Poulsbo - Washington's Little Norway on the Fjord

So says the Poulsbo Chamber of Commerce! We are tucked in at the dock in Poulsbo, enjoying Phil’s favorite stop from his first week of the voyage. What can be wrong with a place that has two good bookstores, lots of coffee shops, three excellent bakeries (which I make a little less use of than I used to) and a couple good restaurants, plus loads of shops for me to explore as well? Poulsbo has successfully traded on its Norwegian heritage to create a charming village that is right by the water, with other needed services (like a good grocery store, liquor store and the library) not too far away – about a half mile walk. It’s a little difficult to understand how so many tourist-oriented shops can survive in one place, and I would guess there is a fair amount of turnover. But many survive for quite a while; I recognized a shop where Shana used to love to spend hours looking at the things they had, when she was about four. Her shopping instincts developed early.

Between Olympia, when I last reported in, and here, we stopped for two days at Mayo Cove, which is one of two coves next to lovely Penrose State Park, which we’ve never been to by land. The marina store reported to be operating in the cove was deserted, but the park itself had great showers with really hot water that practically blasted you out of the shower enclosure.

I’ve been trying to get off the boat and walk a bit more, because I continue to have swelling in my left leg. Finally, my leg decided to give me the opportunity to explore yet another of Group Health’s facilities – the one in Poulsbo. On Thursday evening, after walking around town for a bit, my left ankle puffed up to about twice the size it had been maintaining. My right leg, which several weeks ago had joined in the swelling game, has been normal for a week or so. This sudden increase was somewhat alarming, so again I checked in with the consulting nurse, who connected me with the Group Health clinic in Poulsbo, where they set up an appointment for me to see a Dr. Fabert on Friday morning.

Of course on Friday morning, my ankle had returned to its usual swollen status, rather than the way it had been on Thursday, so I considered cancelling, but decided to go ahead. I had a great visit with the doctor, who turns out to be a sailor, with a 35’ boat that he currently has in Canada, waiting for vacation in a couple of weeks to go exploring in it with his 10-year old daughter, who actually enjoys being on it at the moment. After comparing notes on boats and sailing for about 10 minutes, we got to the leg. He confirmed the swelling and agreed that I should be concerned, and wanted me to get an ultrasound of it so we could eliminate a blood clot as the cause, which is the concern my doctors had indicated I should watch for if the swelling continued only in one leg. He sent me off to another clinic where another very nice doctor, himself a 20-year cancer survivor, did a very thorough examination of the leg from groin to ankle. And declared at the end “No clot!” What a relief that’s been to me. I’m cleared for walking as much as I can and will just continue to monitor it. Dr. Fabert indicated it’s quite likely that between the surgery and the rest of what I’ve been through, there’s something pressing a little on one of my blood vessels that’s restricting the flow somewhat. Hopefully not permanent—we’ll just have to see.

I feel like a hypochondriac, with a new symptom appearing every few days to replace the one that just resolved itself (the mouthsore finally began to resolve itself enough that I could get off medication about a week after it began). At a time when I’m supposed to be getting better because the chemo ought to be clearing itself out of my system bit by bit, it’s frustrating to continue to have things hit you. It was reassuring to be told that I was right to be concerned about the swelling, and to get that particular worry off my short list.

Our other adventure in Poulsbo was the wind. We anchored out the first night, intended to stay at anchor for the three nights we were here. But the wind, predicted to be 10-15, piped up to about 20, accompanied by generous amounts of rain, giving us quite a wet and bouncy row as we went in to and back from an excellent restaurant dinner on Thursday. We went to bed for an uneasy sleep, with Phil getting up periodically to check our position – because it continued to blow all night long. Then it gusted up even more, to around 25 knots, about 6 am, at which point we discovered we were dragging anchor. So up we got, pulled the anchor and motored ourselves in to the dock, where we decided to stay for the rest of the time. The wind was predicted to come down Friday morning, but instead blew all day, dying only at sunset. Which left us with the downside of being at the dock – a loud (and not very good) band that plays in a nearby restaurant until about 1:40 am, and no wind to cover up the noise. Today’s shopping will include getting the best ear plugs I can find – which may help a little.

Tonight we’re going back to the restaurant we ate at Thursday, Mor Mor’s Bistro. Cozy place with very good food. We had drinks there last night. Laundry is done. Garbage dumped. We’re ready to move on tomorrow. We’re not going far – to Eagle Harbor, on Bainbridge Island, so I can catch the ferry into town on Monday for another appointment at Group Health (this one is the set up the fields and dosage for my radiation). Our plan after that, assuming I don’t have to return to town soon, is to head north, going inside Whidbey Island, then through Desolation Pass, to kick around the San Juans for a few days before we return to Anacortes on the 14th.