Last week I posted six things I appreciate about my new home, Port Townsend, Washington. After three and a half months here, I’m starting to get a feel for the place, and there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on around here. Here’s the follow-up to that post, with six more reasons I’m happy to call this home for now:

Moss

I’ve always loved moss. Lush and green, so much prettier than grass. Out here, its grows on anything left outside long enough — cars, boats, trees, early 20th Century bunkers in the various forts around the area… There’s something just amazing about wandering through Fort Warden, our local state park and a former army fort, climbing over moss-entombed relics of the interwar period.

My first visit to this area was a family camping trip when I was twelve. I fell in love with the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park — for the giant-sized trees, the glorious humidity, and above all, for the moss. I just love it.

Proximity & Distance

I’ll admit, we haven’t done a ton of exploring since moving here (I’ve been preoccupied with things like, say, finding a place to live, and filling that place with things). But we’ve taken trips to nearby cities (Seattle, Portland and Boise, which is, OK, not exactly right next door), and we have more of that planned: Vancouver, British Columbia, is only 3 hours away and Victoria, BC, is also just a ferry-ride away.

But in a lot of ways, we’re out in the middle of nowhere. It’s a long trek to the nearest commercial airport or big box store, and we’ve been dismayed to find out how much people drive out here, commuting daily between the various small towns scattered around the peninsula. But that quasi-seclusion is alright in it’s own way. It’s nice not to have Target at my fingertips. The real lack of casual dining means we rarely eat out anymore. And we’re close to some amazing hikes. The Olympic mountains are pretty much in our backyard. When I say we haven’t done enough exploring, this is the kind I’m most excited about.

The Strait

In Madison, we lived on the lake and we loved it (what’s not to love? beyond that fish-kill smell, I guess). Here is somehow not all that different. From our bay window, we can watch the ferries come in and go out across Admiralty Bay and the Strait of Juan de Fuca — I love to see the boats lit up against the dark at night. It’s salt water out here, of course, fed directly from the Pacific, but because we can see so many islands across the water, from where we are it doesn’t look so unlike our familiar lakes. And yet, when we go over to the beach near my brother’s place on the other side of town, it’s suddenly obvious that this is the sea — vast and expansive, connecting so much of this part of the world.

It’s an awesome view, and we get to see it every day. I feel very lucky for that.

The Stairs

This is definitely a love/hate relationship. We live downtown, against a cliff face. To get to Uptown, the neighborhood above the cliff, there is a set of stairs just a few yards from our doorstep. Four flights of steps, designed for Victorian women in tight corsets, long gowns and tiny boots. Those women apparently had more stamina than I do — those steps with their extra-short rise put me out of breath every time. (The photo above was taken from halfway up those stairs).

On the other side of the street, the cliff is almost equally steep. There we have several sets of wooden stairs leading down to the waterfront, and, importantly, the cafe and the pizza shop. It’s another little shortcut, like the public trails I talked about last week — we could walk down the hill and around and wind up in the same place, but some thoughtful city planner included a couple flights of stairs for quick access. It’s cute, and it’s fast, and I love it.

Engraved Street Names in Uptown

Ok, I’ll be honest: I think these engraved street names are great, but the best part about them? The moss that fills them out. Water must pool up in the letters and make the perfect little moss habitat. So maybe this doesn’t deserve it’s own bullet point, but I smile every time I see these names in the sidewalk.

When the Sun Comes Out

When it’s raining and gray here, it feels like it’s been raining and gray forever. That is what I’ve noticed after three and a half short months. And I like overcast days, but when the sun comes out, everything changes. The clouds push away, the mountains are visible, everyone comes outside. It’s not unlike the midwest on the first hot day in March, everyone euphoric over the good weather. But here, with rain expected to continue pretty regularly until July and start again in October, sunny days are something special for much of the year.

Add that to the super-long daylight hours because we’re so far north, and oh man, I can’t wait for summer to kick in.