Last week I decided it was time to take a couple of days off.  A friend of mine manages a vacation rental on the beach down in Coupeville, Washington,  just down the road from the Keystone/ Port Townsend Ferry.  We decided to spend a couple of days there to get some much-needed peace and quiet.  It happened to be St. Patrick’s Day when we arrived, so the “peace and quiet” part didn’t start until the second day…

A Quiet Beach Community

Coupeville is a quiet historic community in the narrow middle section of Whisbey Island. It actually spans the width of the island, with the old town on one side, and Fort Casey State Park on the other, only a couple of miles apart.

The town of Coupeville, one of the oldest in Washington State, is populated by only about 2,000 people, many of whom are artists who contribute to the many galleries in the old-town area.  The town’s small size makes it a great place to spend an afternoon walking around, checking out the small shops, galleries and museums. For details, visit the excellent “Come to Coupeville” website.

There is only one bar in Coupeville, but it is a pretty cool one. Toby’s sits high up on a cliff, looking North over the water below. It is what you would call a dive bar, but in a cool, small-town beach community sort of way.  They’ve got a pretty good beer selection, a pool table and a fantastic view.  The green Guinness pints were a bit disturbing to the eye, regardless of being St. Patty’s Day, but we got over it…

The small community surrounding the beach house is mostly flat, making it a perfect spot for a morning run. We ended up running all the way to the other side of the island, and back.  It took a couple of hours, all in, but the sun was shining and the air was just slightly crisp with a light breeze…perfect conditions.  The opportunity to spend two cell-phone-free hours in the sun opened up the floodgates of creativity, filling our heads with brand-new ways to avoid working in the future.

On the South side of the island is the impressive pre-World War I relic of Fort Casey, which has been converted into a State Park and campground overlooking the opening of the Puget Sound and the waterfront town of Port Townsend across the water.  As a history fanatic, I was enthralled by the intricate system of tunnels and turrets, as well as the almost humorous obsolescence of the design. As a child of the late Cold War, the concept of an actual fort seems like something from an old movie…full of guys with funny helmets…or maybe pirates.  The fort is, in fact, over 100 years old. It was one of three such forts, positioned around the mouth of the Puget Sound to protect the cities of Everett, Seattle and Tacoma to the South.

Click on the thumbnails for larger versions. Click here for more pictures.

It is pretty amazing just how much noise there is at any given moment in a person’s life. You don’t really notice it most of the time, I guess… Try going to a place like Coupeville….where the only sounds are the wind and the birds that glide across it. It takes some getting used to, but I couldn’t get enough of it. I haven’t felt such a sense of calm serenity in longer than I can remember. It was truly priceless. I highly recommend it.

Here’s a little taste of beach life in Coupeville…

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