Evergreen Coho SKP RV Park, Chimacum, WA

We visited the Olympic Peninsula in 2014 and spent a few nights at the fairgrounds in Port Townsend, WA, but this time we opted to stay about 10 miles south in Chimacum at the Escapees park, Evergreen Coho. The short term area is just a gravel lot but it’s a nice park, although it doesn’t have all the amenities that Jojoba Hills has.

It’s been a busy social week. Lazy Daze friend Jeanne is here for a month, another Lazy Daze owner, Melinda, whom we met at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, has a lot here. And Larry and Renee, who head up the Lazy Daze Morro Bay get-together, showed up a few days ago. We joined them all for happy hour the other night.

We also visited with some neighbors from Jojoba who are here for a month, and at the farmers market on Saturday in Port Townsend ran into two more Jojoba couples who are staying in the area. Also had nice visits from a blog reader, and a friend of Jim’s from Facebook and his wife, whom we had not met before.

The weather has been fairly warm, in the 70s to low 80s, but we’ve had quite a bit of haze and smoke so it’s not great for outdoor activities. On the clearer days we’ve walked around the streets and along the waterfront at Port Townsend. We love looking at the boats, interesting shops and lovely architecture.

At the Northwest Maritime Center you can watch the building and restoration of wooden boats. They are such beautiful pieces of artwork.

 

Jim had to educate me on Steampunk, a term I had never heard of and a fad I guess I missed, although it’s apparently been around for years. This shop sells some wild clothing.

Point Hudson Marina.

 

Flowers at a B&B next to the marina.

You have to love a town where residents post signs such as this.

And you can pick up your monthly poem from this box. Port Townsend is home to a large number of writer and poets.

We’ve been to the Pourhouse and had a beer on their pleasant outside deck.

We also had a fun evening at Port Townsend Brewing Co., where a stranger got out of a cab and came in and bought a couple rounds for everyone at the bar. He was from Seattle, very well-dressed, blind and in a wheelchair. He asked where the best place in town was to spend the night. We didn’t get his story but one of the patrons speculated he was terminal and spending down his money. When someone thanked him he said this was just a normal day for him. We also had a good conversation with a retired mail carrier who is now an antique shop owner in town. It’s always interesting sitting at the bar talking to locals.

The rock music wasn’t that great but there was some good people watching at the Thursday night free concert at the dock.

Last week the Saturday farmers market was expanded for the Uptown Festival. They have an annual parade and we came back after a walk to see what it was all about. Another crazy small town event.

Apparently anyone can enter.

This brass band followed at the end of the parade. They were excellent and we walked behind them for a while just to listen. Brought back memories of the French Quarter in New Orleans.

We’ve done one hike at Port Ludlum, a planned community just south of Chimacum. I read that it was one of the best places to retire, so we wanted to check it out. Located on Port Ludlow Bay, with home prices from the upper $200,000s for a condo, on up to $12 million for a home, we knew it was too upscale for us. That’s okay, though, since we really didn’t care for it. It was a bit too “planned” and perfect looking.

There is a five mile loop starting near the golf course, the Timberton trail, that goes mostly through the forest with occasional views of the Olympic Mountains (on most days, according to the website).

We saw a sign for a beaver dam here but couldn’t find it. The mosquitoes had found us, though, so we didn’t search very long.

We finally came to the view but there wasn’t much to see.

I nearly had to run to keep up with Jim, who was walking as fast as he could to keep the mosquitoes away. We didn’t bring packs (where we keep the bug spray), since it was just a short, easy trail. Guess we’ll never learn.

A couple weeks ago we ordered our mail from Pensacola to arrive while we were in Portland but it sat in Los Angeles for many days and didn’t show up before we left. It finally made it a few days after we were gone so the park forwarded it to Chimacum. Still no tracking and it hasn’t arrived at the post office yet. We’ve decided to hang out here for another week in hopes it will catch up with us soon. I am still monitoring the smoke in Canada but doubt we will be going by the way things look at this point.