Avast, Vikings and Wannabes!
The Seattle area has strong ties to Scandinavia. Especially the Ballard part of town. That’s where the sea faring stuff goes down. It’s not where the lumbering ferries chug back and forth to the islands in the Puget Sounds. That’s in other places along the waterfront. The fishing industry is the heart and soul of Ballard. Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Danes. People of those countries were the original settlers here. There’s a marvelous Nordic Museum in Ballard. It’s almost too cool to believe and standing guard in front is one of Thomas Dambo’s giant trolls, that particular one named Frankie Feetsplinters. The smell of salt water permeates the air. But the best aroma comes from Larsen’s Danish Bakery in the heart of Ballard. It’s wonderful. Though it’s a twenty-minute drive from where I live in north Seattle, I’m more than willing to make the trip for first-rate Scandinavian baked goods. The other day in a large grocery store close to my house, I got into a discussion with the produce manager there. Besides working there, she has a second job as usher for the Kraken hockey games downtown at Climate Pledge Arena and hangs out with the players before the games.Her advantage she said, is she speaks fluent Danish and gets to chat with Kraken player Oliver Bjorkstand in his native language. I thought that was pretty cool but not even close to the next thing she told me. She’s married to a family member and one of the owners of Larsen’s Danish Bakery. Life doesn’t get much better than that. “Calculating route to Larsen’s Danish Bakery” is just about the best thing my GPS ever tells me.
Photo courtesy manfredrichter at Pixabay.com
