Leaving Port Townsend this morning, my sense of direction and mental compass was totally shot – there are stretches of water here and there and I’m never quite sure what’s where.  Our route south, to Gig Harbour, eventually, began with this spectacular bridge as we headed for our first stop at Port Gamble.

An absolutely delightful small town with white picket fences and beautifully maintained homes along the main street, it looked especially lovely in the sunshine.

We’d read about the General Store and seeing it open, we felt we just had to step inside and take a look.  How pleased we were that we did!  Greeted with a cheery “good morning!” we were welcomed inside, and in no time at all had discovered the great breakfasts being served in the restaurant at the rear of the building.

We liked it so much in here that we even forgive the grocers’ apostrophe!

Now, our hotel, The Bishop in Port Townsend wasn’t so bad, but breakfast consisted of one individual serving of cereal, one individual carton of milk, one individual portion of orange juice, one cling-wrapped croissant, a foil wrapped pat of butter and an individual portion of jam (x 3) left outside our room in a basket.  Since we had just two dining chairs, we ate it from the coffee table – and a joyless affair it was too.  So when Mark started pining for corned beef hash, it didn’t take much for us all to agree that a second breakfast was in order.

Sometimes, it’s good to humour the driver - one never knows what might be around the corner.  The Quilted Strait is a great quilt shop and well worth fifteen minutes of our time!

Next stop was Poulsbo which was settled by Norwegians in the 1880s but continuing to maintain a Norwegian/Scandinavian character and sometimes referred to as “Little Norway”.  The main street was occupied by several businesses with a Scandinavian influence – the Viking Bank, Sluy’s bakery and Thor’s Needle and Hammer amongst others.  (You’ve guessed that last one was a tattoo parlour?)  Finding a couple of rare old US railroad histories in the well-stocked book shop, Mark was happy to have made that stop.

Last stop of the day was at Chicos, just outside Gig Harbour.  I frequently get emails from them, offering all kinds of deals of which I have no chance of taking advantage.  It was a different matter this morning, however.  For one day only, there was a money off deal which could be very useful, especially if they had the particular item I had in mind in my size.  I didn’t need long to decide if I wanted to take a look.

As it happened, I didn’t make use of the offer at all, because the three things I chose were all priced at 50% off anyway.  Good stuff!  Whilst I tried things on and pottered about the shop, Mark and Mary were entertained by the comings and goings, the stories of the staff and their customers and both felt they’d learned enough to write a book!

And here we are, at last.  The Maritime Inn at Gig Harbour.  Far more our style than The Bishop, we were greeted with a glass of wine from a Washington vineyard and breathed a sigh of relief on seeing our lovely room.  The sun’s shining and we’ve had a great dinner at The Tides Tavern, watching as a seaplane arrived to take a 60th birthday group out.

Mind you, those cushions are ganging up against us!!