This weekend Will surprised me with a trip to Poulsbo. I’d heard the name before, and I knew it was near Seattle, but my perception of it had been as a really worn-down depressing industrial area. I have no idea why I’d thought that. I think it’s the name. Doesn’t “Poulsbo” just sound like somewhere you don’t want to go? We took a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island, which is one of my favorite little getaway areas surrounding Seattle, and in my mind I was like, “Can’t we just stay in Bainbridge?” But Will lived in Poulsbo as a teenager and was set on taking me there.
It turned out that my perceptions of the place could not have been more wrong. It’s a charming little Scandinavian village lined with Norwegian flags and high-end gift boutiques. We browsed the shops for awhile and had a lovely seafood dinner. It could not possibly have been more adorable.
We went by a house that he’d lived in as a kid, and I pretty much spent the whole time making Bachelor jokes. You know on The Bachelor when he does the home-town visits and the girls show him, like, where they went to elementary school, and where they had their first kiss, and where their dead grandmother lived, and he’s always like, “I’m just so happy that I’m getting to see all this. I feel so honored.” And you know that he couldn’t possibly care less about her dead grandmother’s house because she’s totally not getting the final rose and EVERYBODY knows that but her? Yeah. So I spent that portion of the day grasping my heart and saying things like “I’m just so honored that you brought me here. I can feel the passion that you have for this fence and this rock and this tree swing, and now that passion is within me. Is it time to sit down with your family and talk about the abusive ex you divorced and cry? Because that’s really what this day is missing.”
All joking aside, though, it was cool to see where he grew up, and I just love the areas surrounding Seattle so much. The old homes and the rocky beaches and the tree-covered hills. I never want to leave this part of the country. It’s so good for me. Perfect weekend!
