Nice day for a ferry ride

 

It was a spectacular, warm spring weekend here in the Great Northwest. Sunshine from start to finish.  People were out and about enjoying themselves, or else going to Home Depot and working like dogs in their yards.

This probably sounds strange, but locals can go years without riding our tourist-famous ferries. So I was glad to have an excuse to leave John at home with chores and head over Bainbridge Island and visit my friend Candi. She just moved to Paulsbo from Missoula, Montana.

Other than the Big Bertha waterfront mess, everything was the same about the ferry experience except the fare, which seems to have doubled. Oh well, on a nice day there's still that million dollar view of the skyline across Elliot Bay.

Poulsbo is a small town about 10 miles from the Bainbridge Island ferry dock, an easy trip from Seattle.  The downtown area is slightly off the busy main highway, but I can't remember stopping there because we're usually speeding to someplace else on the peninsula.  

Candi has a cute house just a few blocks from this street. It's a charming town, without being over-the-top like fake like Bavarian Levenworth.  Paulso feels like Scandinavia meets Mayberry RFD.  

The setting is beautiful with water all around and three marinas, so many visitors arrive by boat.  The history of the town is fishing, farming and logging, with immigration from Norway and Finland. The old Lutheran church is still a town landmark.

Everything is neat as a pin. People are friendly. The streets are lined with cute vintage shops and antique stores for ladies in my demographic.

I restrained the shopping impulse, except for this useless little "Made in Japan" bird planter.  It must have been the bird's eyebrow that sold me. I don't have a sweet tooth, but for most folks the biggest draw in Paulsbo is probably Sluy's Bakery.

"Bakeries" in Washington are more about selling expensive coffee drinks, with a few cookies and stale scones as an afterthought.  Slauv's is a real old-fashioned bakery, loaded with cakes, pies, breads and dozens of pastries and Nordic treats. 

 

Not a bagel in sight, and buy your coffee somewhere else, thank you.

You might know my friend Candi from her Bone Marrow Boogie blog. We go back a long time, and I met her my first day at Microsoft in 1989.  She probably forgot this story, but I wandered into her work area lost and she led me back to the Library.  In those days, Microsoft buildings had multiple "wings" to maximize the coveted window offices, but the directional signs were diabolically confusing.  If you were new, it was easy to drift in circles and feel stupid.  Maybe that was the intention, a reminder to keep your brain turned on every minute at work!

Anyway, after ten years in Missoula, Candi's friends are all happy she's back with us in Washington.  Doesn't she look terrific? She has a big, new job at Western Washington University as the Director of Extended Education on the Peninsula. We had a great morning together, and look forward to many more.