Tuesday, October 24, 2017. We got up and went to see my brother's house. His house is about 1 1/2 blocks from downtown and has a view of Penn Cove as well. It was built in the late 1800s and was originally a saloon. Look to the left of the house in his yard. Do you see anything?
There were some deer resting beneath the tree.
The project on the right side of his house is what we had really come to see. His house came with an historic old ice house. Do you see the house behind my brother's on the far right? That is a doctor's house. His place sits on a street and from the back of his house to the next street is entirely his back yard. When Ronnie bought his house, he learned that the ice house sat a few feet on to the doctor's back property. The doctor insisted he had to move it. It was a LONG process, but move it he did. Here is the forms for the ice house's new foundation.
There sits the ice house waiting to be moved to its new permanent home. Eventually Ronnie wants to turn it into a small guest house for a vacation rental. Good for him.
After looking at the progress at my brother's house, Mom and I headed to Oak Harbor, the next town north. We stopped at this place, Captain Whidbey Inn, for just a moment. She just wanted to show me the place. The plan was we (Mom, Ron, my nephew, my brother's ex, and myself) would have lunch there Saturday before I left. That unfortunately was not to be as my shuttle would be departing earlier than planned.
The Captain Whidbey Inn the originally a hunting lodge of some wealthy family in the early 20th century. It looked interesting and was supposed to be nice. I hope to visit it on a return trip sometime.
This is the main entrance to the inn.
Once we arrived in Oak Harbor, we stopped at one of Mom's favorite spots, Whidbey Coffee.
Yes, they DO have Starbucks on the island. In fact, Coupeville was where another brand, Seattle's Best Coffee, originated. But Whidbey Coffee has popped up in several locations all over the island. This one has a view of the water.
After coffee, we stopped at a thrift store Mom likes to shop at. They have some amazing stuff in the thrift stores that Mom has picked up for the vacation rental. I didn't know what she was looking for or needed, so I amused myself looking at thrift store items I found funny, for one reason or another, and wondered who could dare part with these treasures---and who would ever bother buying them? Here is a plate commemorating the presidency of Richard Nixon, for example. Ha!
Oh, here is a find we ended up buying... a carved tiki mask! What was IT doing on Whidbey Island? The tiki gods must have known I was coming...
Anyone need some sparkly Minnie Mouse pumps with big bows on them?
How about pirate Mickey Mouse ears with a pierced ear?
Zowie! A Jim Nabors cassette and--bonus! A Mac David cassette as well! Ha!
After the thrift stores, we stopped for breakfast at the Island Cafe,
The food was serviceable (but that biscuit was AWFUL).
We went to a grocery store afterwards to pick up a few things. Across the parking lot, in the empty shell of a former Kmart, was a Spirit Halloween store. I had to check it out.
I took pictures (and video) of EVERYTHING (of course). I also took pictures of the Halloween merchandise at all of the stores we visited (Home Depot, Walmart, etc.). I threw them all in this video to save time. There was some pretty amazing pieces (this ginormous clown was awesome---so creepy...and there was a nifty werewolf or two) as well as some rather stupid items (a haunted swing? A demonic vacuum? A possessed toaster? An evil briefcase? I'm NOT kidding about any of those. They are in there). Take a look or don't. It is below:
After the Halloween store, we headed back home to put the groceries away. Mom prefers to turn off of the state route and take Madrona Way to Coupeville as it is more scenic.
We stopped at another local market just a short ways from my mom's house. I opted to walk back so I could get a picture of the Compass Rose, a bed & breakfast just a few houses away from my mom's place.
Here is Mom's house. It was pretty flat and "plain Jane" looking until she added on the front porch.
Here is the "before" photo. It looks so much better now.
To the left of the main house is a guest house in the rear.
This little guest house is where Mom currently lives as she tries to get the big house ready for vacation rentals as well.
Mom's property goes beyond this back fence. It extends to that row of bushes and scrub in the distance.
After dropping off the groceries, we headed back to Oak Harbor. Using Madrona Way again, I got a photo of the floats where Penn Cove muscles are raised.
We went to the Habitat For Humanity Store, where the sales woman is on a first name basis with my mom.
Following that, we went to Walmart. I don't know what we were after (other than some toiletries I needed that I did not have in "airplane size" when I had left Fresno), but I amused myself taking pictures of things that I thought were funny or Halloween-y.
A poo costume! If I hadn't already ordered my pirate costume(click HERE to read about it),
I could have been a Poo Man for Halloween. Waaaagh!
Outside of the store were two women dressed as mermaids. They wanted voters to sign a petition about a local park.
On the way home, we went down Madrona Way again. I snapped a photo of this cool house decked out for Halloween.
And there were deer on the side of the road.
I wanted to check out downtown a little more. We stopped to see the Weary Bones Cemetery, a fake cemetery set up for the season on some public land behind the ice cream store and a parking lot.
Public art at the Visitors Center.
I'm not sure exactly why, but Coupeville seemed to have a "Wizard of Oz" theme going on for Halloween. There were scarecrow cut outs on many corners.
There were also many Oz vignettes around town, like this one.
Kopaw's Iskreme is de-licious! Mmm. In this building is where Seattle's Best Coffee Company originated. There is a plaque on the wall (to the left of the window with the closed sign in it) commemorating this.
Here is more of downtown Coupeville and it's Oz-some Halloween decorations.
Toby's is a great dive bar diner.
Here is another look at the Knead & Feed, which was the location of the store Sandra Bullock ran in the film "Practical Magic".
Downtown Coupeville
I don't recall much of this day, but it had mostly been a day of running errands. Mom and I had a quiet dinner at home. She watched some TV and I either read or wrote postcards or something.
That was it. The next day I'd hopefully get to help Mom.
Stay tuned for Part 3.
CHEERS!
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