We wrote you a rainy day guide, and October showed up warm. Rain at the end of September was enough for Kitsap to lift its burn ban on October 1, and then the month opened dry with highs near 70. It never stays that way on this side of the mountains, and the forecast has light rain likely by Friday. So this is the list for when it turns: seven places that are better wet, or at least do not care.

The light is going either way. The sun sets at 6:35 tonight in Poulsbo and at 6:09 by the next issue, and the Sol Duc pools close for the season at noon on November 1. Rain or not, the calendar is telling you to go indoors, or into hot water.

Also: the burger bracket's quarterfinals closed last night, and the semifinals open today.

The Rundown

The Hoh River Bridge Closes This Morning

WSDOT closes US 101 at the Hoh River Bridge south of Forks at 5am today and reopens it at noon on Tuesday the 13th. There is no detour across the river. The Hoh Rain Forest stays open and reachable from Forks, but Kalaloch, Ruby Beach and Quinault are on the far side, which from here means going around through Shelton and Aberdeen. Separately, Rialto Beach is unreachable through October 15 while Mora Road is closed for construction. After the repairs the bridge stays one alternating lane at 25 mph. The park's road line is 360-565-3131.

Bainbridge Dedicates The Exclusion Memorial's Visitor Center On Sunday

The Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial opens its Visitor Center on Sunday the 11th, the final phase of a project more than twenty years in the making. The memorial honors the 276 Japanese and Japanese American islanders of 1942, 227 of whom were the first Japanese Americans forcibly removed from their homes under Executive Order 9066. The public dedication is at 12:30pm at 4192 Eagle Harbor Dr NE, with an open house from 2 to 4, and a free shuttle runs from American Legion Hall, 7898 NE Bucklin Hill Rd, from 10:15am to 4:30pm.

Bill Austin, Who Shaped The Look Of Downtown Poulsbo, Has Died At 91

Since 1971 Bill Austin built or restored a good share of what you picture when you picture downtown Poulsbo: the Front Street waterfalls, the nautilus at Oyster Plant Park, the Austin-Kvelstad Pavilion, the farmhouse at Nelson Park, and a lot of the murals and signs in between. The city is planning an observance this month. The date has not been announced yet.

Best Burger of the Peninsula

The quarterfinals are counted: 28 votes, and four burgers are left. Voting is open now, and the semifinals close Wednesday October 21. Tap the one you want in each matchup. One vote per person, and you can skip any matchup you have no opinion about.

Semifinals

1 Grub Hut Kingston

VS

12 Shadowline Burgers Sequim

10 Field House at Town & Country Poulsbo

VS

14 A&H Curbside Grill Port Hadlock

Winners are announced in the next issue and the championship opens the same day. The one still standing on November 4 gets the 2026 seal for the front window.

The Rainy Day Guide

The poster up top is the version to keep on your phone. Here is what each one costs you, how far it is from Poulsbo, and the catch, because there is always a catch.

1. Sol Duc Hot Springs, Olympic National Park · about 2 hr 15 · $19 a session

The purest form of the idea: hot mineral water in old-growth forest while it rains on your head. The pools run at about 99, 101 and 104 degrees in 90-minute sessions starting at 8, 10, noon, 2, 4 and 6, and sessions are limited, so book one before you drive. Adults are $19, kids 4 to 11 and seniors $15, on top of the $30 park vehicle fee, which is cashless. The season ends at noon on November 1.

2. Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island · about 15 min · $22 in October

Bloedel says it is open rain or shine, and the moss garden is the reason to take it at its word: it looks its best wet. October admission is $22 for adults, $15 for seniors and military, $5 for kids 5 to 12. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10 to 5, suggested last entry 3:30, closed Mondays, and timed tickets are recommended. The Squash Hunt for kids is included through November 1, and on Wednesday the 14th the Puget Sound Mycological Society leads a fungi walk from 11 to 12:30, $37 including admission.

3. U.S. Naval Undersea Museum, Keyport · about 10 min · free

Torpedoes, deep-sea submersibles and a great deal of submarine hardware under one roof, ten minutes from Poulsbo, and it costs nothing, parking included. You do not need base access. Open 10 to 4. The catch: it is closed Tuesdays. On Sunday the 18th at 2, Navy Band Northwest sends a woodwind trio and a brass quintet, also free.

4. Two museums, one walk, Bremerton · about 25 min, or walk off the Seattle boat · free

The Puget Sound Navy Museum on First Street is running We Have the Watch: 250 Years of the U.S. Navy, open 10 to 4, closed Tuesdays. A few blocks up, the Kitsap History Museum sits in an art deco former bank with a walk-through 1900s Main Street and a working 1930s switchboard, open 11 to 4. Both are free. The history museum's own site disagrees with itself about Tuesdays, so we would plan this for Wednesday to Sunday and get both.

