There are maybe four weeks a year when eating outside on the water here is not an act of optimism, and we are in the middle of them. So this issue is the list we actually use: six tables with a view, from Liberty Bay down to Sinclair Inlet and across to Port Townsend.

The poster above has the stops. Below it, the part a picture cannot carry: who is closed on Mondays, who will not take your reservation, and where to park so the whole thing does not fall apart before you sit down.

The Rundown

T&C Handed Off Grocery Delivery

Town & Country stopped running its own grocery delivery on July 31 and moved it to Instacart. Store pickup went away the same day. If you have been ordering from the Poulsbo or Bainbridge store through T&C's own site, that is why the flow looks different now. Same groceries, different app in the middle.

The Free Concerts Are Nearly Done

Three weekends left, and then that is the summer. Concerts on the Dock in Port Townsend finishes Aug 27 with Kevin Mason & the PT All Stars. Terry's Sounds of Summer at Battle Point closes Aug 26 with LeRoy Bell & His Only Friends. Silverdale at Sunset wraps the same Wednesday, and Kingston's Concerts on the Cove runs Saturdays to Aug 29. Poulsbo already had its last one on Aug 11.

Kingston's Boarding Pass System Is On Through October

Still catching people out. Driving on at Kingston means taking a boarding pass from the dispenser at Lindvog Road before you reach the tollbooth, every day from 8am to 8pm, now confirmed through Oct 12. We went and drove it, and it is simpler than it sounds. The full walkthrough is in Ferry Watch below.

The Waterfront Guide

The poster has the stops. Here is the fine print, which is the part that ruins an evening if you get it wrong.

The Loft  ·  Poulsbo, on Liberty Bay

Front Street, up the stairs, deck over the bay. They have cooked from scratch since 2009 and they still do not take reservations, so a deck table on a warm evening is a footrace. The new summer menu landed July 21. Happy hour in the bar is 3:30 to 5:30 daily, which is the civilized way in.

Harbour Public House  ·  Bainbridge, on Eagle Harbor

An 1881 homestead turned English pub, sitting right on the harbor. Order the chowder ($22), which they build on local clams, mussels, salmon or oysters depending on the day. The Dungeness crab roll is $35 and worth it once a summer. Closed Sunday and Monday, which catches people out constantly.

Doc's Marina Grill  ·  Bainbridge, on Eagle Harbor

A short walk from the ferry, open 11 to 10 every single day, with a deck over the marina that has radiant heaters and roll-down canvas. Which is to say it is the one that still works in November. Chowder here too. This is the reliable one, not the special one, and some nights that is exactly what you want.

The Boat Shed  ·  Bremerton, on the Narrows

Our pick of the six, and the one we would send a visitor to. See below.

Damn Fine Pizza  ·  Port Orchard, on Sinclair Inlet

Bay Street, thin crispy crust, and a pinball room. You pick your own table and order at the counter, so nobody is hovering. The evening light comes off Sinclair Inlet straight at you. Closed Mondays.

Sirens  ·  Port Townsend, on the bay

Two floors of deck hanging over the water off Water Street, eleven taps, and the best seat in Port Townsend for about the price of a burger. Open to midnight Thursday through Saturday, but the kitchen stops at 10 every night, so late does not mean fed. Three minutes from the dock where the Thursday concerts happen.

Hours and prices checked against each restaurant's own listing the week before this went out. Kingston has no stop on this map on purpose: the water-view options there have thinned out, and we would rather leave a gap than send you somewhere that is not open.

Spotlight: The Boat Shed

It is at the bottom of a set of stairs off East 11th, tucked under the Manette bridge on the Port Washington Narrows, and the deck is close enough to the water that you can hear it. Get the award-winning clam chowder, $10 a cup and $16 a bowl, and then get the steamed Manila clams, $20, which the menu says come straight out of Hood Canal. That is about as short as a supply chain gets around here, and it is the reason to order them at this table instead of any other one on the list. The Arctic cod fish and chips is $22 and comes tempura or Cajun, which is a choice worth making on purpose rather than defaulting to the tempura. Reservations only exist for parties of eight or more, so for a normal-sized group you walk in, which usually works even on weekends. Park in front, or in the gravel lot at the bottom of East 11th when the front is full.

