Port Townsend Part 2

After spending time walking around the Farmers Market on Saturday (around noon) we decided to drive through the town and look at our favorite old refurbished Victorian homes.  One of my favorite places to look at is Manresa Castle (I will post more on Victorian mansion turned into a hotel later).  Victorian Homes are so much a part of Port Townsend.  So is being “Green”.

Washington State is a very green state.  (Not just because we have the trees etc.)  One of the first things I noticed when I moved here 20 years ago is that they recycled more than California did at the time.  Now I wouldn’t throw a can or bottle away without having tremendous guilt.  I have learned what is on the “recycle” list and recycle everything I can at home. 

I noticed on one of the “home” shows there was a house that was being refurbished to sell and they were changing out their cabinets in the kitchen.  It happened to be in a house that the owners were from WA.  They mentioned on the show that WA refurbishes everything and they were giving the old cabinets to some place that needed cabinets as well as the old appliances.  I thought to myself “Why haven’t I heard that said before now on this program?”

To add to how “green” Port Townsend is… they don’t use plastic bags, and this was a new law in effect since last year.  HERE is an article I found about it. If you don’t have bag of your own to use, you may buy one for 5 cents each.  We ended up buying a couple just so we would have some because when we went to Safeway we needed to have them to carry the groceries in.  I have perfectly good material bags at home to carry groceries in… but I didn’t have them with me.  Besides, our county hasn’t changed to using all material bags.   But the law will be probably changing soon.  Kari and I quickly found out the importance of having our material bags with us.

We also discovered that the WA State Ferry system began using the dock in Port Townsend since we’ve been there last year.  The last time I heard they had a ferry in Port Townsend was in 2007.  I believe it was removed due to the state budget.  We decided that when we left we would take the ferry to get back to the “other side” of Puget Sound.  It would take a half hour to be on the ferry but we would dock at Whidbey Island.  Whidbey is close to Mt Vernon… well enough that I know how to get around etc.  We would get the chance to cross over Deception Pass and we could get the tulip fields that are in bloom at this time at the Tulip Festival.

Saturday we also walked around and shopped at the stores.  I bought a hat to wear when I walk around the neighborhood that would stay dry in the rain.  We found some magnets for our necklaces (a post about those later too.  Ideas for future posts).  Kari bought a silver ring with a pretty pinkish stone. 

In between these events we kept going out to the beach and looking for sea glass.  Why Port Townsend for sea glass?  It is one of the best places in the area due to a dump which was into the Puget Sound off the cliff many, many, years ago.  Not very “green” then, huh?  Plus, the beach is rocky which is a naturally polishes the rocks and sea glass.  HERE is a blog post from another blogger who did the hike to Glass Beach justice.  However, we can get pieces before hiking out there when it rains or when the tide is too high.  No one wants to get pinned up between the water and the cliffs.  I have done the hike before… and it takes a while there and back.  I hurt and was sore for days from all the exercise.

I will leave you now til next time...