Our house sitting adventures continue in Port Angeles, Washington! Nestled at the northern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, this area is full of diverse ecological landscapes. We’ll be spending a little less than a week here watching over a lovely home and three dogs on the outskirts of town. The Olympic Peninsula is also home to one of the largest temperate rain forests in the US, with an emphasis on rain. It’s going to be hard to see everything we want to with such little time, but we’re sure gonna try!

Port Angeles, Washington

The State of Washington is located in the northwest corner of the contiguous states and borders British Columbia (Canada), Idaho, Oregon, and the Pacific Ocean. Washington is a powerhouse in the tech and engineering world, hosting the Boeing assembly plant, Microsoft’s headquarters, and Amazon’s headquarters. This is largely due to the lower cost of living in the Seattle area versus San Francisco, where the median housing prices are almost double.

Port Angeles is located on the northwestern tip of Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. Long a Native American homeland, the town now hosts a population of nearly 20,000 people with about 2% mix of native peoples. As the name suggests, Port Angeles is situated on the water, and neighbors the Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Even more, standing on the shore, one can look across the Strait to see Canada. The neighboring town of Forks, Washington was featured in the popular vampire series The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer.

Our Home

We are house sitting for three dogs in a beautiful home just outside of town. It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and is 2,700 square feet (250 m²) on 2.5 acres. There is a fully stocked kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry room, garage, and play area. The neighboring homes are ranging around $450k. Our home was very comfortable and well appointed, with lots of artwork created by the home owner, a professional artist.

The nearest business is a family-owned bar. Of which, the owners and locals were quite the cast of characters, and we enjoyed hanging out and listening to their banter over a pint of local craft brew. A little farther afoot is downtown Port Angeles, hosting a small collection of shops, a harbor, and several parks. We walked around downtown a few times during our stay and sampled many of the local restaurants. Most noteworthy was La Belle Creperie, which served up some amazing sweet and savory crepes like the goat cheese, spinach, and raspberry one pictured above (which now lives very happily in my stomach).

Our Family

Our hosts are a family of four whom we met very briefly. Understandably, they were very excited to head out on their vacation to Disneyland. Therefore, we got quick rundown of the place and sent them on their way. They seemed like a wonderful family and based on the artwork throughout the house, we have to assume a very talented one as well.

The pets for the week were three rescue dogs: (left to right) Snuggles, Lily, and Danny. Snuggles is a chihuahua mix breed and is the alpha in the house. He hated us for about the first three hours, then decided we might be one of the best friends he has ever had. Hence, Snuggles followed me everywhere and lived up to his name. Lily was a little bashful, but a bundle of love. She enjoyed licking our faces as often as humanly (dogly?) possible. In contrast, Danny was a bit of a loner, unless belly rubs were up for offer, or if Lily was available to play. They were all super cute, fun, and the perfect lap warmers during the cold evenings.

Our Lives

This house sit was very quiet and peaceful. We got a lot of work done, including publishing Josh’s short story collection, Finding My Voice. We were both nearly in tears with the excitement of this accomplishment. Josh is now a “Published Author”! It is so exciting!!!

Further, our non-work time was spent cuddling with the dogs, going for walks, exploring Port Angeles, and the neighboring Olympic National Park. The area is absolutely beautiful! As long as getting wet from the rain isn’t a concern, the nature adventure options are endless. I can’t wait to explore more and see what life is like in this new place we live.