Washington State has three main north/south corridors. Starting in the eastern part of the state closest to Idaho and extending west to the Cascade range of mountains is an area that is colder in the winter and warmer in the summer, but with fewer mountains and greenery. Just on the western side of the Cascade mountains (although really much smaller than the other side of the mountains) is the "east side", which runs from Seattle on the coast to the mountains. If you lay your hand out, palm-up and curl your fingers upward into a cup shape, then the tips of your fingers form the third corridor, called the "Olympic Peninsula". The open part of your hand is called the Hood Canal, which runs from the Straits of Juan De Fueca, the inlet between Canada and the US, all the way down to Tacoma.

 

OK - enough with the geography lesson. Since we spent a little time in the past year in the "east side" and on most of the major Cascades, we wanted to pop over to the Olympic Peninsula this year a few times. It's a bit more time-consuming to do that, since we have to drive down to Tacoma and then back up again, and then on to the western side of the state. There aren't very many eastern entrances to the Olympic ranges as there are western entrances to the Cascades. This weekend we drove to Tacoma and then along the Hood canal to the top, eastern side of the Olympic Peninsula, to a town called Port Townsend.

 

Port Townsend is a beautiful place that dates back to the early 1800's. It has hundreds of Victorian homes with gingerbread facias painted purple, red, gold and blue. Just walking down the main street gazing across the straits in the waters to Canada is stunning, and then the architecture really takes your breath away. We tramped for hours up and down the streets snapping pictures.

 

From there we drove a few miles out of town to Fort Worden, which is an Army post that dates back to the first World War. The Army used it all the way until after World War II, and then then it was converted to a state park. It was kept in pristine condition, even down to the artillery batteries. In fact, the movie "An Officer and a Gentleman" was filmed there. They still rent the barracks out from time to time. The beaches there are amazing - so different from the Beaches back home in Florida. You're surrounded by cliffs hundreds of feat high, and all the while you can hear the Sea Lions barking in the distance.  We'll definitely be back - with bicycles this time, so we can cover more ground!