what about the plastic animals?

A Quick Stop in Coupeville

Coupeville is a nice little village on Whidbey Island.  I ate breakfast at that building at the end of the pier.  Apparently the pier is a good place to see orcas, but it was the wrong time of the year while I was there.

The enormous bear claws were at a bakery in town.  I was tempted but decided on a slice of marionberry pie instead, thinking I would get a local delicacy.  Later I learned that marionberry is not some exotic berry that only grows in the Pacific Northwest but the most common blackberry cultivar.

My 2.4 Cents

I love this ad!  Twenty percent over face value for wheat pennies is a great deal.  Twenty percent!  What's the face value of a wheat penny?  If I'm reading what's stamped on the pennies above correctly it's one cent.  You could sell those thousand wheat pennies that you've been stashing away in a jar for the past few decades and make two dollars!

Bonus:  Tonight's sunset.

Smokin' Joe

A tribute to Joe Frazier on St. Nicholas Ave. outside the 125th St. subway station.

On the Ferry

My time in Port Townsend was short in part because I needed to catch the first ferry if I wanted to do all the things I wanted to do in Seattle later that day.  The first ferry left early!  Like, 6:30 a.m. or so.

I skipped breakfast and got to the pier early enough to take a few pictures of the Olympic Mountains to the south.  Soon enough I was in line and parked in the bowels of the ferry.

When I made the ferry reservation there was a list of rules, one of which was that drivers had to stay with their cars because the trip only took thirty minutes.  As you can see, there wasn't much of a view where I was parked.  I wanted to walk around the ferry, but half-heartedly tried to write a few postcards before dozing off.

You know what woke me up?  An announcement that the ferry was going to be docking in a few minutes and that drivers should return to their vehicles.  No fair!  Ah, well, it was on to Whidbey Island.

Tuesday Afternoon At The Lake

Nice day for a walk in Central Park!

A Night At The Palace

The Palace Hotel in downtown Port Townsend, Washington that is.  The Palace Hotel was built in 1889 by a retired sea captain.  In the 1920s the hotel acquired the nickname, "The Palace of Sweets" for reasons I will not go into here.  I was dead tired and didn't have a reservation when I walked in so I was prepared to pay a fair bit for a room.

The room rate was very reasonable and I was going to just rent the room but the guy behind the desk insisted on showing me several rooms upstairs.  What followed must have looked somewhat comical because he was very tall and thin and skipped two or three steps as he bounded up the stairs.  I was practically running to keep up with him.  The hotel is a maze and every nook and cranny was a sensory overload of Victorian furnishings.  We settled on the Miss Alice Room, which was enormous and had a cast iron claw-footed bathtub.

I chatted with the desk clerk for a few minute while checking in.  He had about the thickest Boston accent I had ever heard.  When he saw my driver's license he said "New York?  I'm from Boston!"  I think I said I had kinda guessed from his accent that he was from Boston.

Port Townsend looked like a really great town to visit.  There were all sorts of shops, galleries and interesting buildings downtown.  I didn't get to see much of it so I need to go back.  It was well after dark by the time I finished an excellent pizza and beer at Waterfront Pizza and I had to catch the early ferry the next morning.

Absolute Weekend Ritual

A long line outside of Absolute Bagels on Saturday.  Last time they were mentioned here Absolute only scored a 'B' on their health inspection.  Congrats on the 'A'!

Busch Stadium From Above

This is a week late but scrolling through my photo library this evening I noticed I took this picture of Busch Stadium, home of the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, back in July from the top of the Gateway Arch.

Forks Rain

Now this is what I like to see.  Forks gets about 107 inches of rain a year on average and is proud of it.  When I passed through town they were just over 50 inches.  As of Monday they were up to 94.37 unofficial inches on the year.  That's a lot of rain.  Instead of ignoring, or being in denial about, the wetness, Forks at least acknowledges that it is a rainy place.

Big news!  Carhenge, near Alliance, Nebraska is for sale.  Asking price is $300K.  Alliance has never known what to do with the place, but hopefully the new owner will.

 

Western Skunk Cabbage

This is a Western Skunk Cabbage.  They were all along the roadside on the Olympic Peninsula.  Every one I saw was attracting bugs.  Don't bite into one as your mouth will become temporarily paralyzed.