The Next Two Weeks

Chief Seattle Days  ·  Suquamish  ·  Aug 14-16  ·  Free

Canoe races Saturday from 1pm and again Sunday from noon to 4. Powwow grand entries Saturday at 1 and 7. Salmon bake at noon both days, $25.

Poulsbo Arts Festival  ·  Waterfront Park, Poulsbo  ·  Aug 14-16  ·  Free

Over forty-one years of this now. Friday noon to 6, Saturday 10 to 6, Sunday 11 to 5, all of it on the grass by Liberty Bay. Park once and do the whole waterfront.

Movies in the Park  ·  Battle Point Park, Bainbridge  ·  Aug 14 & 21  ·  8pm  ·  Free

Ferris Bueller's Day Off on the 14th, Wicked: For Good on the 21st. It does not get properly dark until well after eight in August, so bring something warm for the second half. Easiest parking is the west entrance off Battle Point Drive.

Jefferson County Fair  ·  Port Townsend  ·  Aug 14-16  ·  Ticketed

The small, unhurried county fair, all 4-H barns and pie. If the Kitsap fair at the end of the month sounds like too much, this is the same idea at a tenth of the volume. Prices are at jeffcofairgrounds.org.

Art on the Green  ·  Winslow Green, Bainbridge  ·  Sun Aug 16  ·  Free

Sunday afternoon on the lawn with The South Seas playing jazz and Western swing. Walkable from the ferry, which makes it the easiest thing on this list to do without a car.

Port Orchard Night Market  ·  Sidney Parkway, Port Orchard  ·  Sat Aug 22  ·  6-10pm  ·  Free

Sixty-odd makers and food trucks on the waterfront after dark, with Bay Street staying open late behind it. See the Hidden Gem below for the good way to get there.

Kitsap Fair & Stampede  ·  Fairgrounds, Bremerton  ·  Aug 26-30  ·  $12

Opens Wednesday the 26th. Rodeo Wednesday through Friday at 6:30, Saturday at 11, Xtreme Bulls Sunday at 11, and Thompson Square on the Saturday night. Kids 6 to 12 are $5, under 5 free, and a rodeo ticket gets you into the fair too. Parking is $10 and cash only, which sinks somebody every year.

Farmers markets  ·  Poulsbo and Bainbridge  ·  Saturdays 10am-2pm  ·  Free

Both running every Saturday. Mid-August is the peak of the whole year for these: tomatoes, corn, peaches and the first of the fall squash all on the same table.

This is what we'd go to. There's more out there. Reply and tell us what we missed.

Live Music

The free waterfront series first, because they are almost over.

THU 8/13  ·  Marmalade  ·  Concerts on the Dock

Pope Marine Park, Port Townsend  ·  5-7pm  ·  Free

WED 8/19  ·  Petty Thief (Tom Petty tribute)  ·  Terry's Sounds of Summer

Battle Point Park, Bainbridge  ·  6:30-8:30pm  ·  Free

THU 8/20  ·  POSER (90s covers)  ·  Concerts on the Dock

Pope Marine Park, Port Townsend  ·  5-7pm  ·  Free

WED 8/26  ·  LeRoy Bell & His Only Friends  ·  series finale

Battle Point Park, Bainbridge  ·  6:30-8:30pm  ·  Free

THU 8/27  ·  Kevin Mason & the PT All Stars  ·  series finale

Pope Marine Park, Port Townsend  ·  5-7pm  ·  Free

And indoors, where the tribute-band economy is having a moment.

THU 8/13  ·  Less Than Three, Free The Witness, Knoxey, Subtitles

The Charleston, Bremerton  ·  $10 advance / $15 door

FRI 8/14  ·  ABBAgraphs (ABBA tribute)

Beach Rock Lounge, Clearwater Casino, Suquamish  ·  8:30pm  ·  $15

SAT 8/15  ·  Anuhea

Clearwater Resort Event Lawn, Suquamish  ·  7pm, doors 5  ·  $44

SUN 8/16  ·  The South Seas (jazz and Western swing)

Winslow Green, Bainbridge  ·  Free

FRI 8/21  ·  Fever 103 (Foreigner tribute)

Beach Rock Lounge, Clearwater Casino, Suquamish  ·  8:30pm  ·  $15

SAT 8/22  ·  Invincible (Pat Benatar tribute)

Beach Rock Lounge, Clearwater Casino, Suquamish  ·  8:30pm  ·  $15

THU 8/27  ·  The Heart of Rock & Roll (Huey Lewis tribute)

Clearwater Casino, Suquamish  ·  7pm

Thinner than usual, and that is honest rather than lazy: the Smokestack concert calendar had not posted past Aug 8 when we put this together, so the club listings are lighter than a normal issue. Kingston's Concerts on the Cove is still running Saturdays through Aug 29, but the posted start time disagrees with itself across sources, so check before you drive.