5. Port Townsend, indoors · about 45 min · $7 to $12

Start at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center at Fort Worden, where there are kelp-forest tanks and a full orca skeleton overhead (Thursday to Monday 11 to 4, adults $7, and a Discover Pass, $10 a day, to park, except Saturday the 10th, a state free day). Then downtown to the Museum of Art + History, reopened in April inside the 1892 City Hall (Thursday to Sunday 11 to 4, adults $12, 17 and under free). Finish at Imprint Bookshop on Water Street, open daily 10 to 5. Thursday to Sunday lines up all three.

6. Olympic Game Farm, Sequim · about 1 hr · $25

A drive-through, which means you meet the bison from a warm car with the wipers going. The farm's own FAQ says many of the animals come out to visit in the rain. Daily 9 to 4, last entry 3:15, through November 25. Adults $25, kids 6 to 14 and 55-plus $22, 5 and under free, and bread is $5 a loaf. Card or cash, no tap.

7. Hoh Rain Forest, Olympic National Park · about 3 hr 15 each way · $30 a vehicle

The Park Service puts the Hoh at 140 inches of rain a year, so going in a dry spell rather misses the point. The Hall of Mosses loop is under a mile and the Spruce Nature Trail is only a little longer. This is a full day and you should plan it as one. The bridge closure in the Rundown is south of here, so the Hoh stays reachable from Forks all week.

More on the web edition: Lake Quinault Lodge at 100, a bowling alley, a submarine escape room, three pools and the library programs worth leaving the house for.

This Weekend and Next

Poulsbo Film Festival  ·  Regal Poulsbo Cinema · Fri Oct 9 to Sun Oct 11 · Opens Fri 6pm · $15 to $30 a block, $200 all access

Fifty-three independent films with the filmmakers in the room for questions, and a Horror Night on Saturday for anyone who wants their October early.

Fall Book Sale  ·  Greater Hansville Community Center · Fri Oct 9 6 to 9pm, Sat 9 to 2, Sun 11 to 3

Books, DVDs, vinyl, puzzles and board games, which is to say the entire winter. Everything is half price on Sunday.

Soggy Sasquatch Festival  ·  Bushel & Barrel Ciderhouse, Poulsbo · Sat Oct 10 and Sun Oct 11 · Noon to 9pm · Admission not posted

Chainsaw carving all weekend, Morgan Smith & Co. Saturday 6 to 9, a burning sasquatch bonfire Saturday night and the carving auction Sunday at 4. Kids and dogs welcome, and the name was made for this issue.

Second Saturday Art Walk  ·  Downtown Poulsbo · Sat Oct 10 · 5 to 8pm · Free

Galleries and shops open late, and Front Street Gallery opens a new show with an artist reception. Gallery hopping is a rainy-night activity that just happens to be outdoors between doors.

Apple Day at Finnriver  ·  Finnriver Farm & Cidery, Chimacum · Sun Oct 11 · Noon to 6pm · $10 suggested, $20 a family

Apples pressed into hot cider in front of you, Global Heat at 2 and a Magic Orchard Parade at 4. About 35 minutes from Poulsbo.

Pumpkin Walk  ·  Bainbridge Gardens, Bainbridge Island · Daily through Oct 31 · Free

A woodland trail lined with decorated pumpkins, with donations going to the Boys and Girls Club. Monday to Saturday 9 to 5:30, Sunday 10 to 4.

Haunted Heronswood  ·  Heronswood Garden, Kingston · Fri Oct 16 and Sat Oct 17 · 5 to 9pm · $15, ages 7 to 17 $10, under 7 free

Trick-or-treating along a lit pumpkin trail through a serious garden, plus a Trail of Terror for the older kids. Pay at the gate.

Community Climbing Day  ·  Insight Climbing & Movement, Bremerton · Sat Oct 17 · Free, reservations required

A climbing gym is the rainy-day answer nobody thinks of, and on the 17th the adult day pass that is normally $18 costs nothing. Shoe rental is $6, and you do need shoes. Reserve first.

Fall Shadows Festival  ·  Port Angeles Fine Arts Center · Sat Oct 17 · 5 to 8:30pm · Free, donations welcome

Webster's Woods lit by carved pumpkins and a life-size shadow theater. Pets stay home, and the lot holds about 30 cars, so use the overflow at Franklin Elementary or Peninsula College.

Olympic Peninsula Fungi Festival  ·  Port Angeles waterfront and The HUB · Sat Oct 17 and Sun Oct 18 · Grounds free, talks and forays ticketed

The one festival on this list that needs the rain to have shown up. Grounds open Saturday 9 to 5:30 and Sunday 9 to 3.

