It might be difficult to believe - after living in Washington almost my entire life, I still don't think I even fully believe it yet - but Western Washington has an area that is predominantly sunny, and the precipitation maps back it up. Although, one of the “downsides” to traveling within the Banana Belt is that it’s sunny most of the time, so we were busy biking, hiking and generally keeping outdoors, and we're now about 2-3 weeks behind with posting updates. Time to catch up!
Port Townsend
One of our highlights along the Banana Belt was definitely Port Townsend. It is a quaint seaside town with a number of great places to eat. While the beaches aren't sandy like the coastal beaches, they are still just as pretty. And Port Townsend had plenty of long beaches to walk as well as the Olympic Discovery Trail to bike off the calories.
We stayed at two different RV parks in Port Townsend: the Elks (of course! 😊) and Port Hudson Marina & RV Park.
The Elks was a few miles from downtown Port Townsend (and, also has the most delicious fish and chips - no joke!), but it was close to my step-mom (Jan) and Lane, so we were able to spend a few dinners with them (socially-distanced, of course). The Elks location was also only a few blocks away from the Olympic Discovery Trail, so we were able to safely and easily bike the 4-5 miles into Port Townsend (the trail goes all the way to Sequim if one wanted to ride the 20+ miles!) - and rode around Fort Worden (where Officer & A Gentleman was filmed) and visited the farmer's market where we bought the most delicious croissants and bread from Pan d'Amore.
Port Hudson is among one of our favorite RV parks so far. It's an easy four paw award winner and we definitely look forward to returning (note: we hear that October is a great time to visit - after the summer tourist season).
Our RV site at Port Hudson was only steps from the beach...
...and a few blocks into downtown Port Townsend - where we found more calories! The most yummy homemade ice cream at Elevator Ice Cream and the most delicious burgers at Owl Sprit Cafe' (we forgot to take pictures because we were so hungry, but the "big burger" and the "big lamb" were delicious!).
Thank goodness for bike trails and long beaches! We had some serious calories to work off after our stay in Port Townsend!
Anacortes Area
We were supposed to take the ferry from Port Townsend to Anacortes. On the day we were scheduled to leave, the winds were howling ~20-25 mph! I was already a bit nervous about taking the ferry as our RV height is 13'3 - and max clearance on the ferry is 14' - but with the winds roaring on top of that, I was able to convince Tom to take the long way and drive around. 😉
Our stay in the Anacortes area can best be described as having been spent: sightseeing + eating, seeing more sites + eating, visiting friends + eating (surprise!)!
Anacortes is a ~1.5 hour drive from Seattle and there is so much to do and see in the area that we could have easily stayed for a month and still would not have had enough time to do everything. And since we only had 4 days, it made our decision of what to do even more challenging.
On our first day, Carolyn made the trek up to see us and we spent the day kayaking near Deception Pass - providing gorgeous views of the San Juan Islands. Followed by ... eating! Bastion Brewing served one of the most amazing burgers I've ever tasted, but then again, maybe I was just too hungry (as the burger was burnt to a crisp and I still thought it was one of the best burgers I'd ever had!).
Max took his first ferry ride from Anacortes to Lopez Island (one of the San Juan islands) - and drew quite the attention. When we arrived on the island, our friends John and Joanne gave us a quick tour, then we headed back to their beach place for dinner consisting of fresh oysters from their own oyster farm and crab they caught in front of their house! I'm not much of an oyster fan, but these were delicious (garlic helps 😊).
We managed to get in a round of golf near Bellingham and on the way back, we took a detour and drove along my favorite highway - Chuckanut Drive, which is apparently referred to as Washington's Big Sur. And, of course, followed by... eating! The Oyster Bar had amazing seafood, views - and an added bonus for us: they allow well-behaved dogs on the patio.
Our two favorite small towns we visited while in the area: La Conner and Edison. We went to our first "Brewstillery" ever in Edison: beer + sprits + good food is a very good equation! As this Food & Wine article describes Edison - it's like those small towns in Northern California used to be, before the whole world showed up.
Next up: Seattle and Eastern Washington!