Catching Up On A Few Days' Worth of Activities, Part 1 - Friday, August 7, 2020

I am going back in time to August 7, 2020, to fill in the missing days between the 10k Gig Harbor Volksmarch with Diane and the August 8, 10k Sol Duc Falls Volksmarch with Bob and Diane.

Wednesday, August 5, I took a day off from walking because the laundry needed to be done! Six loads of wash later, we were set for another week. 

Thursday, August 6: Today, rain was in the forecast so Diane and I took a day off from walking. All morning and into the early afternoon, it was beautiful. I had all the windows in the 5th wheel open. Bob and I touched base and reconfirmed doing the walk at 4:15 p.m.

At 3:00 p.m., the wind kicked up and it got cold! I had to close all the windows and the door. When Bob returned home at 4:15 p.m., it started raining. Crazy Northwest weather. We canceled our walk for this evening and rescheduled it for Friday afternoon.

Friday, August 7: Okay, so today I made up for not walking for the past two days. This morning, Diane and I did the 10k Poulsbo, Washington, Volksmarch. Then, when Bob got home from work, we did the 10k Gig Harbor Volksmarch.

I met Diane at the Silverdale Safeway store parking lot at 8:30 a.m. We carpooled in her car to Poulsbo, Washington, a Norwegian town. The walk description read: "Walk in the quaint Norwegian downtown with its many shops, on the boardwalk, and continue along the waterfront, past marinas, with breath-taking views of both the majestic Olympic Mountains and towering Mt. Rainier."

After signing in for the walk at Hot Shots Java, we started at 8:45 a.m. I know, because the pole-mounted clock across from the coffee shop read 8:45 a.m.

Mural and town clock in the heart of
old town Poulsbo, Washington.

Across the street was Sluys' Bakery, famous for its Poulsbo Bread. I see yummy baked goods in the future!!

Sluys' Bakery in Poulsbo, Washington.

The first part of the walk took us around historic Poulsbo, past sculptures, marinas, and neighborhoods. [The restrooms in the parks were CLOSED due to COVID-19.]

The painting on the windows is of
two Vikings battling coronavirus.

I could not find the artist's name.

I don't know the artist's name.

Marina in the still morning waters.

Dew on the roses.

A towering sunflower.

Boats moored in Poulsbo.

A large marina.

There are a lot of marinas in Poulsbo and they are very pretty in the peaceful morning air.

Yards were filled with all manner of flowers, from hollyhocks to roses, to hydrangeas, to fuchsias, to sunflowers, to gladiolas, to rudbeckia, and lots more. There was one place where a low ground cover prolific with berries grew next to the sidewalk. I just had to try one. They looked like salmonberries, only salmonberry bushes are big like blackberries. The berry was really good, but since I didn't know what it was, I didn't want to eat a lot of them (which I could easily have done because there were so many of them).

A sign above someone's front door.
I second that!

Cemetery in front of the
historic Lutheran Church.

A hardy fuchsia that grows in the ground
in the Pacific Northwest.

Creeping raspberry (Rubus calycinoides)
groundcover.  These berries were very yummy!

This historic Lutheran Church sits on a hill
overlooking the water.

To go down to the next level of streets, we took a small trail through a little hillside park.

The path is between the fence and the hedge.

Poulsbo is on Liberty Bay, an arm of Puget Sound. We saw lots of water today. Many homes have great water views. 

Location, location, location!

This part of the walk wandered all around south Poulsbo which is where the historic downtown is located along with the new City Hall. 

Poulsbo's City Hall. 

Historic Downtown Poulsbo.

Here's a classy flower shop display.

Maritime Museum mural.

From downtown Poulso, we headed north along Liberty Bay, stopping to look at the American Legion Park on a bluff. 

As we headed north to visit two parks, we crossed a bridge with a beautiful piece of trompe l'oeil artwork on it.

Very creative trompe l'oiel painting.

In a block, we took the Urban Path and headed through Nelson Park to Fish Park. For most of the rest of this walk, we were in parks.

An old Mobilgas sign across the
street from Nelson Park.

A windmill outside the Martinson
House Museum. (Museum is only
open on the weekend.)

Follow the fish tiles to Fish Park.

Mural under a bridge.

Mural under the other side of the bridge
(Coho salmon).

They don't call this Fish Park for no reason. There are fun fish items to be found here.

Hand-carved park sign.

A fish bike rack.

A huge wooden fish sculpture.

 Fish Park was very woodsy with lots of boardwalks.

Bat boxes.

Common evening primrose.

The Big Elm.

I'm glad our directions are good!

Fish Park.

One last push to return to historic Poulsbo took us back along the bay through American Legion Park.

Salmon and otter mural.

Kingfisher with fish.

American Legion Park,
Poulsbo, Washington.

Don't eat butter and varnish clams from this area!

Diane on the boardwalk
returning to historic Poulsbo.

A great blue heron intently fishing.

Poulsbo Marina. 

"The Guardian Stone,"
by Lisa Stirrett.

Photo below:

"Herb found this glacial boulder in the bay,
for our history, here it must stay."
~In memory of Herb Armstrong, City of Poulsbo Engineer, 1962-1990.

Glacial boulder.

Historic downtown Poulsbo.

With the walk behind us, it was time to get serious in this bakery. Sluy's Bakery had quite a line, but it was worth the wait. When we got inside, I told the clerk I needed a box. She asked for a half dozen or a dozen? I said, "A dozen!" I was buying for Bob and me for a few days. The noms included a cream-filled Bismarck, large Butterhorn with slivered almonds, two small pecan sticky buns, two chocolate chip cookies, two peanut butter cookies drizzled with chocolate, an apple fritter, an old-fashioned donut, a blueberry cake donut, and a loaf of Poulsbo bread. 

Waiting to get in Sluys' Bakery.

Information about Poulsbo Bread.

So, that was our morning into midday. Diane and I headed home. 

I went home and slept a little before Bob came home. See the next blog for our 10k Gig Harbor Volksmarch.

To be continued in Part 2...