There are several small communities within a reasonable commute
of Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton. The City of Bremerton, once the center of Kitsap
County life, is now reinventing itself; the downtown waterfront area boasts a
handsome new boardwalk and a floating naval museum (ex-USS Turner Joy). The
city's mix of amenities and affordability has made it one of America's most
livable cities at the end of the 1980's and into the 1990's. Port Orchard is a
small, sleepy community whose main street is filled with antique stores with
western facades. You can tie up your boat at the local wharf and spend a
pleasant afternoon browsing in the antique malls or shopping for western gear.
Silverdale, once considered the "Egg Capital of Puget Sound", has grown into the
shopping center of choice for the Kitsap Peninsula with the largest shopping
mall on the Olympic Peninsula and lots of small retailers. In its current
evolution, Silverdale is the newest and most modern of the surrounding
communities in the area and now stands as the economic hub of the Kitsap
Peninsula as it continues to grow and develop more.