A visit to the pacific northwest

MANILA, Philippines - Port Townsend (pop. 9,500) is a small coastal city in Washington state, at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula abutting into the Strait of Juan de Fuca which straddles the border between the United States and Canada.

Despite its small size and population, Port Townsend is a center of art, culture, entertainment and tourism in the sprawling biodiversity region known as the Pacific Northwest, whose main constituents are Washington and Oregon in the United States and British Columbia in Canada. The main urban centers of this region are Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland.

This vast expanse of picturesque wilderness awes the visitor with its forests, valleys and mountains sheltering orchards and farmlands; its aquatic, avian and woodland wildlife; and its rivers, lakes, bays and inland seas all connecting with the planet’s largest body of water, the Pacific Ocean.

No wonder then that the Pacific Northwest has another name, Cascadia, not only in homage to the Cascade mountains ranging down from British Columbia to northern California, but also in evocation of the mystique attached to Arcadia, the utopian ideal of “pastoralism and harmony with nature.”  

The indigenous people of this land – Native Americans and Canadian First Nations – still inhabit many areas of the Pacific Northwest. Everywhere you turn, every road you take, indigenous names appear to identify rivers, townships, reservations, port cities, business establishments, parks and forests, schools, streets, highways, ferries and even a casino.

Sometime ago, I visited my daughter Len and her husband Joel Goldstein at Port Townsend. Len has been working at the Northwest Maritime Center as development manager for almost a decade now. The NMC is a non-profit organization whose mission is to “engage and educate people of all generations in traditional and contemporary maritime life, in a spirit of adventure and discovery.” 

Former history teacher Joel is an expert on sailboats, works as a consultant on maritime projects and is a volunteer at the NMC. The couple owns a 35-foot Pearson Alberg sailboat named Quickbeam, on which we sailed through Long Island Sound in 2006 when they still lived in Great Neck, New York.

In the outer reaches of the city and other areas of the state of Washington, residents have turned their expansive acreage into viable farms producing organic vegetables as well as excellent fruit wines and ciders. Finnriver Farm and Cidery at Chimacum is one place I would like to visit again and again. For $5, one can taste a shot of 12 different fruit wines and brandies, which was a neat ploy of course to influence you into buying as many farm-crafted fermented flavors as your budget would allow.

I could not resist taking home a bottle each of Habanero Cider, semi-sweet and spicy; Artisan Sparkling Cider; Methode Champenoise Brut; Limited Release Hard Cider; Golden Russet & Granny Smith; Black Currant Wine and Blueberry Wine, both with Apple Brandy.    

Port Townsend has unique attractions which have made it a top destination in the Pacific Northwest: one is the Bay itself, with its marinas and boatyards hosting all kinds of watercraft from kayaks and dinghies to launches, tugboats, sailboats, yachts and roll on-roll off ferries, with an occasional nuclear submarine on its way to home port in the Puget Sound. The other attractions are seafood restaurants right on the shore; Fort Worden with its old wartime fortifications reminiscent of fortress Corregidor in Manila Bay; Victorian-era houses and hotels; art and antique shops, galleries, 1950s delicatessen, ice cream and soda parlors; a bustling farmers’ market; antique shops and bookstores; and fine-dining places like Silverwater Café where I had steamed “Manila Clams” (fresh clams steamed with chorizo, slow roasted tomato, lemon zest and fresh lemon thyme in a white wine, clam nectar, garlic and herb broth, served with garlic bread).

Proud of its “maritime heritage, artist spirit and touch of urban chic,” Port Townsend has consistently won national recognition as one of the “coolest small towns in America,” “most beautiful coastal towns,” “most livable small cities,” “most unique historic lodgings in the US,” “best Main Streets in the USA” and “best places to retire,” among many other annual Top Ten listings.

Its most popular attraction is still the annual Wooden Boat Festival in September – the biggest display and celebration of wooden boats of all shapes and sizes in North America. Organized by the NMC as part of its mandate, the Wooden Boat Festival this year will feature hundreds of boats afloat on the bay or on show at the NMC grounds, 120 presentations by sailing enthusiasts, dozens of exhibitors, daily live music from folk artists and rock bands, and a wealth of local and international cuisine as well as all kinds of wines and beers.

When I attended my first ever festival, I was brought on board the 43-foot ketch Blackbeard II, together with Len and Joel who are both sailing enthusiasts. The ketch is owned by Steve Oliver, president of NMC, and his gracious and lovely wife Kelley. The 41st Wooden Boat Festival will take place on Sept. 8 to 10 this year.

From Port Townsend, Seattle is two hours away by car that goes on the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry across Puget Sound. In Seattle, we went sailing aboard MV Motu, a Grand Banks boat owned by family friend Steve Epstein, who took us on a tour of Lake Union and Lake Washington, maneuvering quite close to Bill Gates’ fabled high-tech mansion near the shore.

On my second trip to Seattle during my brief stay in Port Townsend, I finally got to see the popular Pike Place Market, where I met the Filipino family who owns Oriental Mart, a grocery-cum-carinderia, known for its sinigang na salmon and bulalo.  We didn’t get to meet the Filipino manager of the biggest fish shop at Pike Place, though.

Another popular item on the list is dining at Ivar’s Fish Bar with its salmon samplers and fish and chips, with sea gulls noisily hovering about to clean up morsels strewn on the pier. 

What completed my Seattle tour was a visit to the Art Museum, where Robert Davidson was showing his contemporary abstract artworks influenced by Haida native traditions, side by side with a permanent exhibit of traditional indigenous artifacts of Pacific Northwest culture (which I could never have enough of since my 1998 visit to the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver).

One of the places near Port Townsend Len and Joel brought me to was the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe Native Art Gallery, where I marveled at towering totem poles, intricate woodcarvings, jewelry, beadwork, weaving, metal craft and other native artwork found all over the Pacific Northwest.

One could almost feel the ancient spirit of oneness with Nature that must have inspired the original – or aboriginal – tribal artists of primeval times, and their descendants who continue creating these art forms today. Photos by Ed MARANAN