2015-24 Port Townsend to La Conner Washington

 2015-24

Port Townsend Washington (Continued)
Whidbey Island
La Conner

road entrance to ferry to Whidbey Island

It’s interesting spending time at a seaside village on the Olympia Peninsula.  I’ve gone for walks along the beach with it’s driftwood piled up here and there.  Folks making shelters from the large logs and forming Zen type sculptures by piling smooth rounded stone one on top of the other.  Unlike my years in Florida, everyone here including me are fully clothed with extra layers of long sleeved shirts or light jackets for comfort against the cool breezes coming off the ocean.  Pleasant for a walk along the coarse sandy beach.

Many of the older homes are built in the Victorian vernacular along with smaller salt box style cottages.  Deer live right in town.  I often see three deer along the road leading to the Fairgrounds.  Today as I went into town on an early mission, I saw five deer crossing the main street.  It looked like they’d just come off the ferry for a bit of romping through the downtown area.  A local worker told me they come by every morning for a walk along the water front, through town and then back up the hill where all the houses are.  Quite a site to see all traffic stop as they meander across the road, stopping occasionally to look at the cars.

bluff over Port Townsend

Port Townsend's waterfront 

what fashionable birds wear this season

Port Townsend, Uptown area

Port Townsend's downtown waterfront

Port Townsend

I took another ferry ride, this time taking my truck over to Whidbey Island and then across Deception Pass and on over to the waterfront village of La Conner.  If you remember my mentioning the author Tom Robbins a few blog stories ago, this is the town he has lived in for many years.  Kind of nice to have the time once retired to do a little excursion like this just to see a place one has read about or that is associated with someone like the author, Tom Robbins.  Now I didn’t see him, though he does go into town quite often, only living a few block above town on the higher bluff overlooking this pretty little village.  Not sure which house is his as I drove around the neighborhood, but could image a few of the homes he could live in.

Just one of those day trips with only a basic destination in mind.....

Bridge over Deception Pass, a very treacherous pass for boats 

back on the mainland, past farms before arriving in La Conner

La Conner, waterfront, nice boardwalk along water

La Conner Washington

  

Tom Robbins lives in one of the homes above the town

great paint job

boat docks available for stopping into town for a bit

can they grow flowers up here?

nice boardwalk

sea side rentals

La Conner

La Conner

Whidbey Island

Truck tire issues.  My truck tires which are less than two years old are beginning to wear more than normal and at least one is out of being true.  Meaning there are dips and rises in the tire where it has not worn evenly.  Because I have a 50,000 mile warranty and they are less than 50% through that mileage, I will be heading to a town down the road in the next couple of days to see about getting them replaced.  At least they are under warranty and I should be able to get compensation on set of replacement tires.

Tire follow-up.  Found a Big O tire company about an hour away so I drove over there to find out about the tires.  They confirmed the wear on the tires was down to almost time to change the tires and had never seen such wear on this brand of tires.  Hmmmm.  They gave me credit for over 50% of the tires and I ended up paying $320 for a set of new tires.  Asked if keeping them inflated to 80 lbs had any effect on the tires wearing out more quickly and was told, no it should not have any effect.

Bottom line I have new tires at least for another two years of wear.

I had a most awesome visit with Christine’s parents the other day.  They are in their mid 80’s and are having a number of issues with health.  Christine’s mom, Bell is a real charmer and her Dad is a force unto himself.  What a team.  Through it all they have been able to sign over their home for a lump sum with the ability to live in the house as long as they want too.  Having extra money in their elder years will make some decisions easier to make and hopefully less stress.  What a charming couple.  So glad I had a chance to meet them again.

Well I’m getting a chance to experience the rainy side of Washington State as it’s become overcast and is expected to rain here for the next week or more.  Have already experienced a few days of it before I continue my trek on down the road and hopefully back into the sunshine.  Maybe it will help all the forest fires out this way.

That’s about it for this weeks mini-adventures.

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