Rug Shopping

While I'm waiting for more flowers to bloom, I decided that my front porch needed a spot of color.  I looked on the Dash and Albert website and found the perfect candidate.  (Dash and Albert rugs are lovely.)

I didn't want to pay for shipping though.

Then I saw that there was a store in Poulsbo that sold the rugs.  I hadn't been to Poulsbo and never feel confident going into unfamiliar territory, so I wanted Adam to go with me to navigate.  He is always up for an outing but he was also up for 5 basketball games on Saturday (playing some, refereeing some).

I was impatient.  I wanted to go.  And I sensed Emma needed some fun in her life.  I decided the two of us should go.  I was just settling in with my laptop and google maps to get it all figured out, when I noticed the ferry times.  (When I am going somewhere new, I like to look over a map and read the directions and try to soak up as much information as my little brain will hold.  Because I am awful at directions or knowing where I am or how to get somewhere. Awful.)  The next ferry left in half an hour!  I frantically printed the google directions (without poring over the map), grabbed Emma, forgot my camera, and we were off.  I channeled all the adventurous spirit I wish I possessed.

I had bid my comfort zone farewell but when I looked in the rear-view mirror, it was wringing its hands nervously and telling me I was going to get lost.

Rats.

When I was near Edmonds, I realized there was no way I was going to make the ferry so I relaxed a little.  Emma and I waited companionably for the next ferry and not for the first time, I realized how much I like just being with her.  She's funny and clever but also so independent that she's easy for an introvert like me to spend the day with (I would have been having to entertain my boys).  On the ferry she wanted to take pictures and we sadly lamented the forgotten camera.  She asked for my phone.  I told her I didn't know how to take pictures with it.  In about 20 seconds she was snapping pictures.

Off the ferry, I fearfully clutched the steering wheel in one hand and the directions in the other.  I don't know if I get nervous because I'm going to get lost or I get lost because I get nervous.  But I was nervous.  Especially since Adam was playing basketball and probably not going to take my "I'm lost and need directions" call.  It was really pretty easy though and before too long I was feeling fine.  Emma and I sang along to the radio.  When "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" came on, I told her Cyndi Lauper had been my first tape ever when I was in sixth grade.  "Tape," she scoffed.  Then she knew every word of the song.

"How do you know this song?" I wondered.

"Karaoke."

We found our destination and wandered Front Street in Poulsbo, making note of all the stores we'd visit after we had the rug.  We found the store we were looking for and found The Rug.  "I hear choirs of angels singing," I told Emma.

Then I looked more closely.  It wasn't the rug.  It was the store sample of the rug.  Emma murmured, "Do you still hear the choirs of angels?"

Cheeky girl.

I asked and it turned out they didn't have the rugs in stock, but they could order them.  My shoulders drooped.  "It only takes two weeks," the chipper store clerk assured me. I was envisioning another trip to Poulsbo in two weeks and my shoulders drooped lower.  Then I learned they'll ship it to my house!  For free!  I felt better.  I supposed my drab front porch could survive two more weeks of drabness.

Emma and I started exploring.  We walked in and out of pretty little stores and pointed out things we liked to each other.  Window shopping works up a powerful hunger (so do tantalizing bakery smells), so we stopped at Sluy's Bakery which may be worth a trip to Poulsbo all by itself.

source

We bought a Viking Cup (which is like a cup shaped cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting filling it) and a caramel pecan sticky bun.  We sat outside on a bench and each ate half and then traded.

Then we licked our fingers. 

We browsed through a Scandinavian shop.  I bought a straw goat and some nasty Finnish black licorice for Adam (he likes it).  Then I saw the clever t-shirts and had to buy one for each of my Viking children.  

Mark's shirt says, "Viking for Hire...Specializing in Madness and Mayhem".  It works for him.

the back of Braeden's shirt

I like the shirts.  (And the kids.)

Emma and I drove back toward the ferry and as I was paying for our return passage, I realized the money I was spending on ferry travel would have about exactly covered shipping had I bought my rug from the Dash and Albert website.

But when Emma taught me a new card game on the ferry and I listened to her laugh and I saw the glorious Puget Sound spreading out in every direction with all of its magnificent views, I think I still got a pretty good bargain.