Everyday for 7 Weeks–Day 31–Port Townsend to Long Beach

We woke up early so we could have breakfast with family in Port Townsend. While at breakfast, I received a tweet from Richard; He said to say hi to his uncle, Carl, who had moved there from Minneapolis. Our new friends Max happened to know Carl. Small world indeed. How many more places will I run into Richard’s family? This is the third now! Small world indeed.

The first café we tried to eat at was closed for the holiday, so we ended up at a popular place downtown. The service was very slow. From the time we walked in until the time we had food in our mouths was an hour! Yikes. Fortunately, we weren’t paying too much attention to the clock as we were busy catching up. Since breakfast turned into lunch, the art gallery next door had opened up. It belonged to Max. We stopped in to pay him a visit. He was getting ready for a sculpture show in a few days, but took the time to show us some of his work. Cool stuff.

With all the visiting, we left Port Townsend much later than we “planned”. I put planned in quotes since we aren’t planning much on this trip. We are mostly making it up as we go. We are primarily directed to places with tasty food or friendly people. Good scenery is nice too. We like making things up without much planning. Then you can stay if you like it or leave if you don’t. You aren’t ever late as you don’t have anywhere to be. I know not all of you could travel without extensive plans, routes, and reservations, but it works for us.

We enjoyed the time spent with family in Port Townsend.

Saggy bottom rain gear. It’s the latest style!

We got on US-101 and just followed it around the coast. We were unsure where we’d end up for the night, but were thinking it might be Hoquiam.

Crescent Lake didn’t disappoint.

The road followed the peninsula around until we hit the Pacific Ocean on the west. The views we were waiting for all year finally arrived. We saw the sign for Ruby Beach and pulled in. It didn’t disappoint. It was big and blue. The skies cleared up and the temperature rose. We had been riding in 50F and rain most of the day until this point. We loved Ruby Beach. The towering trees, giant rocks, crashing waves, and heaps of drift large wood. We liked it all.

Our first glimpse of the Pacific together. A short hike later, we were on the beach.

We lingered on the beach for a while.

101 followed the coast a bit further before turning inland again. I missed the turn off for 109, so we stayed on 101 heading right back into the rain. bleh. It only lasted a few minutes and the road turned again right back for the coast.

Hoquiam was described to us over brunch as “a very blue collar town”. After we arrived, we started laughing. That was the nicest way to say crap town I’ve heard. We took one look at the town and said no way. Calling it blue collar is an insult to blue collar. It looked like a dump. Maybe we missed the good parts, but we didn’t see anything that made us want to explore further. We got back on 101 and went south.

There had to be somewhere nicer – preferably with an ocean view. We looked at the map, and Long Beach sounded good, so we went there. It was quiet as almost everyone left to return home for work Tuesday. Nice! We were the only people in our 42 room motel. We would have eaten on the beach, but we were both cold. We enjoyed watching the sun set over the beach while we ate dinner. It was quiet; the only noise after dark was the sound of the ocean.

For more gratuitous ocean pics, click through to the full flickr album below.

 

Day 31 Full Flickr Album (61 pics)

 

Today’s Route:

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