July, 2025
I decided to walk into the town of Port Townsend today … but I never got there, ha! I did head out on foot from my camping spot but, even tho the marina/RV park is immediately on the northern edge of Port Townsend, I still didn’t get into town … too much to see on the way! Here’s an overview of the marina/RV park … you can see there are lots of buildings there, lots of small businesses. The dark BROWN line that wiggles around was my walking path today … no wonder I never made it into Port Townsend!
The RED rectangle is where I’m camped. The GREEN circle is the marina/RV office where I stopped and asked questions and then had a really nice chat with the folks there. The YELLOW Star is the “haulout” where a “travel lift” is used to lift boats out of the water so they can be stored on land or so they can be worked on at the shipyard that’s right next to the green circle. The RED arrow is the main street of Port Townsend, it’s that close! The YELLOW triangle is … well you’ll see the otters soon, coming up below. And the RED circle out in the water is where the very small boat is in the photos below … perfectly safe and having a great time. So, that’s an overview of where I walked. As mentioned, I thought I would get into Port Townsend … nope, never made it this day … too much to see as I simply walked around the marina.
Notice the buildings on the northern edge of the marina … lots of businesses, lots of great old buildings, I’ll show you just a few. Ordinarily, walking without hesitation (or without taking photos), the walk around the marina from my campsite in order to reach that northern-most street of downtown Port Townsend would take about 15 minutes. Well it took me a couple of hours because I stopped and looked, and chatted with people, then wandered around to the other side of building to see what was over there, etc. I don’t seem able to walk a straight line … and I’m good with that! 🙂 I find such interesting things by wandering. Ok, let’s go for this walk around the marina. 🙂
In the photo above, I’m standing in the RV park near the beach, looking south at that line of buildings. The largest building, the one on the left above is Doc’s Marina Grill … it has the BEST food! Yum!
Below … the Point Hudson Cafe. I’ve eaten there twice and the food was delicious.
The Point Hudson Cafe is on the right in the photo above. One of these days, I need to try the Shanghai Restaurant.
Chums, above, is a very small store with basic household things you might want or need on your boat or in your RV. Notice that it is built out above the water on pilings.
The “Pavilion Building” is above. It’s used for community gatherings, local political events, and can be rented for private gatherings.
And then there are the necessary facilities … garbage, recycling. With my campsite payment, I was given the code to get in that gate. There were almost no unsightly garbage cans anywhere on this property.
At the west end of the marina, there is a “haul out” facility. You can schedule your boat to be taken out of the water here … lifted out by a travel lift using extremely sturdy canvas straps to lift your boat. Maximum weight lift of this travel lift is 30 tons … that’s 60,000 pounds. That’s approximately what a 50-60 foot boat would weigh, but it all depends on whether the boat is made of wood or steel or fiberglass, whether it’s a sailboat with a heavy keel and heavy masts, and whether the boat (sail or power) has a huge or small engine in it and how much fuel it carries. The travel lift itself weighs the boat as it slowly lifts the boat out of the water, so all is safe.
Right next to that travel lift was this piece of art work (below) … actually it is usable art work! It’s a bench that’s made to look like a boat or dock cleat that you would tie your lines to. The company makes them in all sizes, whatever you wish and are willing to pay for. This one was about eight feet long and would seat several adults. Most REAL cleats on boats and docks that I’m familiar with are anywhere from three inches to 14 inches long.
And then I was walking along the south side of the marina, enjoying the view of the boats … and of the entrance to the marina.
In the photo below, the small row boat in the middle had just left the marina. Such a beautiful, calm day for a little exercise and pleasure out on the water. But the fellow doing the rowing seemed to be hunched over, or sitting sideways … is something wrong? There were lots of other boats out there too, small row boats and small sailboats so he would have help if needed. Still I was puzzled and concerned.
But then he turned the little boat a bit, and I zoomed in with the camera. No, that was no hunching of the fellow doing the rowing … that was his dog! He never did start the motor, just rowed around for an hour or so with his buddy on the bow, then eventually rowed back into the marina.
And then I was almost on the beach, out near that YELLOW triangle in the first image above. I spotted these three folks below, from a distance. It seemed odd that they didn’t move a muscle … maybe there was something over there on the right that they were afraid of.
Ha! You know what they are … they are a sculpture. They are larger than life size, but they are so realistic looking!
Then I walked out onto the pier that is the southern wall of the inlet into the marina and got a little snapshot of Towhee the Trailer and the big white truck in their campsite back over on the north side of the marina.
By this time, it was very late morning and I decided to walk back to my trailer for lunch. On the walk back around the marina, I began noticing all of the seagulls who were hanging out on top of all of the roofs … hundreds of them if you counted all of them on all of the roofs.
Some building owners had installed rows of very solid plastic spikes on their roofs to keep the seagulls off their roof. You can see how well that worked! Ha! 🙂
Hey! Bruce! Come on over here! You can settle down right in among these nice spikes and they hold you perfectly still while you have a nice nap in the sun!
I kept walking. 🙂
Just 20 feet or so before I got back to my trailer, I walked along right next to a wooden railing that ran along the edge of the land to keep people from falling in the water. That wooden railing was also a popular place for these two seagulls to perch. I’d seen them a few times already from inside my trailer. I figured that, as soon as I approached, they would fly away. They did not! In fact, this really was how close I was to them. I almost could have touched them. But they simply stood there and looked out over the marina. I’m sure they knew I was there, but they completely ignored me.
No zoom lens needed for these photos.
I was amazed they didn’t fly away, didn’t even turn and look at me.
BUT … watch this short video below. Watch the one on the left. It’s only a few seconds long, so watch carefully.
After looking at me for just those two seconds or so, that seagull turned back to face the marina again and totally ignored me. What! Do I look like a seagull? You should be afraid of me! But of course, it felt really nice that I wasn’t a threat, that I was accepted.
Back at the trailer finally, I fixed my lunch then sat out near the rocks so I could watch the boats and the water and the islands and the sky. I was just a few feet from this rock (below) when these two folks flew down and perched there. Did they want a bite of my salad, a taste of my warm lentil soup, maybe a little sip of iced tea? But they stood there, with their backs to me, completely ignoring me it seemed. I was surprised how long they stayed, maybe two minutes, then off they went for more adventures. I believe they are juvenile red-winged blackbirds, no? yes?
I think the word may have gotten around among the birds here that I’m no threat to anyone. I like that. 🙂