We started out early enough (before 10:00 a.m.) and crossed the Tacoma Narrows bridge without incident. In fact we were completely withouth incident all the way through Gig Harbor and up until we got near Bremerton. Then this happened:
The red line (#3) is where we were supposed to go. The blue/green line is where we actually went. So we drove by three giant Air Craft Carriers and into Bremerton. Yeah, Bremerton is like a gigantic hub of the United States Navy for some reason. Probably on account of it's pretty hard to get all the way down Puget sound and into Bremerton, therefore harder for invasions. There're a couple o' big Navy shipyards on the kitsap peninsula. Incidentally, the Bremerton/Silverdale area is where my mom grew up.
Anyway, the reason that we went the wrong way was because at NO POINT during this entire trip were there signs pointing the way to either Port Townsend or Poulsbo. Street signs in the Kitsap Peninsula will only tell you what the very next town is—if you're lucky. So having brought no really detailed map (because we foolishly assumed that, you know, there would be signs on the freeway telling us which way to go), Carrie called her dad on her cell phone. Actually that makes no sense. Carrie used her cell phone to call her dad. That's better. He looked up a map (like my dad Jim, Carrie's dad Jim likes just looking at maps) and assured us that we were going the right way (thanks to my kickass innate sense of direction), and we should just keep on keepin' on until we got to SR3. So we did, and eventually we got to Poulsbo
The waterfront of Poulsbo is the freakin' cutest little town around. It's all Scandinavian themed, with winding streets and Norwiegan buildings and nothing but small, privately-owned businesses (and a few lawyer offices for some reason). It made me wonder, "Why aren't ALL shopping areas themed in a cute way like this?" I couldn't think of a good answer other than "It might make places like this seem less special."
Anyway, the reason we stopped in Poulsbo (besides the cuteness) was because there was a bead store there, of course! You think we'd just go to a town to enjoy? Silly monkey! We went for the beads! It was an okay bead store as these things go. A good amount of room and very open, and also a ton of plants growing everywehre, including a mini palm tree lookin' thing. After I mentioned it to Carrie she said she didn't even notice that there were plants in there—all she saw were them shiny beads!
But to me that wasn't the best part about Poulsbo. To me the best part was the bakery, home of the "world famous" Poulsbo bread. You've heard of it, right? Well, I was where they make it! They also make doughnut, so we loaded up with a dozen of them. Next stop was the stamp store, called Rubber Soul. Isn't that the name of a band? Anyway, while carrie was lookin' around in there, I went back to the bakery and picked up my new friend:
They're called Doughboys. Why-o-why doesn't EVERY bakery make these things? I'd buy them by the dozen! Look at that little guy!
After eating lunch at J.J.'s Fish place or whatever it was called (Carrie had French onion soup; I had fish & chips of course), we headed out of Poulsbo and on north, leaving the Kitsap Peninsula entirely by crossing over the Hood Canal Bridge.
Then it was a jaunty jaunt on up the Olympic Peninsula in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountain Range up to loverly Port Townsend.
As cool as Poulsbo's waterfront was, Port Townsend's was just as cool but in a different way. Port Townsend was a major port in the early part of the 20th century, and as such most of the buildings along the waterfront are extremely old and freakin' awesome in their architecture. Tons of cool, tall buildings from before modernism took architecture by the throat and strangled the creativity out of it. Why did we decide to make Port Townsend our destination, anyway? Why, because there's a bead store there, dumbass! Jeez, you think you would have guessed since that was the reason we went to Poulsbo as well!
Anyway, we know the owners, Phil and Lois, from them being at every single bead festival around. They were shocked and amazed to see us because Carrie has said that we'd come and see the store for the last four years or so and we never had before.
Port Townsend's waterfront is also full of some really cool shops, including PT Bunny, a store that carried Carrie's jewelry at one point a couple years ago. A glass spontaneously broke itself while we were there, which was kind of creepy. Seriously, it was like a ghost just snapped it. We were both a good four feet from it when it happened. There were many other cool places, and we walked up and down the entire Water Street. Before leaving we stopped at The Elevated Ice Cream Co. Imagine a Baskin & Robbins only instead of 32 flavors there's maybe 20, but instead of just scooping the ice cream into cups or cones, Elevated gives you the option of making a milkshake out of any of the flavors they carry. We gots a lemon custard ice cream milkshake. Fuckin' A, man. Best... milkshake... ever.
So then it was on back home to Tacoma, 77 miles away. We listened to some D on the way back, ate a doughnut or two, and had a generally great time, getting back home just before 6:00 p.m. Wow, you're thinking, that sounds like a fun, busy day.
But wait! It ain't done yet, Charlie!
That evening was the Espinoza Manor's first-ever-in-60,000-years "Meat and Mars" party! Here's the text from the invitation:
"MARVEL at the sheer awesomenaity of the planet MARS in the night sky! DELIGHT in the ebullient flavors of EXOTIC MEATS!"
So Carrie and I headed up the Eastside of puget sound, parallel to the trip we had just taken, to partake of some tasty treats. Among the meats there were Ostrich, Alligator, Buffalo, and Kangaroo. It were a pretty good party except it weren't as fun as that house usually is because Tashia wasn't there (due to work) and neither were Geoff and Brandy (due to being in Nevada—didn't I mention that?). I also didn't get to hang out with Sandy very much on account of she was busy cooking most of the time. Carrie and I eventually left and after I took a wrong fork in the road in Seattle we got home sometime around 12:15 a.m.
That was a freakin' huge amount of stuff to do in one day. Freakin'!
