This and the next few entries were delayed because I didn't have internet access. This is to be expected out in the middle of nowhere, as I am (at the time I wrote this). In a geophysical oddity, however, I ran into traffic all the way getting to the middle of nowhere, which is not something you’d expect.
In looking back over the last few entries, I noticed a certain Tolstoy-esque quality. Not so much the epic nature of the story, more like the tedious and incessant droning quality. So I’ll try to keep this to the main points. Britney Spears at the MTV music awards will come tomorrow.
Most of this day I spent driving from Kalaloch to Port Townsend. This essentially involved retracing most of my route from when I got off the Bremerton ferry, so there’s not much worth mentioning, other than it was another incredible day. Lower 70s and not a cloud in the sky. Most of the route was through beautiful forests and past several crystal clear lakes.
If you’ve ever been to Fredricksburg, or Annapolis, Maryland, or St. Francisville, Louisiana, then you’ve been to Port Townsend. An old town that modern commerce bypassed, leaving behind interesting buildings perfect for housing antique shops, local art galleries, locally made women’s clothes and home interior articles, and souvenirs. In other words, tourist crap. Port Townsend has something of a unique hook with its still active port, hosting a great many sailboats and thereby giving rise to a nautical subset of the local mercantile mix. Basically four kinds of people visit towns like this: women, men forced by women to join them, people playing "biker," and other. As usual, I am “other.” This town actually is somewhat more interesting than this description suggests. It does contain a number of well preserved Victorian houses and commercial buildings, as well as Fort Worden State Park (mentioned later).
I timed my visit well; today’s the last day of the annual Wooden Boats festival. Wooden boat displays, along with various marine crafts displays, and all kinds of wooden boats fill the harbor. The bright sunny day has encouraged all the boaters to fill the local bay, creating quite a display against the backdrop of Mount Baker and the North Cascades mountain range in the distance. Despite my maritime law background, I’ve really never been a boat lover like a lot of people I know, but the festival was entertaining. Although the sun is brilliant, cool bay breezes keep it really nice in town.
As is their want, hordes of rather large, empty-nester looking types are tear-assing around town primarily on Harleys but also on smaller motorcycles in some cases, and wearing their fresh from the Harley store leather. I call these people Hell’s Accountants. I don’t get them. On the one hand, they ride the bikes, wear the gear, and try hard to look the look. On the other, they use their palm pilots, line up for non-fat frozen yogurt, and make a point to ask for the decaf latte. You know, I often wear my Texans coaches’ shirt, but that doesn’t make me the Texans’ secondary coach. This is sort of like how some guys can wear a suit but will still never have game (BTW, how cool is it that Mike Nolan and Jack DelRio wear suits on the sidelines for home games? That’s hard. Lombardi, Halas, Landry, Sinatra…all the great ones suited up). If you’re going to commit to a lifestyle, then commit. Talk of commitment inspires me to move on.
As I mentioned earlier, Port Townsend is the home of Fort Worden State Historic Park. This formerly was a naval installation for about 50 years. You’ve seen it if you’ve seen Officer and a Gentleman, because they filmed much of that movie at Fort Worden. One of the pictures I’ll upload is of the building where I think they filmed the “first salute” scene toward the end of the movie. No sign of where they filmed the scene where Debra Winger puts on Richard Gere’s hat.
I spend the night downtown in the Palace Hotel, one of the old Victorian buildings near the water. It’s a three story building with about 12 rooms. The hotel is a historic landmark, and was fully restored several years ago. I took a couple of pictures of the room. Like most of the great old spaces, the rooms had high ceilings and big windows. My room had an old-fashioned clawfoot bathtub, and an antique armoire and table/chair set. The glass in the windows appeared quite old as well, with that sort of thick and varied grade I’ve noticed in many old windows.
Let me also express my personal satisfaction at my teams hitting the trifecta this weekend. Texas triumphed over TCU, LSU ripped a #9 Virginia Tech team, and the Texans beat the not-so-good Chiefs. If only the Jerry Jones team had lost, this would truly have been a fine day.
Watching the 49er-Cardinal game as I write this. Bonnie Bernstein is standing awfully close to Alex Smith in the postgame interview. Hey young boys, if you can’t play guitar, then play quarterback.
