Muricana

The young girl and the sea

As I write this, we have been back in the U.S. for twenty days now; a dozen days since our return from our road trip to California. We have settled into the two-bedroom home that we found online, located in an older neighborhood in Bremerton and only a short drive from my father's place. Because my father and sister both live in small apartments, Home Leave for us means having to rent a place to stay for the 20-45 days we're required to utilize in order to "re-adjust" to American life. At least it's a quiet neighborhood:

Aside from catching up on things with my side of the family, we haven't been doing much of note during this Home Leave. Though cooler than the blazing heat of California (and not to mention the sweltering conditions back in Taiwan), the Pacific Northwest version of a heat wave has kept my wife indoors in the relative comfort of our living room. I'm sure my daughter would also prefer to relax with her laptop in close proximity to the air conditioner, but at her age freedom of choice is still mostly an illusion, as when I made her go with me on the First Friday Art Walk in downtown Bremerton. As it turned out, we ended up only visiting one gallery, Collective Visions...:

...because following dinner at Saibadee (Thai and Lao cuisine)...:

...Amber discovered the joys of 1980's-style arcade games at Quarters Arcade. Art appreciation takes many forms:

Evening over Sinclair Inlet, as a ferry arrives from Seattle:

On another occasion, I dragged took my daughter to see the Point No Point Lighthouse in Hansville. Dating from 1879, it wasn't the imposing tower we had been expecting:

Proudly displaying my Sacramento River Cats jersey on the shores of Puget Sound. Washington state may be my address of record these days, but I remain a Californian at heart (as for the Baltimore Orioles cap, it was purchased when we went to a game at Camden Yards a few years ago):

Diversity in action, with warnings posted in English, Vietnamese, Korean, Cambodian, Laotian, Mandarin, Spanish and Russian:

Amber tries her hand at an old game called Graces:

After the lighthouse, we drove over to Port Gamble, a former logging town. Thanks to a massive clean up of the old mill and nearby bay, it's now a popular weekend tourist spot, attracting visitors to its general store and arts and crafts shops, meaning we had to wait to get seated for lunch:

Mutant trees find the climate in Port Gamble to be amenable:

Amber checks out a grave in the Port Gamble cemetery:

On one particular sunny (and hot) afternoon, in order to combat the deleterious effects of American cuisine, I decided to walk to my father's place instead of driving there. I began by crossing the Manette Bridge. In the distance could be seen the USS Turner Joy, one of the ships involved in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and now a local tourist attraction:

Local graffiti:

The Warren Avenue Bridge, spanning the Port Washington Narrows, which I would cross on the return leg of my walk:

Located near the ferry terminal in Bremerton, these structures are meant to evoke conning towers on submarines. Water periodically erupts from the top, much to the delight of the local kids, mine included:

Surprisingly, we have only ventured once so far into Seattle, where first we met up with sister near her office to have lunch, following which we drove over to the International District to do some shopping at the Uwajimaya supermarket and Kinokuniya bookstore (my daughter has recently started reading manga 漫画, with her favorites being One-Punch Man ワンパンマン and Tokyo Ghoul 東京喰種トーキョーグール. Should I be concerned? Or should I have her watch Akira アキラ?). Faced with a longer wait for the Bremerton ferry, we opted instead for the ship going to Bainbridge Island. In the end, we probably didn't save any time, but we did avoid sitting too long in the car on a warm day, much to Shu-E's relief:

Affluence, Bainbridge-style:

Poulsbo, where my daughter visited the SEA Discovery Center with her mom (I was busy with my dad) and then bought sweets afterward. She didn't get to see the seal (or sea lion) I witnessed swimming around the marina, however:

In hipster America, there are Farmers Markets in addition to Art Walks. Bremerton's edition is held every Thursday at the Evergreen Rotary Park:

Can't pass up fresh strawberries:

In an effort to get Amber (and myself) outside more often, I bought a book on urban trails in Kitsap County from the local Barnes & Noble. Our first hike took us out to Seabeck, noted for its bald eagle population, though I've yet to see a single one in three trips there:

Our destination was the Guillemot Cove Nature Reserve, on a morning that was sunny but refreshingly cool:

It was a short but steep-in-places descent down to the Hood Canal. The tide was out (and the eagles were absent), but the view across the mile-wide stretch of water (up to 500 feet deep) was stunning:

The tide exposed lots of empty shells which crunched under our feet, while the pools of water contained numerous small crabs:

A "decaying residence" according to my newly-bought guidebook:

Another highlight is the Hobbit-like Stump House, supposedly erected in the 1930's by an outlaw on the run during the Great Depression:

Passing by a tall, moss-covered maple tree:

In all, the two of us covered around four miles (6.4 kilometers) on the various trails, not to mention a 350-foot (107 meters) climb back to the car. All that exercise was soon undone by having lunch at the Smokin' Robinsons Cafe. Rarely did guilt taste so good:

While Amber is off spending some quality time with aunt, Shu-E and I drove out this afternoon to Port Orchard, on the other side of Sinclair Inlet from Bremerton. The city was playing host to the annual Cruz Classic Car Show, a chance for auto enthusiasts to show off their lovingly-maintained and restored American classics:

A couple of "pirate" ships were battling it out in the inlet:

I'll admit I'm pretty ignorant about cars, but I could sense the beginning of a midlife crisis starting to come on as I checked out some of the vehicles being proudly displayed. I once knew a guy who owned a red 1969 Shelby Mustang convertible, and I'll never forget the feeling of taking it for a spin and basking in the approving glances of the women I passed by. Which pretty much sums up what car ownership is all about:

Surf city, here I come:

I know virtually nothing about engines, but was still impressed:

My wife's first face-to-face encounter with lowriders. Murica...:

At this point we're roughly halfway through Home Leave. The jury is still out on whether the officially-mandated re-Americanization process is having its intended effect, but it's certainly been great seeing family and friends again. Stay tuned...