Port Townsend Part II

CATCHING UP: Our Internet connection was too slow yesterday to include all of our Port Townsend goings on, so we'll do a bit of catching up here.

When we arrived in Port Townsend on Sunday early afternoon, we were too early to check into our hotel room, so we drove around town a bit. We couldn't help but gravitate toward a mammoth, eye-catching building atop the bluff overlooking Port Townsend. When I saw the gun locker in the parking lot, I figured it to be a courthouse. Indeed it is/was - the Jefferson County Courthouse. It has a 124-foot high clock tower, which helped us keep track of when we could check into our room. ;)

Though we suspected the building was old (as is the case with so many buildings in the old part of Port Townsend), it was in such good repair we wondered if it was a new building built to look old. Turns out it is, indeed, a very old building - in fact, the second oldest courthouse in the state of Washington. (Here is a link to a PDF about the building's history: http://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/services/courthouse_pamphlet.pdf)

Port Townsend was founded in 1851, and it's the county seat (and only incorporated city) of Jefferson County. Construction of the courthouse was approved in 1890. The beautiful bricks featured on the exterior (786 tons!) were shipped in from St. Louis, while tons of sandstone were brought in from Alaska. The solid brass clock mechanism and bell in the tower were built by the E. Howard Watch & Clock Company of Boston, Mass. in 1891.

As we ogled the courthouse's exterior, we noticed a vacant tennis court right next door. We just happened to have our equipment in the car, so we hit a few balls around, enjoying the fantastic view at each end of the court.

In town, we also checked out Union Wharf.

I read online that Union Wharf was removed and reconstructed after the original, historic waterfront dock collapsed (yikes!).

FORT NOTES: While we spent the VAST majority of our time at Fort Worden tromping around the old battlement grounds, we did visit their history museum on site. There, we watched a video about the history of the fort and its weaponry, and we saw guns, guns and more guns. Anyone into firearms would totally dig this place. On the other hand, we're just not that into them, so we didn't spend a huge amount of time ogling them.

CJ was very interested in a small display they had of Nazi Germany artifacts. CJ, who shares a birthday with Hitler, simply can't understand how such an evil, murderous guy ever got into a position of such power.

The kids were also interested in an artifact from a Japanese submarine attack on the Oregon Coast during World War II.

At the museum we were also introduced to the (unofficial) mascot of the Air Defense Artillery, the Oozlefinch. It was a new one on us!

We weren't sure what kind of creature it was. It looked kind of like a geoduck, a seal, a bird of some kind ... According to Wikipedia, its motto is "If it flies, it dies. Blazing skies." Wiki says it's a missile-bearing bird. Odd looking bird, indeed.

I have to admit, as we wandered through the battlements, CJ and Annabelle seemed to be more interested in the thousands of graffiti specimens than the old battlements. Mostly it was just taggers writing their names, or scrawling obscenities, but once in awhile we'd see something that required a bit more work.

Though our motel (The Tides Inn) didn't have a pool, the kids had HOURS of fun in the Jacuzzi on our room's deck. Good times (well, except for the 10 or so chilly minutes we accidentally got locked outside on the deck while Christian was in the room in the shower).

THE MARTIANS ARE COMING! THE MARTIANS ARE COMING!: "The War of the Worlds" is on AMC tonight. Sweet!

Annabelle started reading the H.G. Wells' classic a few days ago. Wonder if the kids will think it's super corny or if it will scare 'em a little. Guess we'll find out ... It's pretty humorous so far. The 'meteor' has crash landed and the locals are enjoying square dancing. Little do they know, things are about to take a turn for the worse. ...