In looking back over the last few entries, I noticed a certain Tolstoy-esque quality. Not so much the epic nature of the story, more like the tedious and incessant droning quality. So I’ll try to keep this to the main points. Britney Spears at the MTV music awards will come tomorrow.
Most of this day I spent driving from Kalaloch to Port Townsend. This essentially involved retracing most of my route from when I got off the Bremerton ferry, so there’s not much worth mentioning, other than it was another incredible day. Lower 70s and not a cloud in the sky. Most of the route was through beautiful forests and past several crystal clear lakes.
If you’ve ever been to Fredricksburg, or Annapolis, Maryland, or St. Francisville, Louisiana, then you’ve been to Port Townsend. An old town that modern commerce bypassed, leaving behind interesting buildings perfect for housing antique shops, local art galleries, locally made women’s clothes and home interior articles, and souvenirs. In other words, tourist crap. Port Townsend has something of a unique hook with its still active port, hosting a great many sailboats and thereby giving rise to a nautical subset of the local mercantile mix. Basically four kinds of people visit towns like this: women, men forced by women to join them, people playing "biker," and other. As usual, I am “other.” This town actually is somewhat more interesting than this description suggests. It does contain a number of well preserved Victorian houses and commercial buildings, as well as Fort Worden State Park (mentioned later).
I timed my visit well; today’s the last day of the annual Wooden Boats festival. Wooden boat displays, along with various marine crafts displays, and all kinds of wooden boats fill the harbor. The bright sunny day has encouraged all the boaters to fill the local bay, creating quite a display against the backdrop of Mount Baker and the North Cascades mountain range in the distance. Despite my maritime law background, I’ve really never been a boat lover like a lot of people I know, but the festival was entertaining. Although the sun is brilliant, cool bay breezes keep it really nice in town.
As is their want, hordes of rather large, empty-nester looking types are tear-assing around town primarily on Harleys but also on smaller motorcycles in some cases, and wearing their fresh from the Harley store leather. I call these people Hell’s Accountants. I don’t get them. On the one hand, they ride the bikes, wear the gear, and try hard to look the look. On the other, they use their palm pilots, line up for non-fat frozen yogurt, and make a point to ask for the decaf latte. You know, I often wear my Texans coaches’ shirt, but that doesn’t make me the Texans’ secondary coach. This is sort of like how some guys can wear a suit but will still never have game (BTW, how cool is it that Mike Nolan and Jack DelRio wear suits on the sidelines for home games? That’s hard. Lombardi, Halas, Landry, Sinatra…all the great ones suited up). If you’re going to commit to a lifestyle, then commit. Talk of commitment inspires me to move on.
As I mentioned earlier, Port Townsend is the home of Fort Worden State Historic Park. This formerly was a naval installation for about 50 years. You’ve seen it if you’ve seen Officer and a Gentleman, because they filmed much of that movie at Fort Worden. One of the pictures I’ll upload is of the building where I think they filmed the “first salute” scene toward the end of the movie. No sign of where they filmed the scene where Debra Winger puts on Richard Gere’s hat.
I spend the night downtown in the Palace Hotel, one of the old Victorian buildings near the water. It’s a three story building with about 12 rooms. The hotel is a historic landmark, and was fully restored several years ago. I took a couple of pictures of the room. Like most of the great old spaces, the rooms had high ceilings and big windows. My room had an old-fashioned clawfoot bathtub, and an antique armoire and table/chair set. The glass in the windows appeared quite old as well, with that sort of thick and varied grade I’ve noticed in many old windows.
Let me also express my personal satisfaction at my teams hitting the trifecta this weekend. Texas triumphed over TCU, LSU ripped a #9 Virginia Tech team, and the Texans beat the not-so-good Chiefs. If only the Jerry Jones team had lost, this would truly have been a fine day.
Watching the 49er-Cardinal game as I write this. Bonnie Bernstein is standing awfully close to Alex Smith in the postgame interview. Hey young boys, if you can’t play guitar, then play quarterback.
1 comment:
Hey, stop trying to put ojo on my Boys! They beat the stinkin' Giants! What more can you want?
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