rebeccmeister | By land, by sea [rowing, friends]

Tuesday afternoon, I hopped aboard a ferry to Bainbridge Island, for a long-overdue visit to see

ivy and finally meet her dog, Hazel! I was commenting to her that visiting blog friends often feels like something of a crossover episode. We had so much to talk about, but most especially all of the "blah blah blah rowing" that is incredibly interesting to rowers but generally not anybody else, heh.

On my way to the ferry terminal, I've come to realize that this recently-opened Overlook Park is kind of analogous to a park thing that opened up in Albany a couple years ago, the Albany Skyway, in that both are just fancy pedestrian overpasses to get humans up and over motor vehicle/train obstructions so they can access a waterfront.

Of course, that's exactly where the similarities end, for in Seattle, the park connects the bustling Pike Place Market to the equally bustling Seattle waterfront, whereas in Albany there are some modest tourist buildings on one side and a very basic park on the other.

But I digress.

It was a gorgeous day for a ferry ride. All of the Olympic mountains were in full view.

My eternal inner five-year-old was in its happy place, on the ferry.

In the midst of the trip, the ferry suddenly slowed way down. What might be the cause? Eventually it seemed the cause was to avoid waking a sailboat that was in distress and being towed by a rescue vessel.

Oh, incidentally, yes, that's Mt. Rainier in the distance.

For whatever reason I could spend hours and days of my life just watching the prop wash from the ferries. Watching the water has been my happy place for forever.

Splendid moments of enjoyment with

ivy included getting to try spruce tea!

And how's this, for both the matter of talking about books, and talking about rowing, and enjoying Hazel's fine company? Ha!

ivy's home is still surrounded by what forest she can manage to retain. PNW forest fills me with almost as much of a sense of peace as watching the Salish Sea waters.

And then!

ivy brought me to Poulsbo! For whatever reason, in my brain Poulsbo was one of the many small Eastern Washington towns, haha. The geographic reality, however, is that Poulsbo is in the heart of Puget Sound, and very much like a better version of Solvang in California, for Poulsbo's shops are less full of tourist junk and more full of beautiful pieces of art and practical things.

I'd heard of Poulsbo bread, and here's the Danish Poulsbo bakery:

Places with Scandinavian pride are often hilarious on account of it. See, e.g. Viking ship murals.

Tons of glass art of all sorts to admire, but leave in the shop instead of trying to take it with us:

The harbor, where

ivy rows:

The creatures that grow on their docks are far more interesting than the creatures that grow on our docks (primarily for us, invasive zebra mussels, sigh).

When we reached their boats, I was reminded of my general interest in touring and photographing all of the rowing "boathouses" I visit. This is very much a minimalist setup, where the club rents dock moorings from the harbor and stores everything onsite, outdoors. Electricity and running water, yes, bathrooms, not so much.

Boats!

And an outcropping of singles, mostly open-water boats since Poulsbo is tucked into a Puget Sound bay. It was good to talk shop a bit about rowing safety with

ivy, as it sounds like there's a lot of variation in the extent to which Puget Sound rowing clubs are willing/able to/interested in braving the open Sound. (their club, properly cautious, all told) This is something I want to learn about in the long term for the sake of eventually participating in the Seventy48. I think I need to do some more coastal rowing in the Northeast as part of my preparations, but I'll start with an expedition from Albany to NYC first.