I know, some of you are shaking your head. What is there to love about Bremerton? It’s a feeling I share sometimes too. I grew up here. I wanted out so bad that I signed up for the Navy and left home at 18.

and then I spent close to ten years just trying to get back. I’ve been all over the united states but no matter where I went, in the end, All I wanted was to go home. Bremerton is my home and no other place can fill my heart like she does.

Bremerton can be difficult to love. She’s this collision of extremes. Land and water, Sailors and civilians, youth and age, conservative and liberal. Turn of the century falling down brick houses and scyscraping modern glass condos. Lawyers commuting to their seattle offices while homeless folks sleep in the alcoves of abandoned business blocks.

But she’s also the sun rising over the warren ave bridge as a rickety yellow bus rolls me along to school. She’s the smell of the puget sound when I roll my windows down, cruising tracyton beach blvd. She’s the view of Seattle from the top of 30th st. She’s where I fell in love for the first time. She’s where my mom died.

The more things I look for, the more things I find to love. Let me share them with you.