Friendship, fun, and food in Poulsbo

A few people – NONE of them bloggers – have “warned” me about getting together with people you meet on the internet. They might be sketchy, it seems, or (shudder!) downright dangerous! I have proven those nay-sayers wrong before and I am here to prove them wrong (oh, so wrong!) again today!

Lynn has been a faithful reader of my blog for about a year now. (But she doesn’t have a blog of her own – YET… hint-hint, Lynn – so I can’t provide a link.) We can’t remember how she came upon my blog originally, but she reads it daily and is one of my more faithful commenters (and you know how I love comments!). Lynn and her husband John live in the beautiful seaside community of Poulsbo, otherwise known as “Little Norway.” It’s a short ferry ride but a world away from Seattle. After our visit yesterday, I also believe that it could someday be our new home, with its beauty, its strong feeling of community and its proximity to the water and the Olympic Mountains.

As we drove up to Lynn’s house, Tom asked if was nervous to meet her. “Nah,” I told him, “I feel like we’ve met many times!” And that’s what it felt like when my good friend Lynn answered the door.

The internet might be a weird and dangerous place to meet people for some, but for me it has only led to great and lasting friendships! Tom and John became quick friends too, as we were given a tour of Lynn and John’s beautiful yard, complete with natural babbling stream, mini bamboo forest and fruit trees galore (we even got to take home some of their yummy peach harvest!). John and Lynn are both accomplished artists and their house beautifully showcases their talent and great design sense.

As we were given a tour, John and Lynn’s son Dax and his lovely wife Melissa arrived. Dax is an accomplished musician, composer and arranger (he was the keyboard artist for NSync and toured Europe with them!) and Melissa is a zoologist – and they are both smart, talented and friendly, just like our new friends Lynn and John!

The six of us then left the house and walked to downtown Poulsbo…

…where Tizley’s Europub is located. German beer, Wienerschnitzel, and good friends… what could be better?!

When I was Germany with Mom in 2001, we had Wienerschnitzel at a restaurant atop the festung in Salzburg, and this Weinerschnitzel was every bit as good! Here’s Lynn and John showing theirs off:

And Tom and I showing ours off:

And me showing off the fact that I was on my second (fabulous) beer, in spite of my “lightweight” reputation:

All six of us had a wonderful time:

On the walk back to Lynn and John’s house, we came upon an intersection that cracked me up:

(I’ll have to let Uncle Harry – Tom’s cousin is married to Harrison Ford’s brother – know about this!)

The evening ended too soon, but with a promise from Lynn and her family that they’d join us soon in Woodinville for a day of winery tours and wine tasting.

Thank you, Lynn and John, for a wonderful evening full of fun and friendship! We’re so lucky to have met you through this dangerous and scary medium (pffffffft!) called the (shudder!) Internet!