Friday in Port Townsend

A few weeks ago, I messaged our son-in-law’s mother to let her know that I would be coming to Seattle. She and DSIL’s dad live on the Olympic Peninsula. They are wonderful people and I enjoy seeing them when I am over that way. She suggested that we meet for lunch and shopping in Port Townsend, a lovely historic town halfway between their house and the western ferry landing. DD#2 had to work, so I was on my own for the day.

The fastest and easiest way to get to the peninsula from Seattle is via ferry, except during the summer months when everyone is trying to get to the peninsula. Even in April, I hit a fair bit of traffic. Getting to the ferry terminal does not guarantee you a spot on an actual ferry. I have the WSDOT ferry account in my Twitter feed and there have been times when I’ve seen a two-hour wait. Having the Washington State Ferry app on my phone is a must, too, as it lets me know when each ferry sails and how many spots are open.

I have learned to time my arrival at the ferry terminal as a current ferry is loading, such that I am close to the front of the line for the ferry I want to be on. I may have to wait up to an hour, but I’ve found it’s better that way. First on, first off, unless I luck out and get onto the current ferry.

I took the 8:50 am ferry. The ride takes about half an hour and the weather was gorgeous up on the sun deck:

By the time I got to Port Townsend, it was 10:15 am. Traffic was heavy even this early in the season. DSIL’s mom and I met in the McDonald’s parking lot. I moved the BMW over to the Safeway parking lot and she drove us both downtown. We lucked out and got a parking spot on the main street.

Women like to shop. Men, I am sorry, but that is a fact of life. Even I like to shop, albeit in small doses. The two of us indulged ourselves and went into every shop that caught our fancy. Of particular note were District Fabrics, where I splurged on two yards of a 100% wool jersey in royal blue and where DSIL’s mom provided helpful advice to a novice sewist on fabric choices for a dress; and a yarn store called Bazaar Girls, where she bought a book on Norwegian sweaters. DSIL’s sister is currently living in Norway and is a knitter.

In between, we walked and visited. The rosemary shrubs in this part of the country are something to behold I can’t overwinter rosemary here, even though it is one of my favorite herbs. This is a representative specimen:

If only.

We had lunch and shopped a bit more. I was trying to follow a tight schedule, though, and wanted to make a quick stop at Quilted Strait on the way back to the ferry, so I said farewell to DSIL’s mom around 2:30 pm. Quilted Strait was a bit of a disappointment. I had been there once before and drooled over their wool embroidery section, but they’ve pared it back quite a bit. I did buy the wool that was in yesterday’s photo and a spool of 12wt Aurifil thread.

Those 12wt threads are a fairly common size for embroidery, but they only come in small balls or loose skeins, neither of which work on the serger. Even the 12wt Aurifil, which comes on spools, requires that I trick out the serger with a horizontal spool pin or it won’t feed smoothly:

I arrived back in Seattle just in time for DD#2 to come by and get me for our 5:45 pm dinner reservation at a restaurant a few blocks from my Airbnb. I had a phenomenal bowl of seafood chowder. I was aiming for seafood at every meal last weekend and I came pretty close.

And yes, you have to wait for tomorrow’s blog post to find out what happened at the Airbnb.