Poulsbo – Riveted

Update from Puget Sound

Laura Domela — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 23:48:25 +0000

Since our little snow-filled adventure on Blake Island a week ago, we’ve been busy! We cruised back over to Seattle on Tuesday (with Sam on Safe Harbour) and stayed at Elliott Bay for a few nights. During that time we did some fun city stuff (mainly involving food)…we had dinner at The Ruins one night with some of Sam’s family (The Ruins is a dining club and event space, very cool), another meal at Din Tai Fung with Sam’s mom (lunch this time…more soup dumplings!), and then Sam and Anna and Kevin and I went to Serious Pie for dinner on Friday night (Tom Douglas’ pizza joint…SO GOOD!). We also drove up to Anacortes to take a test ride on a new Nordic Tug 40 equipped with a Seakeeper for roll stabilization. We were out in some pretty rough water in Rosario Strait and this Seakeeper thing is seriously impressive. Sitting still in 4ft beam waves…steady as can be. (Expensive test ride. This just added a bit more $$ to the price of our future new boat.)

On Friday we were scheduled to head over to Poulsbo for the first day of the annual Winter Rendezvous, but the weather was nasty so we opted to stay put until Saturday morning, when it was much calmer.

None of us had ever been to Winter Rendezvous so we really didn’t know what to expect.

We arrived just in time for the “opening ceremonies” in the Sons of Norway Hall, which mainly consisted of host Chip Hanauer dressed as “the Ringleader” (as in “circus”) and others dressed as characters from Star Wars (I forgot to mention the theme was “May the Fourth Be With You” in honor of the fourth year), as well as a plethora of fur- and horn-clad Vikings…the bar was open, the atmosphere was festive, and people seemed pretty happy to be there overall.

We walked around town a bit, stopped at Sluys’ Bakery, and then headed back to Airship for showers and a bit of work (skipping the “Poker Run” and “Scavenger Hunt”.

Arty photo of a little rowboat in the marina:

We thought we might hit the glogg tasting at 1pm, but Kevin and Sam got wrapped up in diagnosing an electrical thing and we ended up hanging on the boats until bonfire time.

The Winter Rendezvous is pretty much just a big party that people happen to boat to. There were no real “boaty” events (other than the arrival to Poulsbo by boat), but people seemed to really be enjoying themselves regardless.

The weather was so nice on Saturday afternoon that we spent some time on the top deck of Airship enjoying the view and the sun:

Just after 7pm we headed up for dinner at the Sons of Norway Hall, which consisted of giant trays of Spanish paella, with a delicious spinach salad.

The food was good and we enjoyed the evening (even though we left not long after the band started). We met some fun folks, the band was good, and man can those Rendezvousers drink!

On Sunday morning we headed over to meet up with some friends at Port Madison (north end of Bainbridge Island). We anchored a little ways from the Seattle Yacht Club outstation and dinghied in to join the group.

Andy and Jill (and Magnus and Porter) from ThreeSheets NW were there, along with some new friends Ryan and Autumn, whom we met at the boat show the week prior. We all gathered on the top deck of Sam’s boat for snacks and beer, and then Autumn got to work painting the new name of Andy & Jill’s dinghy in freehand red. It came out great!

Before, consulting about the look of the lettering:

Ta-Da!!

Hornpipe is apparently a sailor’s dance with several origin stories, if you’re curious about the name.

For dinner, we all migrated to the SYC facility up the hill to cook together and have a fire. Such a fun evening with great folks!

After breakfast this morning, we left Port Madison and headed for the port of Langley on Whidbey Island. Gorgeous weather today!

Since we knew we’d be in Langley tonight, we called yesterday and made a dinner reservation at Prima Bistro. (We’ll celebrate Valentine’s Day a day early…and then maybe again tomorrow, depending on where we are.)

We tied up on the outer dock (haven’t been on the outside before…it’s nice, and with a great view!) and then walked up and around town, enjoying the sunny day.

Spotted this tiger in the brush on our way up the hill. No explanation.

Now we’re back on Airship doing some work and listening to the seagulls chattering outside our open doors and windows. (Yes, it’s February….gotta get it while we can…last week we had 4-6 inches of snow!)

Sluys Poulsbo Bakery

Laura Domela — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 23:08:24 +0000

So, you know how sometimes you go to a new place, and people who have been there before all enthusiastically tell you "OMG you HAVE to go to such-and-such place and get the thingamajigger! It's the best one of those thingamajiggers we've EVER had?" (Come on, we've all done it, trying to share the things we love with new people.)

