736. Port Townsend, Jefferson County (WA09)

Quite a structure, no?  This is what a courthouse should look like!  In fact, I’ve got to admit it’s a little scary and imposing in the dark.  I don’t know if it’s the brick or the grandness of it, but it makes one feel uneasy.  It’s the kind of place that an eccentric millionaire would offer $10,000 to anyone who would spend the night in it.  On the other hand, welcome to my eighth county named Jefferson!

I grabbed the cache on the way into town.  I stopped at a historical marker telling about the arrival of George Vancouver to the area.  Behind it in the foliage was another trackable hotel in an ammo can, this time containing no trackables inside.  The experience was a little unsettling in a way I haven’t felt in a long time. Since back in Mason, honestly.  I obviously don’t mind doing this in the middle of the night, but I had this persistent worry that I was going to be jumped by someone in the darkness.  Then I got a Maglite, and all that changed.  Having the heft of it on my hip or in my hands while searching always made me feel a whole lot more confident.  As you can imagine, they would not have let me on the plane with it, and I didn’t really have room, considering I had managed to stuff ten days of clothing and my caching bag into one duffel.  I brought a small flashlight for easy tactical use going for the APE, but it offered me little comfort.  No matter, though.  With the cache found, I could go to my resting place for the night (admittedly about two hours after originally expected) and be up early the next morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, for a quick trip into Seattle (by ferry) before heading down to…