Whidbey Island is our home and I don’t really get the desire to leave it, however, we all like a little change here and there. Tuesday we took the ferry with our oldest dog Foxy Lady Moonpie as Josh found a patio on the beach for us to enjoy dinner. It was just what we needed.
There are three ways off the island: Clinton Ferry to Mukilteo (Seattle), the Deception Pass Bridge to Anacortes and the Coupeville Ferry to Port Townsend. I prefer to avoid the I-5 or 405 gauntlet toward Seattle as much as possible, so if we are looking for a change in scenery, Port Townsend is just a 30 minute ferry ride away.
Leashed dogs are welcome on the ferry and walk-on passengers with leashed pets are allowed in terminals and to board vessels and are allowed to remain in exterior passenger areas, including shelter decks, promenade decks and/or sun decks on some boats, however, all boats allow walk on passengers with leashed pets to gain access to exterior passenger spaces of the vessel via the interior cabin provided they do not linger in an interior space and use the most direct route when moving to or from the exterior area.
On the way there, I walked Moonpie through the interior to get to the deck so she could walk around and explore. It was such a beautiful day and Mt. Rainier was even showing her beauty, so being on the deck wasn’t a problem. On the return voyage home, we did sit inside with Moonpie as it was quite chilly. We may have been in the wrong place, but as Moonpie is quite the calm, friendly traveler no one seemed to mind.
Josh had to run errands on the Port Townsend side earlier that day, so when he texted me that he found a patio, taking the 6 p.m. ferry to meet him was a no brainer. He found The Pourhouse which is about a 15-20 minute walk from the quaint downtown area. The Pourhouse’s specialty is beer, but they do serve wine for those who shun the hops but still want some Pacific Northwest sunshine on those sunny spring and summer days.
They don’t serve food but boast a nice Take Out menu book where you can order from nearby restaurants. We ordered Pho from Pho Thao across the street and surprisingly our comfort food arrived in large pho bowls with all the trimmings. My Chicken Pho with the Rye Saison was a perfect match for enjoying waterfront views with Josh and Moonpie.
In the winter, the last ferry back to Coupeville is 8:30 p.m. so we didn’t have a lot of time to linger, but it was nice to get away just for a couple of hours.
What is your favorite quick getaway?
life in the sound 
We love the ferry from Port Townsend, so gorgeous! We’re Oregonians so while I’ve been to a lot of places in Washington, I’d never done the full road trip around the state so that’s what we did on our honeymoon, going up the 101 to Olympic National Park in up to Port Angeles and then the ferry to the San Juans and then over to Seattle and then diagonally through Yakima down to the Gorge (I didn’t feel particularly pulled to return to Spokane hahaha), so lovely!
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I haven’t gone around the Olympic Peninsula Coast but it’s on my list! When we moved here, we came through eastern Washington and it isn’t my cup of tea, but there are parts that have definite beauty.
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