Dark & Stormy Nights Film Festival  ·  Ocean Shores Cinema, Ocean Shores · Sat Oct 17 and Sun Oct 18 · From 10am · $10 a block

Sixty horror shorts in its first year, plus a scarecrow contest and a pub crawl. It is this issue's theme in four words, and about two and three-quarter hours away via Shelton and Aberdeen.

Live Music

FRI Oct 9 · Bobby Winstead & the Long Goodbyes, Western swing  ·  Quilcene Lantern, Quilcene · 7pm · $10 advance

FRI Oct 9 · Slow Goat, Constance Tomb and more, doom and goth  ·  The Charleston, Bremerton · 8pm · All ages · $15

FRI Oct 9 and SAT Oct 10 · Port Angeles Symphony, All-Baroque, Vivaldi and Bach  ·  Holy Trinity Lutheran, Port Angeles (Fri); Trinity United Methodist, Sequim (Sat) · 7pm · $20, 18 and under free with an adult

SAT Oct 10 · Skerryvore, Scottish trad and rock  ·  Admiral Theatre, Bremerton · 7:30pm · $24 to $53

SAT Oct 10 · Bainbridge Symphony Fall Chamber Music  ·  Hodges Hall, Bainbridge · 3pm

SUN Oct 11 · REBEL, Baroque, Centrum Chamber Music  ·  Joseph Wheeler Theater, Fort Worden, Port Townsend · 2pm · $45

TUE Oct 13 · ABRA Cadabra, ABBA tribute  ·  Admiral Theatre, Bremerton · 7pm · $59 to $75

WED Oct 14 · Jun Iida Quintet, jazz trumpet  ·  Cellar Cat, Kingston · 6pm · Advance tickets only

FRI Oct 16 · UB40  ·  Admiral Theatre, Bremerton · 7:30pm · $63 to $138

FRI Oct 16 · Jun Iida, jazz trumpet, his second date this fortnight  ·  Bainbridge Island Museum of Art · 7pm · Sold out

FRI Oct 16 · Izaak Opatz and Devin Champlin, songwriters  ·  Quilcene Lantern, Quilcene · 7pm · $12 advance

FRI Oct 16 to SUN Oct 18 · Afro-Cuban All Stars  ·  Field Hall, Port Angeles · Fri 8pm, Sat 7:30pm, Sun 2pm · $44.50 to $79.50

SUN Oct 18 · Navy Band Northwest, woodwind trio and brass quintet  ·  Naval Undersea Museum, Keyport · 2pm · Free

WED Oct 21 · Lyle Lovett and His Small Large Band  ·  Field Hall, Port Angeles · 7:30pm · $124.40 to $184.50

Our listings run to October 22. If you have a show we missed, tell us.

Spotted

Olalla Vineyards has moved its Friday night music indoors for the season, October through May.

The construction fence around Bainbridge's closed Ray Williamson Pool has turned into a sign-in wall, where swimmers write their names and how many years they have swum there.

A Bainbridge resident woke around 3:30 in the morning to a mother bear at the chicken coop and played music at full volume until 6. The resident's review: "It kept the bears at bay, but they didn't go away."

The Tides

On Kitsap and Hood Canal beaches, the good low tides have gone nocturnal for the season. Every minus tide there in the next two weeks falls in the middle of the night, between midnight and about 3:30, and after this morning's low of about +1.5 feet, the daylight lows stay around +2 feet or higher. On the Strait and the coast a few arrive in the evening instead, so check the station nearest you. Either way, it is the normal fall pattern, and the daylight lows come back in spring. We will tell you when.

Predictions from NOAA.

Most of our shoreline is closed to shellfish right now. As of the state's October 7 biotoxin bulletin, that includes the Strait from Cape Flattery to Middle Point on the Quimper Peninsula, with Dungeness, Sequim and Discovery bays; Port Ludlow and Oak Bay; nearly all of Hood Canal, with Port Gamble Bay; Liberty Bay, Agate Passage, Port Orchard Passage and Sinclair Inlet; and the ocean beaches through October 31. Even Quilcene and Dabob bays, and the Kitsap shore from Foulweather Bluff to Point Jefferson, are closed to butter and varnish clams.

Closures change, so whenever you do go, check the beach you are actually standing on first: Washington DOH Shellfish Safety Map.

Hidden Gem: Sequim's Mastodon

If the Game Farm gets you as far as Sequim, give the afternoon one more stop. Sequim Museum & Arts on North Sequim Avenue keeps the tusks and bones of a mastodon from the 1977 Manis find, about 13,800 years old. That is a lot of wet winters since it last walked this peninsula. There is also a Boys in the Boat exhibit with Pocock racing shells, for Sequim's own Joe Rantz. It is free and open Wednesday to Saturday, 11 to 4.

