The morning of Wednesday, October 25th greeted us, not only with a little light rain (the only rain while I was there), but also two guests in the backyard, a momma deer and her not-so-little-anymore baby.
That morning, we picked up Charla (my brother's ex, mother of my nephew Brawn) and drove back to Oak Harbor. Charla had been up visiting and would soon be moving to Coupeville herself. Charla likes to keep in shape, and Mom had seen a like-new treadmill at one of the thrift stores the day before. She'd put it on hold so Charla could see it. And off we went to check it out.
As we approached Oak Harbor, there was a bombardment of candidate signs for the upcoming election. One of the more unusual offices that was being vied for was "Cemetery Commissioner" as seen on the red and white sign below.
Back at the thrift store, I amused my self finding ugly/funny items and Halloween decor to photograph.
Charla liked the treadmill and mom got it for her. $35. Cheap. Off we went down Madrona Way...
This home on Madrona used to be an old school house. The old bell tower is still intact.
Deer in the front yard.
We stopped at the Alexander house ("my house") to drop off the tread mill.
I stopped to get a panoramic shot of the town commons--so it's kind of out of proportion. The chain link fence on the right is the edge of the Alexander street house property.
Here is the back of the house from the commons.
Back in the "tiki" room downstairs, we set up the treadmill (which you can just see over Mom's shoulder on the left). While not the best picture of Charla, it is the only one I had of her from that day.
After dropping Charla off, we returned home for a bit. The tree guys were still at it.
Some time later, they were done.
For a while, I helped Mom move things around in the main house. She has a ton of stuff in there...for the Alexander house and her own house to make into a vacation rental. It looked terribly cluttered, but with a lot moved to the Alexander house already, you could visualize how her house on Main Street would look more or less down the road.
At dinner time, we headed out. We had dined at Toby's in town the first night...but I had been so zonked out, I had either forgotten my camera or had merely forgotten to take photos...which I wanted to do. So, back to Toby's it was. As we drove off, we saw the remains of the trees piled in front of the house.
As we drove down Main, we saw Ronnie's truck parked in front of his house. I called him and they had just had hamburgers for dinner.
In town, I took more shots of the OZ figures as we passed them.
And then we got to Toby's.
As I said, Toby's is a dive bar diner. There is a bar as you enter on the left and booths all along the right side and along the back wall.
Mom and I sat in the coveted corner booth. I took shots out of the window's corner view.
Here is a panoramic shot of the inside.
And here, on the front of the Toby's menu, is a blurb about Coupeville from the Island News newspaper from June 5, 1884.
Dinner for me was a buffalo burger.
Downtown coupeville
After dinner we drove back by the Alexander house for some reason.
Then we went back to Mom's place.
As the rainy weather started breaking up, the day was coming to a close. It made for beautiful sunset shots---but they did not come out at all.
My presence had them on alert, but what really scared them away was the sound of chainsaws and a woodchipper from the front yard. Mom had hired some guys to take down the tall trees in the front. One was rotting and she was worried about them blowing on her house...or someone else's.
That morning, we picked up Charla (my brother's ex, mother of my nephew Brawn) and drove back to Oak Harbor. Charla had been up visiting and would soon be moving to Coupeville herself. Charla likes to keep in shape, and Mom had seen a like-new treadmill at one of the thrift stores the day before. She'd put it on hold so Charla could see it. And off we went to check it out.
As we approached Oak Harbor, there was a bombardment of candidate signs for the upcoming election. One of the more unusual offices that was being vied for was "Cemetery Commissioner" as seen on the red and white sign below.
Back at the thrift store, I amused my self finding ugly/funny items and Halloween decor to photograph.
Charla liked the treadmill and mom got it for her. $35. Cheap. Off we went down Madrona Way...
This home on Madrona used to be an old school house. The old bell tower is still intact.
Deer in the front yard.
We stopped at the Alexander house ("my house") to drop off the tread mill.
I stopped to get a panoramic shot of the town commons--so it's kind of out of proportion. The chain link fence on the right is the edge of the Alexander street house property.
Here is the back of the house from the commons.
Back in the "tiki" room downstairs, we set up the treadmill (which you can just see over Mom's shoulder on the left). While not the best picture of Charla, it is the only one I had of her from that day.
After dropping Charla off, we returned home for a bit. The tree guys were still at it.
Some time later, they were done.
For a while, I helped Mom move things around in the main house. She has a ton of stuff in there...for the Alexander house and her own house to make into a vacation rental. It looked terribly cluttered, but with a lot moved to the Alexander house already, you could visualize how her house on Main Street would look more or less down the road.
At dinner time, we headed out. We had dined at Toby's in town the first night...but I had been so zonked out, I had either forgotten my camera or had merely forgotten to take photos...which I wanted to do. So, back to Toby's it was. As we drove off, we saw the remains of the trees piled in front of the house.
As we drove down Main, we saw Ronnie's truck parked in front of his house. I called him and they had just had hamburgers for dinner.
In town, I took more shots of the OZ figures as we passed them.
And then we got to Toby's.
As I said, Toby's is a dive bar diner. There is a bar as you enter on the left and booths all along the right side and along the back wall.
Mom and I sat in the coveted corner booth. I took shots out of the window's corner view.
And here, on the front of the Toby's menu, is a blurb about Coupeville from the Island News newspaper from June 5, 1884.
Downtown coupeville
After dinner we drove back by the Alexander house for some reason.
Then we went back to Mom's place.
As the rainy weather started breaking up, the day was coming to a close. It made for beautiful sunset shots---but they did not come out at all.
I couldn't believe three days had passed already. My trip was already half over and I really hadn't done much to help. It would be interesting to see what the next day would bring...
Stay tuned.
CHEERS!
Comments