Sometimes those places that people recommend are bakeries. But t thing about bakeries is that they're filled with sugar and simple carbohydrates. Kevin and I usually try to avoid sugar and simple carbohydrates. (Neither of us has a very big sweet tooth either, so bakeries are never very high on our list. Fish markets? Farmer's markets? Craft distilleries? Yes please.)

But so many people told us about Sluys Poulsbo Bakery, that we stopped in yesterday after a large lunch (so add to the non sweet tooth, we were full). It looked like every other bakery: donuts, pastries, brownies, cookies, breads, more donuts, you get the idea.

We picked out two things to share and assumed we'd be sugared out after one bite. We were wrong.

Very wrong. The first thing we tried was one of these powdered sugar covered "Rosette". It was not too sweet, and it was not cakey. It was crunchy and delicate, and filled with air and sugar fumes. It was so LIGHT! (Is there anything even IN this bag??)

The second thing we tried was one of their most popular items…called a "Viking Cup" and can be seen in the first photo toward the middle. It's like a cinnamon roll with an open middle filled with cream cheese frosting. It was delicious, and not too sweet, and the frosting was perfect.

And so this morning before we left Poulsbo, we headed up to town for some breakfast and then headed straight back to Sluy's for some more sugar and simple carbohydrates.

We bought two more Rosettes, two more Viking Cups (why mess with success?). Due to it being earlier in the day the selection of breads was plentiful, and we picked up a bag of cheesy jalapeno rolls (because, holy crap!) and a loaf of their original Poulsbo Bread. We'll figure out something to do with it all, I'm certain.

Back to Airship past all the empty guest slips:

Headed down to Port Orchard and then Blakely Harbor on Bainbridge Island next!

Poulsbo: Little Norway on the Fjord

Laura Domela — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 22:26:53 +0000

The weather was gorgeous this morning as we left Langley and headed south to Poulsbo.

Langley Marina as we left our dock:

The water was mostly calm for the whole trip today:

I got a bunch of work done this morning in Langley before we left, so I was captain for this trip while Kevin worked on an article (sitting up in the pilot house with his laptop).

Approaching the Port of Poulsbo marina:

Our Nordic Tug in Poulsbo. Poulsbo is also known as "Little Norway on the Fjord" I think we'll fit right in!

Velkommen til Poulsbo!

Founded by Norwegian immigrant Jorgen Eliason in the 1880s, Poulsbo was settled in its early years by a large number of Norwegian and other Scandinavian immigrants because of its similarities to their native countries. In 1886 I. B. Moe, one of the early Norwegian settlers, suggested that the community should have a post office. Moe suggested the town be named Paulsbo (which translates as "Paul's place"), after the Norwegian village where Moe spent his early years. The community's petition for a post office was granted, and Moe became the first postmaster, but the authorities in Washington D.C. misspelled the town's name, probably because of illegible handwriting, and the community became known as Poulsbo thereafter. Poulsbo was officially incorporated on December 18, 1907.

Until World War II Poulsbo retained Norwegian as a primary language. However, during World War II, the military constructed about 300 residential units to provide housing for workers at the nearby Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, located in Bremerton, Washington. The population of Poulsbo almost tripled over three years, and the diversification of the population led to the dominance of English as the primary language.

On October 22, 1975, King Olav V of Norway visited Poulsbo as part of the celebration of 150 years of Norwegian settlement in the United States. [Thanks, Wikipedia]

We got settled and then walked into town for some lunch and a bit of exploring. The harbormaster recommended a spot called Sogno di Vino and gave us a 10% off coupon. We walked around and surveyed the options and it seemed fine so we gave it a try. When we asked the waitress what was good, she just gushed about pretty much everything. Usually, this means nothing, but every single thing we tried was fabulous. We shared a small caesar salad (delicious garlicky dressing), a chicken pesto panini with smoked tomato chutney on the side (amazing), and a 7" wood fired pizza called the "Caleb" which was topped with prosciutto, mushrooms, apple, fig, brie, mozzarella, and a drizzle of honey. It was fantastic. I don't think we'll be hungry again until tomorrow!

We walked around town more after lunch, and stopped at the highly recommended Sluys Poulsbo Bakery for a couple of sweet things (for later, way later):

Viking mural on the side of a downtown building:

The streets downtown have names like King Olaf Vei, Queen Sonja Vei, and the Norwegian heritage shows up everywhere. We're back at the boat working now, and not sure whether we'll stay here again tomorrow or head somewhere new.

This is what's so great about boating in the off season:

The entire guest dock is vacant (except for us). The weather was amazing here today…no jackets! And we sat on the top deck of the boat with an Aperol spritz and watched the sunset. What month is it??

Oh yeah, here's our track from today (35.4 miles):