LAST DAY VISITING PORT TOWNSEND

Port Townsend, Washington, is definitely one of our favorite summer spots. We've been here for over two weeks.

Tomorrow we are taking off, heading "down south" to Kelso, Washington, for an overnight stop before we head to Canby, Oregon, on Monday. Today was a day to enjoy more of what we love about the area.

We started off with a walk along a well-known and well-used walking/biking trail that goes along the bay southwest of the port. The trail begins in a busy and fascinating boatyard, full of boats/yachts large and small. Lots of activity and noise, interesting and mysterious to us landlubbers.

Then we were off to the Port Townsend Saturday farmer's market. It isn't large, just one block long, but they pack a lot of variety into the small space, with an adjacent park to handle the overflow of people watchers, music lovers (live music anchors the market), lively kids and dogs - and a mother and daughter reading the last Harry Potter book outloud.

Last week, Odel had an awesome salmon sandwich from one of the vendors, so that was our first stop today. The bread was so great that we stopped back by the vendor to find out what it was: panini from - who else? - the bakery vendor. That was our next stop: add three panini rolls to the bag.



While we roamed the stalls picking up fresh vegetables, tasting cherries, cheese and anything else we could snag, we came across a vendor selling freshly-dug clams and oysters. Tonight's planned menu went right out the window when we added two pounds of fresh clams to our bags.

Top photo: fresh clams, ready to steam, and red "green onions", ready to be chopped and added to the steaming broth.

Middle photo: Grilled panini and fresh steamed clams; Odel pours a local Fume Blanc. We have roasted olives for our vegetable.

Bottom photo: I don't think it took even 15 minutes to empty the shells and clean our plates!

Nothing like a dynamite meal of fresh local ingredients to make you wanna' come back already.