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WicCreadie

| TRAVELWISE

A FEW weeks ago I wrote
about a pleasant visit we
made to Port Townsend, a
town on the Olympic Penin-
sula designated as a national
historic site.

Twice a year, Port Townsend’s
historic homes are open to the
public; 10 of the lovely restored
Victorian mansions will be in-
cluded on the next tour.

The dates are Sept. 18 and 19,
and you can get all the details
from the Chamber of Commerce,
2437 Sims St., in Port Townsend.

At other times of the year, the
Chamber provides walking tour
maps of the properties, including
a couple — such as Rothschild
‘House — which are open all year.

The exteriors of the homes are
worth seeing, but a good look in-
side should be well worth a visit.

Port Townsend is reached either
by driving north from Seattle or,

‘easiest for us, driving west on
Highway 20 towards Anacortes,
off I-5. Branch left, following
#20, to Whidbey Island.

The ferry leaves hourly from
Keystone for the half-hour cross-
ing (about USS$10).

It’s odd how we develop certain
interests. Take Victorian ar-
chitecture as an example.

If someone had told me 10

Travel lecture
a humorous look
at ‘Canada West’

THE “WILL Rogers’? of the
travel lecture stage, Don Cooper,
returns to delight his Canadian
fans with his presentation of
“Canada West,’’ on Friday, Sept.
17 at the North Vancouver Cen-
tennial Theatre.

This is a humorous look at his-
tory as he recreates the trail blazed
by Alexander MacKenzie nearly
200 years ago.

MacKenzie became the first man
to cross the continent north of
Mexico, and gave Canada its first
valid claim to the West Coast.

Cooper has fogged in the
jungles of Brazil, prospected for
gold in Alaska and Peru's Andes,
and panned for diamonds in
Venezuela’s Grinoco River.

Cooper is not a comedian but a
knowledgeable and articulate
speaker with a very down-to-earth
message.

He feels that the world is anx-
ious to laugh, that people are tired
of grim news, that most of us
have enough problems at home
without getting more thrown at us
on an occasional evening out.
Tickets are available at Tick-
etMaster Canada Ltd., 280-4444.
Shows are at 6 and 8:30 p.m.
Tickets are $12.75, $8.25 for stu-
dents (plus box office service
charge).

years ago that Brian and I would
drive a hundred miles out of our
way just to look at houses, I’d
have laughed.

I don't have any idea when we
first started admiring these
restored beauties — and another
odd thing — we both delight in
them.

For the most part, we're content
with admiring the exteriors.

Since the majority of restored
homes are private residences,
that's polite of us.

Some have been turned into
B & 8 establishments, We'd prob-
ably visit these as guests but we're
both cigarette smokers and none
of the mansions allow smoking
inside.

Two of our favorite places for
enjoying Victorians are Eureka

-and Ferndale, both in Northern

California.

Eureka is on Highway 101,
south of Crescent City.

Eureka is easy to find as it's
one of the few cities that refused
to allow the highway to bypass the
downtown area and the majority
of the restored homes are just one
block west of the highway,
downtown.

Ferndale is west of #101 — the
turnoff is about 20 minutes south
of Eureka and is just five miles
off the highway.

Ferndale is very small and pro-
gress in the form of modern ar-
chitecture has left it behind.

The whole business section,
about two blocks, is old and has
shops for the residents as well as
dandy cafes and specialty shops.
Restored residences are every-
where.

Another town that we would
drive hundreds of miles to visit is
St. George, Utah.

This town was one of the origi-
nal colonies of the Mormons and
was carved out of inhospitable
countryside by dedicated pioneers.

Today, the Mormon Church
provides tours, maps and a great
museum.

Another interesting visit is
Oregon City, just south of 1
Portland on the 4205 Portland
bypass.

Oregon City is the fast stop on
the Oregon Trail and has a lot to
offer history buffs.

Several of the historic homes
are open to the public, but I hate

Presents

CARADA WEST

TRAVELOGUE FILM
narrated live in person
by Don Cooper

NORTH VAN.
CENTENNIAL THEATRE
Fri. Sept. 17-6 & 8:30 pm

Single Tickets 12.75
plus service charge

* A BRITISH SUMMER

* COSTA RICA

“ RUSSIA - REVISITED

* EAST INDIES

* FINLAND

"PERU

* TREASURES OF GREECE
* NEW ZEALAND

Season Tickets 78.75
Ail tickets include GST!
TicketMaster 1304 Hornby St.
Info and Chargeline 280-4444

Brochure mailed on request.

Sunday, September 12, 1993 ~ North Shore News - 33

Photo submitted

THIS STATELY example cf a restored Victorian mansion is located in Ferndale, California. The
siding Is a creamy yellow with deep pink trim. The gardens, too, have been restored, featuring clip-
ped shrubbery and traditional flowers.

to say it — they’re boring.

I suspect it has a Jot to do with
the fact that the town had a close
connection with the Hudson’s Bay
Co. and was established by former
factors.

Some of these gentlemen mar-
tied local native women who had

- little experience with stately

homes; the residences are nice but
functional.

Of course, if you get as far as
Oregon City, you must go just a
few mifes south on the cld 499 to
Aurora — I detailed its many
charms a few weeks ago.

Now I’ve found out about
another national historic site and
we're heading in that direction in
a couple of days.

The town is Jacksonville and I'd
never heard about it until last
week. How? By reading other
travel columns!

This one appeared in the Seattle

PORTUGAL

The Algarve
plus Lisbon

3 Week Package

from CON a TI 5 PP/DBL

Nov. 93 to Mar. 94
Inclusive of:

* Airfare trom Vancouver

* 18 nights accommodation at
the Apartamento Jardim do
Vau ~ a beach front, first class
apartment complex in Praia do
Vau, Algarve

* 2 nights hotel in Lisbon

¢ Airport coach transfers and
coach transportation from the
Algarve to Lisbon.

This package can be extended.
Call us for details.

P.I. on Sept. 2 — a writer called
Hilda Anderson.

According to Anderson,
Jacksonville was the county seat
and most important town in-
Southern Oregon in the 19th cen-
tury.

This was all news to me — and
we’ve passed that way dozens of
times.

The column mentions that the
town, like Port Townsend, died
quite suddenly and over 80 of the

original buildings were spared the’
wreckage that comes with growth.

These are mostly restored and
we can’t wait to visit. I'll have a
full report for you in a couple of
weeks,

Jacksonville is reached by turn-
ing west off the 1-5, about three-

quarters of an hour south of
Grant’s Pass and just a couple of
miles north of Medford. It’s just a
few miles of f the highway.

So, we’ Te turning the “‘durn fine
lookin’ rig’’ south again on
Thursday on one of our wonderful
“‘no destination” rambles. -

We're surely going to be
touching Reno to boost the
Nevada economy. And, as always,
we'll drive up to Virginia City and
prowl the houses. .

Otherwise, who knows? Will we
eventually get to Arizona?

We've got a map and a gas
card,

I’ve got a notebook and my
typewriter. What more do we

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