Stuck in Port Townsend again

©2015 Lydia Hinshaw

The Jefferson County Courthouse

In my shoes, I took these steps two at a time

 PORT TOWNSEND, WA -- This lovely town, nearly surrounded by water and full of historic buildings, is a favorite of ours, and a place we always wish we could spend more time.

 Unfortunately, every time we're here, we're either scrambling to find a place to stay, or watching our watches to make sure we don't miss the ferry.

 Sunday's visit was no different.  The campground where we stayed last time, at the fairgrounds, was closed because the fair was in progress.  The other two campgrounds were full. 

 So we decided to get on the ferry to Whidbey Island and proceed north to Fidalgo Island and Anacortes, where we were pretty sure we could find a campsite on a Sunday evening.

 But the ferry line was long, and we were told the wait would be 3.5 hours at least, and we might not even get out of here tonight.

 So we wound up in a motel, where the first thing I did was get on the Internet and make a ferry reservation for Monday.

 We did have some time to explore Monday morning.  The most photogenic building in town is the courthouse, more than 100 years old and still in use, located on a bluff overlooking the town and Port Townsend Bay.

 A tall, steep series of steps leads from the downtown, waterfront section of town to the uptown courthouse area.  The heights of the individual steps are tiny, and require a sort of unnatural, tiptoeing walk.

 I suppose I would have appreciated this if I'd been in a corset and high-button shoes. In my shorts and sport sandals, it was more efficient to take the steps two at a time.