The Best of Bremerton, Washington

When I’d just moved to the Seattle area, I lived like an itinerant preacher–welp, minus the preachin’. I spent six weeks just north of the city in Edmonds and another week south of the city in the Georgetown neighborhood but I have to say my favorite stint was the five days I spent in Bremerton, west of Seattle and accessible by a 55-minute ferry.

After five days walking and bussing around town, I can safely admit to enjoying my time in Bremerton. Sure, life is slower than in Seattle but it was just the speed I needed after my cross-country move and preparing to segue out of my peripatetic lifestyle. Despite not being often considered as a tourist destination, it’s definitely worth exploring for a few hours or half a day if you’re visiting Seattle or the Puget Sound area.

Kitsch-curious?

Stop by the famous Hi-Lo’s 15th Street Café. Parked on a nondescript street corner in West Bremerton, the small, colorful, eclectic diner has a distinctly warm family feel: choose your own coffee mug from the cafe’s mismatched collection and serve yourself from the sawed-off trunk of a Volkswagen bus. Browse the self-proclaimed world’s largest thermos collection while waiting for a Hi-Lo perennial favorite: tasty moon biscuits–biscuit batter baked in a waffle iron–served with gravy. Call ahead to make reservations to dine in Hi-Lo’s pièce de resistance: a vintage VW bus that’s been converted into a dining “room.”

Military history more your speed?

Check out the Puget Sound Navy Museum. Admission to the museum is free, but you can make a donation to support its efforts to preserve the region’s naval history. With exhibits sharing the legacy of the naval shipyard, you’ll hear the stories about the earliest shipbuilders to the role of the shipyard today. Two highlights of my visit to the museum stand out: the exhibit retelling the action surrounding the battle of Midway in the Pacific during World War II and the display containing a “small” piece of shrapnel removed from the U.S.S. Tennessee after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Nature lover?

In addition to offering significantly better views of the Olympic Mountains than you’ll see from Seattle, Bremerton also has Harborside Fountain Park. A perfect place to chill for a little bit of downtime, on a warm evening it’s just really pleasant taking in water views, watching various seabirds, smelling the briny air. If you’re anything like me and take pleasure in simple things, you’ll be tickled by the park’s water features: fountains that seem to blow off randomly, reminiscent of a submarine rising from the depths. Fitting, don’t you think?

Ferry fanatic?

As an unabashed fan of the Washington State Ferry System, any trip that puts me on a ferry is a good thing. The ferry from the city to Bremerton is one of the longer, twistier routes from Seattle, snaking across the Sound and past Bainbridge Island. Stay in Bremerton overnight and take the first ferry back to Seattle–there’s nothing like watching the sun rise over the city, silhouetting the North Cascades to the east.

My biggest regret from my time in Bremerton was not making time to explore the U.S.S. Turner Joy, a ship-slash-museum that offers self-guided tours demonstrating life aboard the mid-20th century destroyer in commission during the Vietnam War. It’s rated the top thing to do in Bremerton. Guess I’ll have to go back.