#poulsbo

05.23.26

The morning after. I think you can see on our faces that we were sleep deprived (and likely a bit hung over lol).

My dad's truck actually died halfway through the last minute prep yesterday, and because of the holiday weekend, we couldn't get anyone on the peninsula to move it or fix it until Tuesday!! It was only Saturday at this point. But my stepmom needed to stay and pack up the event, and my dad had to find his way back to the east side to run the store in Snohomish. Last minute rearrangements were made, and I ended up chilling in the hotel lobby, waiting for my sister and her boyfriend to wake up and take me with them back to Seattle. It seems the hotel had recently come under new ownership, and the manager at the check in desk was blasting the same two songs on repeat for hours. They were Indian songs, so I didn't understand them, but the vibe was immaculate.

We drove out to Poulsbo to catch the ferry and have brunch at a popular local diner, so I had to wait hours for my first damn fine cup of coffee of the day 😭 but I got to eat so much smoked salmon eggs Benedict on this trip, it was worth the small sacrifices haha. Because of the holiday weekend, again, Poulsbo was jam packed with tourists, so we didn't bother shopping around, although I talked them into letting me peep inside a spice and tea shop, where I found three delicious flavored honeys I just had to buy, of course.

We hopped the first available ferry back to Seattle, and my sister dropped off her boyfriend and our luggage, then went along with me on my signature crazy adventures downtown. It has been damn near a decade since I've seen my old neighborhood, and I know a lot has changed; I hadn't seen the waterfront since they tore down the Alaskan Way Viaduct!

We started the grand tour of memories in the International district, parking at Uwajimaya and walking through to Pioneer Square. We immediately stumbled upon a break dancing battle (?) hosted my Red Bull in the square lol. We went to the historic Panama Hotel; my step grandmother is very close friends with the owner. Sadly the owner wasn't there, but I got to show my older sister around and teach her some of the dark, racist history about Seattle that somehow very few people seem to know about. The Panama Hotel is famous for its support of local Japanese descendents during WWII, when the city was pushing all people of any vague Asian ancestry into this run down corner of the city, and sending people of Japanese descent specifically to actual internment camps.

We got to wander the lobby and cafe regardless, and the staff was very welcoming and informative. We then had to move the car or pay an arm and a leg for parking lol, so we decided to browse my old street and a bit of historic Pioneer Square before moving to the waterfront.