Spotted on the Roadside: The Church of God-Zillah

July 24, 2015 Comments Off read Pacific, Spotted on the Roadside, Travel, USA, Washington, West

In the town of Zilla, WA, is a glorious pun come to life…or half-life anyway. It all started as a joke, with the reverend of the then Christian Worship Center being called the leader of the Church of God-Zillah, and being a B-movie fan, he decided to embrace it and build a fire and brimstone-breathing lure to get people to come to church. Not being one to be too prideful of his creation, however, it’s tucked behind the church instead of out front–if you didn’t go looking for it, you would have no idea it’s there. It’s my understanding that they originally intended to skin it and outfit it with motion detectors so its eyes would light up as cars passed by, but given that it was constructed almost fifteen years ago and no progress has been made on that front, the saddest little ‘zilla in Zillah languishes naked before god and everyone. All I know is if a dino with glowing red eyes showed up on my doorstep and asked if I had moment to talk about our lord and savior, I wouldn’t shut the door in his face.

Spotted on Cheyne Rd in Zillah, WA

Spotted on the Roadside: The Licorice Shrine in Poulsbo, WA

July 17, 2015 Comments Off read Attractions, Masticating With Mellzah, Pacific, Spotted on the Roadside, Travel, USA, Washington, West

There are two licorice camps: people who love black licorice, and people who are wrong. I’m a ride or die black licorice fan, so when I saw that there was a bonafide licorice shrine at the Marina Market in Poulsbo, I had to check it out.

I have never seen so much black licorice in my life. It didn’t encompass just that end cap, but another endcap as well as an entire aisle. Worlds of licorice. I didn’t even know this much black licorice variety existed! I’ve eaten salted black licorice before (and loved it) so this time I opted to try something a bit different: the spookily packaged Heksehyl Weerwolven drops, which have a soft caramel center. Holy moly, the only thing that was spooky was how fast the bag disappeared. I definitely want to try the other Heksehyl licorices (one of them looks like it might have been a minty black licorice, which I’m not sure will be good but I want to try it anyway), and I would never say no to Piratos or basically anything on that display other than red licorice which is an abomination and a crime against the licorice lords. Licorice Shrine, I’ll be back!

Spotted on Front Street in Poulsbo, WA

The Poulsbo Aquarium

July 15, 2015 Comments Off read Attractions, Pacific, Travel, USA, Washington, West

The Poulsbo Marine Science Center is a small but delightful aquarium, a cool free place to visit to take a break in your marathon donut eating sessions. It was nearly empty on the day I visited, which meant I got lots of personal attention from the volunteer docent. They don’t believe in “do not touch” and in fact encourage you (after rinsing your hands) to plunge your arms into their tanks up to the elbow and interact with the creatures inside. I learned that if you carefully place your finger between the spines, you’ll get a tiny sea urchin hug. I also learned that when you gently brush a sea anemone, if it feels sticky, that’s because it’s trying to eat you. NOT TODAY, ANEMONE.

My personal favorite was the display of moon jellyfish. It seems hard to believe that something so fragile and beautiful is just bopping around out there in the puget sound, doing its thing. It’s especially cool to have all of these local species available to look at and learn about up on dry land since between my terrible eyesight and my deep mistrust of underwater breathing aparatuses, it’s unlikely that I’ll be going to see them in their natural environment anytime soon. SO NOT TOMORROW, EITHER, ANEMONE.