PORT TOWNSEND — A menagerie of costumed people of all ages filled the downtown streets Sunday as Halloween was celebrated with people dressed in traditional spooky garb along with more imaginative themes.
Port Townsend Police Chief Conner Daily estimated more than 1,500 people dressed up and came downtown.
“I remember when we started this 15 years ago and we didn’t even have to block off the street,” Daily said. “This is just incredible.”
There were plenty of witches and goblins, with a healthy dose of aliens and themes assumed by families and friends.
Abby Leigh dressed up her basset hound, Steinbeck, as a hot dog with bun and ketchup strapped to his body, while she dressed up as a bottle of ketchup.
Ryan White dressed his family and his dog as bees, while Caleb Summers carried a chair and a whip attempting to keep his son Seamus, dressed as a lion, in step.
In past years, the parade began downtown and moved outward, then returned to trick-or-treat local merchants.
This year, the Port Townsend Main Street Association, which sponsors the parade, hoped to gather at the ferry dock and use the newly built ferry Chetzemoka as the backdrop for the newest family portrait.
Having everyone in costume for the picture would have provided a unique, “very Port Townsend” flavor, according to Main Street Executive Director Mari Mullen.
Less than a week before the scheduled event, the Chetzemoka service was postponed because of a needed reconfiguration, and the parade lost its honored guest.
The parade began around 4:15 p.m. at Polk Street and headed down Water Street, dissipating informally just past Quincy Street as the kids headed back up Water Street to pay trick-or-treat calls on several merchants.
Water Street reopened at about 5 p.m., but costumed children and adults appeared downtown for several hours.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
