Port Townsend

I'm glad we are leaving tomorrow.  I haven't seen a squirrel since we got here.  I've been watching out the front window for three solid days with no luck.  Guess with a million acres of wilderness around here, no self respecting squirrel would hang out in an RV Resort.  Wish me luck tomorrow.

Kathe and Jim went into Port Townsend today.  In the 1850's Port Townsend was one of the leading cities on Puget Sound when it was a prosperous trading center.  Today there are still many of the Victorian era homes with turrets, and gingerbread trim in the historic district of town.

They visited the Rothschild House which was built in 1868 by a prominent businessman.  His daughter inherited the house and never wanted to change or modernized it.  When she died it became a State Park Heritage Site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  As usual, Jim was fascinated with the antique plumbing fixtures.  Kathe enjoyed seeing the kitchen with the wood burning stove, and all of the period furnishings.

After they had lunch on the bay and watched the ferries coming and going to Whidbey Island, they toured the State Park at Fort Worden.  Decommissioned in 1958 there is a Coast Artillery Museum, Marine Museum, a Conferences' Center, and a campground within the park.  Many of the officer's quarters are now used as vacation rentals.  The Commanding Officer's Quarters has been turned into a really great museum.  It's a 5,000 sq. ft. home that was built in 1904 and completely renovated by the Heritage Foundation in 1970.   They didn't get a picture of it but it was  a wonderful step back in time.  As they were leaving the docent told them that most of the movie, "An Officer and a Gentleman" was filmed here at Fort Worden.