Ferry Watch

Monday's sick-out. On Monday, 23 engine room workers called in sick and nobody qualified would cover, and 13 of the 18 boats WSF keeps in service were out at some point in the day. Bainbridge stopped after the 5:30am from Seattle, Kingston after the 7:10am from Edmonds, Southworth went down with Fauntleroy and Vashon, and Bremerton ran one boat. Service was back on Tuesday. It came amid a dispute between the engineers' union and the state over wages and working conditions, and the union says the absences were not coordinated. If you have a boat to catch, check the bulletin before you leave. Bainbridge Review

Kingston's boarding pass goes weekends-only after Monday. Through Indigenous Peoples' Day on the 12th it runs daily, 8am to 8pm. After that it drops to the year-round standard, every Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 8pm. Pass first, ticket second, on weekends from here on.

Bremerton: the Kitsap Transit fast ferry has been running seven fewer weekday round trips since September 1, when the state money for the extra sailings ran out.

Storm season, bridge edition. The Hood Canal Bridge generally closes to traffic when winds top 40 mph for 15 minutes or longer, and sometimes at lower speeds depending on the direction. WSDOT's free email alerts are how you find out before you are in the line.

Full schedules and live alerts: wsdot.com/ferries

More for a wet fortnight

The email had room for seven. These are the ones that did not make the cut, which is not the same as the ones that are not worth it.

Lake Quinault Lodge, Quinault · about 2 hr 45 via Shelton and Aberdeen

The lodge turns 100 this year. It was built in 1926, and Franklin Roosevelt ate in the dining room in 1937. Sitting in the lobby by the big fireplace costs nothing. Earn it first on the Quinault Loop Trail, four miles along the lake and through rain forest past Cascade Falls, $5 a vehicle or a Northwest Forest Pass, and no cash on site. South Shore Road is closed at mile 8 for a washout, well past the lodge and the trailhead. This is the far side of the Hoh River Bridge, but from here you were always going to go through Aberdeen anyway.

SEA Discovery Center, Poulsbo · Fri and Sat only · free

Salish Sea creatures in touch-and-look tanks on the Liberty Bay waterfront, run by Western Washington University. Summer Sundays are over, so it is Friday and Saturday, 11 to 4. Free, donations welcome.

Hi Joy Bowl, Port Orchard · $7.25 to $8 a game

Thirty-two lanes, Rock 'n Bowl on Saturday nights, shoes $5.25. Open 9am to 10pm Sunday to Thursday and to midnight Friday and Saturday. The alley itself warns that lanes are scarce on Wednesday to Friday evenings from September to April, so reserve.

Kitsap Great Escape, Silverdale · $40 to $45 a player

The room to book is Submergency!, where the job is to recommission the retired submarine U.S.S. Bremerton. It is about as local as an escape room gets. $40 a player Wednesday and Thursday, $45 Friday to Sunday, $15 for ages 6 to 9.

Three pools for when you are already wet

The North Kitsap Community Pool in Poulsbo has open swim Saturday noon to 2, adults $6. The South Kitsap Community Pool in Port Orchard runs recreation swim Friday and Saturday 7 to 8:30pm and weekends noon to 1:30, $5. And if you are in Port Angeles for the crab, the Shore Aquatic Center has a hot tub and sauna (18 and over) on a $7.50 adult day pass.

Dungeness River Nature Center, Sequim · free

Indoor exhibits that follow the Dungeness from the headwaters to the estuary, made with the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe. Monday to Saturday 9 to 5, and a third stop for the Sequim day after the Game Farm and the mastodon.

The library, which is free and has heat

Kingston Goes to the Movies shows Carrie for its fiftieth anniversary at the Firehouse Theater on Tuesday the 13th at 6 (rated R). Introduction to Local Fungi & Foraging, with the Kitsap Peninsula Mycological Society, is at the Sylvan Way branch in Bremerton on Thursday the 15th, 5:30 to 6:30. And Visible Mending at the Poulsbo branch on Saturday the 17th teaches sashiko-style repair; bring the sweater with the hole in it. Sessions 10:30 to noon and 12:30 to 2, ages 16 and up, registration required.

The listings that did not fit

Harvest Fest at Miracle Ranch  ·  Port Orchard · Fri Oct 16 to Sun Oct 18 · $10 a person, $35 a family

Hay wagon rides, a hay maze and carnival games. Friday noon to 6, Saturday 10 to 6, Sunday noon to 6.

The Airwaves Belonged to the People: WBCN and the American Revolution  ·  Historic Lynwood Theatre, Bainbridge Island · Fri Oct 16 to Sun Oct 18

A documentary on the Boston rock station that became a voice for the anti-war, civil rights and women's and gay liberation movements of the late sixties and early seventies, built from its own archive, with Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith and David Bowie on the air. Friday at 4:15 and 6:40, Saturday at 2 and 7, Sunday at 2. Two hours, rated PG-13.

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