Spotted

· The Loft quietly swapped in a new summer menu on July 21 and still will not take a reservation, so the deck remains the most competitive real estate in Poulsbo on a clear evening.

· Free movies are back on Friday nights at Battle Point Park, 8pm, and someone on that programming committee has taste: Ferris Bueller's Day Off is the one on the 14th.

· Anthony's validates two hours in the P1 garage under the Hampton, which is the quiet answer to the Bremerton boardwalk parking problem everyone complains about.

Hidden Gem: The $2 Dinner Cruise

Everybody thinks of the foot ferry as a commuter thing. It is also the cheapest boat ride with a view anywhere near here. Kitsap Transit runs it between the Bremerton and Port Orchard docks for $2 one way, and the crossing takes about twelve minutes across Sinclair Inlet with the shipyard cranes on one side and the whole Port Orchard waterfront coming up on the other. Walk on in Bremerton after work, eat on Bay Street, walk back. Through Sept 26 they are running extended Saturday service until 11:45pm, which is what makes this work for the Night Market on Aug 22: park once in Bremerton, cross for two dollars, and skip the entire Port Orchard parking situation on the busiest night of its summer.

The Tides

The good minus tides run out this weekend and do not come back until the 25th. Before you go anywhere near a bucket, though, the same warning we ran last issue, because nothing has changed.

So: no bucket, again. But a minus tide is still the best beach walking of the month, and these are the windows.

Thu Aug 13 · 11:53am · -2.03 ft  ·  Seabeck

Fri Aug 14 · 12:36pm · -0.98 ft  ·  Seabeck

Mon Aug 24 · 9:26am · +0.15 ft  ·  Bremerton and Port Orchard

Wed Aug 26 · 10:50am · -0.40 ft  ·  Bremerton and Port Orchard

Predictions from NOAA. The Aug 13 window is a proper midday minus tide and the deepest of this run, with Friday the 14th the last of them, and Guillemot Cove sits on the same water as the Seabeck station.

Ferry Watch

No route changes to report. Everything is running its published summer schedule, which at this time of year means the constraint is other people, not the boats. Sunny weekends produce the longest car waits of the year at Bainbridge. Walk on if you possibly can, or go early or late, and Bremerton is usually the shorter line if the destination works.

Kingston's boarding pass, tested

The system at Kingston has been running since spring and it is still catching people out, so we went and drove it. The verdict: it is easier than it sounds, and it quietly fixes the thing everybody hated.

Here is the whole of it. Coming east on SR 104, watch for the yellow sign with the flashing lights at Barber Cutoff Road. Flashing means the system is on. A signal just before Lindvog Road sorts ferry traffic into its own lane, you stop at the automated dispenser and take a pass, which is free, and you wait for your light to turn green. Then you drive down to the tollbooth and hand over the pass and your ticket together. That is the entire procedure.

The one rule worth committing to memory: the pass dies if you leave the line. Duck into town for a coffee and you come back to the dispenser and start over.

What it actually buys you is the end of line cutting. Your place is held from the moment the machine hands you the pass, so the driver who comes up the shoulder at the last second gains nothing, and the queue stops backing up into downtown Kingston. WSDOT built it for the gridlock. Riders will notice it for the fairness.

On daily from 8am to 8pm through Oct 12. After that it keeps going every weekend year round, plus the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year weeks. Coming the other way from Edmonds, nothing changes.

Colman Dock: the Alaskan Way number 5 elevator is out for mechanical repairs. Number 4 is working. If you need step-free access, check the terminal alerts before you travel.

Hood Canal Bridge: open and normal. The shock absorber work finished and there are no more scheduled overnight closures for it. Daytime work on the center lock carries on with the bridge open, and WSDOT is running short test openings of 30 to 40 minutes on weekday daytimes. Leave real slack if you are headed west, especially if you are running for a ferry.

Full schedules and real-time alerts: wsdot.com/ferries  ·  Bridge status: wsdot.com/hoodcanalbridge

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