick building with the big windows, masquerading as a theatre

We started off with a treasure hunt come trivia hunt, really just an excuse to wander purposefully instead of aimlessly around downtown PT. As part of this you had to take and upload certain pictures and the app would recognize the correct object in the shot (or who knows, maybe it could be a picture of your gran on the toilet and it would still tell you Congratulations! and give you the next clue). I have to say there was a fair bit of cheat googling going on.

After various find this building, name that building, things were looking up when we were told to find some sea otters (could the app have an in-built wildlife tracker?). After a bit of directional searching, we found them. Port Townsend’s equivalent of The Little Mermaid. Statuesque, quite endearing but definitely not going anywhere.

Later, as we strolled around the campsite, a family of not one, not two but five sea otters crossed our path. Real ones this time! They slunk along, dancing intertwined, rolling over each other like acrobats in a circus act. I looked up the collective noun for otters. Turns out it’s a romp of otters, which sums them up perfectly. All they were missing was a backdrop of comedy Benny Hill music.

Check out this little romp

Our camping spot for the week was just the best. Our site was right on the waterfront, and we were able to park the BaseCamp facing right out onto the ocean. Kept me busy trying to capture the awesomeness of the sky in the BC windows.

This is but a sample. I’d love to capture it through the seasons.

One of my favorite things about the BaseCamp is cooking with a view. I pottered around the BC kitchen, while Darren braved the elements in his Seabourn jacket. I ventured out now and again for photo opportunities.

The BaseCamp kitchen as a blank canvas. That view!
Skate wing with brown butter & caper sauce
His n hers view.
A splash of spring color, just steps from the BC

We had no clue there was a blue SuperMoon coming – now that’s what I call nice timing. There we were enjoying the dusk light, watching sea birds bobbing, kids frolicking and couples strolling hand in hand along the beach. And then this big bold globe rose from the horizon right there.

A glorious moonrise surprise

In addition to its random array of shoppes, PT also had a couple of breweries, a waterfront pub with British-style beer garden, and a winery. We manned up and did the lot.

Propolis brewing specialized in seasonal, herbal, farmhouse ales. A rather odd blend of new age and olde worlde, the beer list would be more at home in an apothecary.
Beer by the sea
A decent scotch ale courtesy of PT Brewing Co. More to the point, a couple of locally renowned Tommyknockers Cornish pasties to give us a taste of home.
Soooo good 😋
Nothing like a nice glass of red to warm the cockles on a grey day

Sitting outside PT winery, I had my eyes on the fire pit all evening. Gave the evil eye and ‘move along’ vibes but nope, nothing was shifting her from the prime spot…

I consoled myself with more wine and crisps. The most expensive crisps in the world. $12 crisps. I’m now getting spammed and stalked on FaceBook by the Wine Chips brigade yet I can’t help but drool at the memory.

Walking around the residential areas in Port Townsend revealed tidy houses with grassy sidewalks resplendent with daisies. The gardens were well cared for, but I noticed an odd trend of wire fences around saplings and plants, some even had their whole yard encased. It didn’t take long to realize why.

The culprits. What happens when you don’t have a wire fence.

Historic Ford Worden State Park was our go to morning walk. Fort Worden was an army base built during the turn of the last century to protect Puget Sound from invasion by sea. There was never actually a hostile shot fired from here, most of the guns were relocated to Europe in the First World War, the remainder supplementing the artillery for World War II. Perched on the northern tip of the Olympic peninsula, it made for good walking fodder.

Teeny tiny lighthouse perched all the way down on the end

More importantly, Fort Worden featured heavily in the 1982 movie An Officer and a Gentleman, which was filmed in and around PT. A movie I don’t think I’ve watched since the 80s. Which meant we had to watch it again.

I didn’t have high expectations. I get it, iconic in the early 80’s but could it stand the test of time. Darren and I got into a bit of a Top Gun/Officer & Gentleman war. All pretty similar to me, whereas according to Darren, this was just romantic drivel compared to Top Gun which is an iconic classic. (Best not go down the route of iconic classics or we’ll be watching a re-run of The Sound of Music!)

The verdict? An Officer and a Gentleman fared better than I thought. But the real win was seeing all the local Port Townsend scenery, from the paper mill where the girls worked, to the Tides Inn used for the ‘love scene’, to Fort Worden where the eager young aviation cadets including Richard Gere were based.

Quite honestly, Port Townsend looked kind of quaint and cozy back then. And it hasn’t changed a bit. All they were missing was a supermoon and some otters.

The paper mill in Port Townsend, still going strong