Anyone been to Port Orchard, WA?

Question

My family and I are looking at some homes to buy in Port Orchard. We will be going to visit in March, but would like some first hand information if anyone has any information.

Answer 1

Port Orchard is lovely!

My sister lives there. You *will* hear some people refer to it as "Port Torture" .. ignore them. They are jealous of its fabulousness :) I think really it is because you won't find the busy distractions of larger towns.

Downtown (like a typical main street community) is going through some refurbishing, bringing it up to date, etc. There is a small farmer's market there on the weekends (crafts and such, more than veggies and spices, but they do have food vendors).

The only thing that Port Orchard really lacks is a nice waterfront park. There is a boardwalk of sorts, down by the library, with ample parking .. but no real park with paths and such by the water. About nine miles outside of PO, along the coast of the inlet is Manchester Park - great park with nice walking trails, etc. There are also quite a few parks in Port Orchard itself. One has some dirt trails/hills/etc. specifically for the kids to ride their bikes.

Another thing you won't find in PO are things like Applebee's and Olive Garden, Target, etc. (though they did recently open a new Lowe's (and there is a Wal-Mart)). But you are only about 10 miles from Gig Harbor (or Silverdale in the other direction) from those big shopping spots.

I don't know anything about the schools (my sister has no kids). Her husband works around the corner in Bremerton at the shipyard and traffic isn't too bad. Getting back through Gorst gets a little jammed up around the times the shift workers leave Bremerton. Otherwise, traffic is nothing.

You have easy access to the Olympic Peninsula, and you are still close enough to the T/N bridge and the mainland. The ferry in Bremerton will get you to Seattle (and there is actually a foot ferry in Port Orchard to take to Bremerton). I live over in Seattle and find it not a bad hop whenever I visit my sister.

All in all, it's a cute place with a great atmosphere.