Itinerary
Port Gamble, All Day
An 1850s company mill town with its New England bones intact, a quarter-hour west — shops, a free shell museum, forest trails, and a boat on the bay.
- 8:35 AM
Off the boat and straight to coffee
The Cup & Muffin is a drive-thru at the top of the Kingston strip, open daily from 6 AM, so you can be caffeinated without leaving the car. Port Gamble is about fifteen minutes further west on SR 104.
Map ↗ - 9:15 AM
Walk the town before the day warms up
Come Thursday to Sunday if you possibly can — that is the honest shape of this day. All three of Port Gamble's sit-down kitchens are shut on Monday and Tuesday, Butcher & Baker is shut Wednesday too, and several of the shops keep the same short week. Mondays and Tuesdays you get the town and the walking, not the eating. Wandering it is free and always has been: the Pope & Talbot mill company built it in the 1850s in the image of East Machias, Maine — clapboard houses, big maples, a church on the rise. St. Paul's, built in 1879, is now largely a wedding venue. At this hour you will have the street mostly to yourself.
Map ↗ - 10:00 AM
The General Store, and the shells upstairs
The Port Gamble General Store & Cafe is open daily and has a gift shop, a cafe, and — up on the second floor — the Sea & Shore Museum, free to walk into and billed as the second-largest privately owned shell collection in the world. It has been assembled since the 1970s. It is a genuinely strange and wonderful thing to find above a small-town store.
Map ↗ - 11:15 AM
The shops, which are the real reason people come back
A short row of them, all independent: The Artful Ewe and Gamble Bay Textiles for yarn and cloth, Quilted Strait for quilting, Artful Connextions, Pretty Stick, and the WISH gift shop. Several keep short weeks — The Artful Ewe is Friday to Sunday only, and Gamble Bay Textiles and Artful Connextions are both shut Monday and Tuesday. This is a browsing town, not a rushing one.
Map ↗ - 12:30 PM
Lunch at Butcher & Baker Provisions
A farmhouse restaurant, butcher shop and bakery on SR 104 in town, run by chefs Adam Sawasy and Patricia Horton — the best-known kitchen in Port Gamble. It opens Thursday to Sunday, as does House 11 Taproom; Whiskey and Waffles runs Wednesday to Sunday. So on a Monday or Tuesday all three are dark and the General Store & Cafe, open daily, is your lunch. Steel Bridge Coffee handles the rest.
Map ↗ - 2:00 PM
The Port Gamble Historic Museum — but only in season
Free to enter, and open Thursday through Sunday, noon to 5 PM, from May 1 to September 27. Outside that window the door is locked, so this is a stop that only exists for part of the year. It walks through the mill's story and the company town it paid for.
Map ↗ - 3:00 PM
Trees or water, your choice
Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park runs right up against the town with a well-used network of trails through second growth — walkers and mountain bikers share it. Or go out on the bay: Olympic Outdoor Center on Rainier Avenue rents kayaks, paddleboards and bikes, Monday to Saturday 10 to 6 and Sunday 10 to 5, with last rentals ninety minutes before closing.
Map ↗ - 5:00 PM
Back to Kingston for dinner and the boat
A quarter-hour back east. The Kingston Ale House opens at 11 daily and runs late at the weekend, and Sourdough Willy's is open until 8. Check the Ferry page for the eastbound line before you commit to a table.
Map ↗
Before you head back
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