Visiting Port Townsend

A former high school graduate friend of mine arrived Wednesday afternoon from Issaquah.  She slept over two nights and yesterday I drove us into Port Townsend just to look around, take pictures, and comment on all the changes.  This blog might take me a while to finish posting on today as I took lots of pictures and have plenty of opinions. Ha!   I don't know if it was me holding down my finger too long on the shutter but my camera has been giving me two photos every time I take just one.  I don't think it was me but I'm trying to pay more attention and if it continues, I'll have to read the camera booklet to see if I accidentally changed some setting.

Wednesday we hung out around the house gossiping and catching up.  I got out my obit book for her to read while I fixed dinner.  I've always known how to entertain guests.  I had prepared salads ahead so all I needed to do was fix the main dish --taco pie (made with Bisquick).  We probably headed to bed around 11. I was plenty tired but lucky me -- I got hit with a case of insomnia and I pretty much tossed and turned until after 3:30 in the morning.  Before heading to pick up Joyce Lee who was going to town with us, I went over to Jen's house so Ann could say hello and see the place.  She was busy making these cement flowers for her garden and lawn.  Used molds that are used for baking and then spray painted them after she baked them.  Gave me a couple small ones to paint for my garden too.  Here's Jen's.... a bunch of little ones and two larger sized that she's going to put along her sidewalk.

First stop in PT was at my brother's place so I could pick up one of his books to put in the alumni raffle basket at the county fair next month. I'm putting one of my books in also -- and a quilt I made. Nothing fancy.  Stopped at Safeway to fill up on gas. It was 20 cents higher than Port Angeles' Safeway, and the casino station in Blyn was even higher.  Saw Max and Michelle Plattner at the pumps.  She told me they bought a place in AZ  to live in winter.

Drove through town (always crowded) and stopped by Kris Logue's house to drop off the books and quilt for the raffle. Then it was off to Tyler and Amber Logue's place to leave this large container of Country Time Lemonade I bought at Costco and then decided I probably wasn't going to use.  Impulse buy but she was happy to get it.  We rode around uptown a bit noticing all the changes on the streets as far as new houses and such.

Over to Ruth Kvinsland's to say hello and drop off a loaf of banana bread.

Went to lunch at the Bayview and back downtown as Ann and I wanted to buy a PT tee shirt.  I really liked hers the most. Had a bicycle on it and "PT Cruiser."  They didn't have my size so I bought my second favorite....

Bought Dana one too since his books feature crows.

Stopped by Lee & Elaine Arey's house to drop off banana bread but Bill and Teresa weren't home so I left theirs on the porch.

Ann used to live in Fort Worden so we drove through there and I took her by my old house on San Juan and my grandpa's barn a couple blocks from there.  I really like the looks of my old "pink house" which is now yellow.  Fence was removed and they're parking in a different direction.  All better.  Grandpa's barn is slowly being enveloped by brush and nature. Below is pictures I took about five years ago and then yesterday.

Here's the house on San Juan and 20th street that it sits on as it looked yesterday and how the street looked in the 70s.

I also took one of a tree next door to our old place that sits on San Juan Avenue. I thought it was neat looking.

side view with wonderful chestnut tree standing guard

I'm going to take more photos next month when I go in for the fair as I noticed a lot of changes I wanted to document but I was too tired to stop and get out at all of them. Here are some I took around town...

San Juan Grocery is completely gone now so I took a couple pictures at that intersection along with one of the schools on the hill as seen from that corner.

That's a veterinary business there on the right

Two more I took as we drove around.... seagulls on Cadero's old house on Cherry Street and political art where my friend Doris LaChance used to live. Near North Beach. We stopped to talk to the artist and he sells his stuff.  He said he liked the one of Trump because he could take the head off and put it on backwards if he felt like it.  ha ha

                                                     (click on to enlarge)

We drove down to North Beach to hunt for sea glass.  As usual, we could barely find a place to park.  We didn't stay too long. Ann's sciatica and my damn hip just weren't in the mood for doing the fun stuff we used to be able to do for extended periods. I hate that!  I did hide some painted rocks here and there around town and gave a couple to some women parked next to us at  North Beach. 

This next picture showing the high school peeking through the trees -- I can't remember if I took it at 20th & San Juan at the yellow house of it was taken at the San Juan Grocery intersection. I had zoomed in but I can't tell where I was standing.
Anyhow, if it was in front of the yellow house,here's how it looked and following that is another taken in the 1970's. The golf course has changed remarkably.

We did stop at the casino for about a half hour on the way home. Ann and Joyce lost but I came out ahead.  67 cents!  Yep! I'm a winner!

And I guess that's it for now.  It's been noisy and busy on my street today as the workmen have had to rip up half the driveways on some of the new houses. The grade was too high for wheelchairs and you have to follow the rules to the letter.

Sue came over and mowed my grass and did some weeding. Paul pruned one of my trees and planted some bulbs so things are looking a little better.  I hear we're supposed to get hot weather again next week.  Jen and Wayne went to Silverdale as she had a doctor appt. They were dreading the trip back as they figure they'll get caught in that horrible Lavender Festival traffic on the highway.  Sammy is here until they return.

Dinner's gonna be leftover Safeway Chinese.  Ann and I were too tired to go out to dinner after our PT trip so we stopped to get deli food (and cake!)  Yum!   We watched Temple Grandin on Amazon Prime and hit the sack afterwards. We were exhausted.

I've got a few rocks set out that I need to get painted. Maybe tomorrow.    Waylon Jennings is playing right now. "The doctor slapped my mama when I was born."   ha ha   I do love Waylon.