Several weekends ago, we scurried up to Mount Vernon, jumping in our motor home and drove to Fort Casey on Whidbey Island. After getting situated in a camp site by the water, we watched the last ferry of the night go from Keystone to Port Townsend.

If you weren’t looking, you wouldn’t notice that the ferry had just glided by, only 40-50 feet from the shore. They are very quiet.

The next morning, we biked to the ferry landing for a quick breakfast of bagels, cream cheese with chunks of smoked salmon, and a latte with almond flavor. Yum.

We then took our bikes on the ferry to Port Townsend. The picture above was taken from the ferry. Our motor home is the one to the right.

Stacey met us in Port Townsend to show us the boat – the Adventuress – that she’s been working on for the past few months. Every year, the boat is refurbished, a strenuous job that requires the help of dozens of volunteers and paid staff.

We then rode around the town; Stacey used the Shore Dinghy, a rusty bike that the crew of the Adventuress uses for errands and trips to the on-shore bathrooms.

We went by the paper mill and motel that were featured in the movie, "An Officer and a Gentleman." Stacey also showed us a rope swing that was tied to a giant tree. We each took turns swinging… some of us were more adventurous than others.

Having worked up an appetite, we headed for downtown Port Townsend and had a wonderful lunch at Sirens, which is in a historical building and has a view of the water. Most the building in downtown Port Townsend are from the turn-of-the century with tall, skinny windows, exposed brick, and ornate trim.

After lunch, we zipped into Mad Hatter & Company where I tried on and purchased a wonderful green hand-knit boiled wool hat with an upturned gray brim and a large multi-colored flower. It was much more fashionable than my Columbia Sportswear fleece baseball cap. And happily, it was equally warm.

As the afternoon drew to a close, we said "good-bye" to Stacey and took the ferry back to Keystone. After a quick snack, we biked over to Fort Casey, a decommissioned fort that along with Fort Flagler (on Marrowstone Island) and Fort Worden (in Port Townsend) created a "Triangle of Fire" to protect the Puget Sound from enemy invasions. 

The fort is on 467 acres and was built in the 1890’s. It’s quite large and housed hundreds of men when active. We’ve been to several of these forts, which I find eery with rows of damp concrete batteries, lookout stations, and other accruements of war. Click here to see pictures of the fort and descriptions of the armory.

The next morning, we put on heavy clothes and walked along the beach picking up interesting pebbles and driftwood then wandered around the fort and lighthouse.

We’d taken Pu’Yi with us. Even though the cat follows Rich around the house, he’s not a dog. Rich, however, can’t grasp this fact and thought if he took the cat out of the motor home, he’d walk with him to the bathrooms. Nope. We spent ten minutes or so chasing the cat after he slithered under another motor home. Cats aren’t dogs!

The picture above is of the sunrise on Saturday morning. We had perfect weather… cold, but no rain or snow. Below is a picture of the keystone/Port Townsend ferry. It holds around 45 trucks and cars and takes around 30 minutes to cross the Puget Sound. It’s a very pleasant ride… and a nice respite from the cold. The seats in the lounge area are cushy!

In April, we have another trip planned to Whidbey Island. This time, we’ll stay by Deception Pass, which is the treacherous waterway between Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands.