Whidbey Island Part 4

Thursday, October 26th, 2017

It was morning and we were back at my brother's house. Ron wasn't home, but Charla had called Mom. It seems there was some confusion over the permits for the ice house's foundation not being signed and the construction people were do to be there to pour the foundation the next day. Mom had been working with the city for a while on that project. While she made some calls, I snapped some shots. This first one is from about the vantage point of where the ice house will sit, looking across the street at an angle. If you turn right at the church and follow the street down a block, you'll more or less come to the Alexander Street house (a.k.a "My house). That's how close Ronnie's house is to "mine".

As I said in an earlier post, Ronnie's house started out as a saloon. It was built in 1883 and is officially known as the Calista Leach House in the town's historical registry. For better or worse, there is a plaque stating this to the right of his front door (which is how I knew it. Ha!).

Here is the ice house foundation, ready to be poured.

This is the ice house. It's bigger inside than it looks.

The big, white house next to Ron's place is the Anchorage Inn Bed & Breakfast. They used to own Ronnie's house and had it as a vacation rental. They apparently did not keep up on repairs and it needed a lot of work when Ronnie bought it, the least of which was the whole ice house move.

Here is a view from his side yard. The doctor's house is on the right.

Here is Ronnie's view from the front. You can see he is right near downtown.

Mom and I drove around a bit. Just a ways from town, we saw these deer grazing in a field not far from the water.

Although I had taken several pictures of "my house" before, the day was a perfectly gorgeous fall day and the sun was out. I wanted to get GOOD shots of the place to share. (So, these are the LAST ones I will make you endure. PROMISE!)

The view from the upstairs window.

The same view from a different window.

The commons from upstairs.

I'm not all sure what we did that day. I know there was a trip to Oak Harbor in there somewhere as well. At some point we stopped at the grocery store, the Red Apple, near Mom's place.

In the early evening, Ron called. The day earlier I had talked to him on the phone and he was kind of startled to realize I'd be going home on Saturday and he really hadn't seen me much yet. We made plans to do something Thursday evening. When he called, I was a bit surprised as it was relatively early still. He had taken off from work a little early to spend more time with me.

He picked me up and we went downtown to the Front Street Grill.

The dinner crowd hadn't showed up yet.

But we sat at the bar (with a view) anyway.

Ronnie wanted a beer, but me? Hmm. The restaurant had a full bar. I opted for something on their signature cocktail menu...

I chose the Whidbey Loganberry Drop as it was made with Whidbey Loganberry liqueur from a distillery on the island near Langley that Erich and I had visited the previous time I had been to the island. When the drink appeared--Zowie! What an eye-catcher!

CHEERS, brother!

Ronnie decided we should partake in the mussels that are grown there in Penn Cove. There were several varieties on the menu, so we sampled four of them. The best of the lot was the restaurant's No. 1 seller---and I can see why. The Coconut Green Curry Mussels were awesome.

Afterwards, we walked around a bit. I first ran across the street to get a shot of the ice cream store with the "Weary Bones Cemetery" behind it.

We took the rear board walk that goes behind several of the businesses on Front Street and looks out on the cove. 

There were not many shops on the rear boardwalk...probably because there isn't much traffic back there. But, I DID find a shop I'd need to remember for future use if/when I move up there. It's a custom frame shop. Hooray! Someone who can properly outfit some of my movie posters!

Ronnie wanted to go wine tasting. There was a local place right on Front Street, the Vail Wine Shop. Ronnie recently started getting into wine. Because he knows I like wine as well, and had recently gone wine tasting and was a wine club member at two wineries, I think he felt this would be something I'd enjoy. 

He asked me what I thought about certain wines. I explained to him that I wasn't into merlots or chardonnays or pinots. When I went wine tasting, I liked what I liked and I didn't like what I didn't like regardless of what the wines were and regardless of what the wine merchant says about them. I am soooo NOT a wine snob. Whether he believed me or not might be questionable as I didn't like any of the wines we sampled and I just had to correct his pronunciation of "pinot noir". He was saying something like "pinot newer", which is an understandable mistake for someone newly coming in to wine. But it was an ENGLISH thing (or, I guess, French thing. Ha!) with me, I swear. Not a wine snobby thing. Ha!

Despite the unappealing wines, I was really enjoying my time with RonRon. It had been so long since I had seen him, really. And it was so nice that it was just he and I the evening. I had initially felt bad because it had been Charla's idea to go wine tasting. I felt bad that she wasn't included. But it really turned out for the best that it was just my baby brother and I. I am so glad we had that time alone together. I missed him more than I had realized.

After Vail's, he wanted to try another place that had wine tasting every Thursday evening, even during the off season. So around the corner and up the block we went...

On the corner of Alexander and Coveland is Bayleaf, a deli and wine shop. 

The place is small, but it was pretty packed. Apparently everyone who is anyone in Coupeville heads there on Thursday nights. (Which I found pretty funny.) It was crowded, but Ronnie and I found seats at a little window bar area. We could taste with a view.

The servers had the same superior attitude most wine servers have. The wines were better than the other place, though...but still nothing I'd buy.

Ronnie wanted to order some of the cheese and crackers they offered to snack on with the wines. Good call. He really liked the marbled English cheese. It was quite tasty and I got him some to take home when we left.

We had had a nice time. I loved that evening with Ron. 

We walked back down to Front Street. I was hoping the ice cream store was open. Ice cream isn't a great chaser for wine, but I hadn't had any of that great ice cream the store makes this trip and hoped to before going home. 

The shop was closed. Waaagh! (I know it says "open" in the photo...but that was taken earlier in the day.)

Oh well. I didn't "need" it anyway. And by walking down to the ice cream store, it allowed me a chance to get a better picture of the "Weary Bones Cemetery" as we cut through to get to the parking lot and Ronnie's truck.

The dear were out and about and it was time to get home.

I'd had a super swell time with my brother, just chatting and hanging out. However, the next day would be the best yet. Stay tuned.

CHEERS!