The Pacific Northwest's Answer to New England

After a long week of meetings, paperwork, and my first experience with attorneys, Joe and I took the nice weather as an opportunity to venture outside of the Seattle perimeter to the Olympic Penninsula. Our destination was Port Townsend- a small town across the Puget Sound and north up the coast. It has great views of both the Cascades and Olympic Mountains and the feel of quaint New England. We were able to take a vehicle on the ferry, and after 35 minutes arrived on Bainbridge Island. From there we drove an hour north to get to Port Townsend. It is an area that boasts Victorian Houses as a tourist attraction as well as the ship yard at the entrance to the town. The main street sits below by the water while the rest of the town looks like it's sitting on a cliff above. The main street is filled with speciality shops, restaurants, and more coffee shops in one square mile than I have seen since moving out here! There were coffee stands in the hardware store, a music store, and about every other building. Of course there were beautiful views of the Sound with sailboats testing the waters and birds enjoying a little sunshine. We had fun looking at antiques and peeking in windows of shops with clothes of questionable taste. Joe and I sampled one of the cafes for lunch and later the famous town ice cream shop for dessert. We sat by the water enjoying the sunshine, fresh air, and the views. A discovery I made while reading about Port Townsend is that is the most romantic place to kiss. As we sat by the water, I entertained Joe with ideas of how a love story could play out in this town as it carries that feel up and down each street and beyond. He teased me with my continous desire to cross fantasy and reality. Chalk it up to one too many reads of my favorite chick-lit authors! :-)