“24” – Town of Coupeville Style

The following events take place between 3:22 and 4:45pm

3:22pm – Lynda and Mitch notice the asphalt breaking up and water starting to trickle down Grace St. in front of the Lovejoy Inn
3:24pm – Lynda walks to Town Hall and reports what she witnessed to Public Works Director Malcolm Bishop.
3:29pm – A white Ford Ranger pickup drives up and parks in front of the suspect damage to the street. Director Bishop exits the truck and secures the area.
3:33pm – Director Bishop calls for backup from CTU (Coupeville Town Utilities).
3:40pm – Just leaving their previous assignment, the backup arrives and within minutes. Five members of the CTU response team assess the situation.

3:45pm – Agent Walker, oops, I mean Kelly, departs the scene and returns with a large backhoe perfect for the situation.

3:58pm – Excavation team begins. With precision, Kelly controls the backhoe and digs to within inches of the water break. The rest of the team clears the debris.
4:10pm – Suspect leak is located and contained and re-covered.
4:25pm – The mission complete, the CTU team departs for headquarters, ready for what the next 24 hours will hold.
4:35pm – Director Bishop clears the road block, calls all clear, and drives by for one last inspection of another job well done.

Many thanks to the CTU/Town of Coupeville Public Works for their incredible service and expertise – the best on Whidbey Island!

Coupeville Farmer's Market and Cookies!

The Lovejoy Inn is in the perfect location (I know I say that alot). This time the reason is that our weekly farmer's market happens every Saturday about a 1 minute walk away (I can see it from my window as I write this). The Coupeville Farmer's Market has gotten bigger over the years and has now quite a few farmers. Maybe five years ago, not many farmers and more crafts. Now there is an abundance of fresh produce from Whidbey Island organic farms, backyard farms, dairy farms and animal farms.

We get produce from Georgie Smith's Willowood Farm and Rose Hip Farm both here in Coupeville. Bell's Farm has the best strawberries. Mile Post 19 farm has incredible raspberries. Grass fed local beef from 3 Sisters Cattle Co. and fresh butter, cheese and milk from Golden Glen Creamery. There's amazing fresh alaskan salmon-smoked, lox and fresh- pedaled over from Port Townsend, fresh and aromatic kettle corn (our girls favorite), and plants, flowers, more berries, Mr. Mobley's sauces (the tahini is abundantly useful), crafts, artists, and bakers.

Speaking of bakers - today Lynda came back from the market with two cookies-for me. From a baker, new to our market. I had the best cookies I've had in a long time - caramel cream shortbread. Two shortbread with a thick layer of buttery caramel cream filling. Yow! I think I told 6 strangers that they had to get a cookie from the "cookie lady." At the end of the market today, we came home with local onions, greens, potatoes . . . and half a dozen cookies. I love to eat local.

History Invasion

Yesterday at 1:30pm, 5 vehicles and 25 people pulled in front of the Lovejoy Inn. They were not expected.

They knocked on the door and started to come in before we answered. They walked up to the house, looking at every detail, taking pictures, pointing. If I had been alone, I would probably have hid, but since Lynda was here we greeted them.

We soon found out that this was the Vradenburg clan and that their great grandparents were the second owners of our house. Elias and Isabelle Vradenburg came out west to Whidbey Island around 1904 and purchased the house here at 5 NW 8th St. It remained in the family until 1948.

One of Elias and Belle’s grandchildren, now in her 80’s was part of the crowd that visited. Before we knew it there was a swarm of people examining every nook and cranny of the house. Little children we’d never seen before came running down the stairs and out from the back porch. Memories of the dining room, the blackberries, the cistern, and the barn were shared as well as all the collected memories passed down to the great and great great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. They were a lovely bunch of people and so appreciative of the chance to look around the house and the barn. It was obviously very meaningful.

We’re hoping to receive some of the old family photos that show when the Vradenburgs lived here. Here’s the picture from yesterday with all the direct relations sitting on the old porch.

There was another large crowd that never came in – these are the spouses of the Vradenburgs. They tried to remain patient while their loved ones took the tour. We recognized their type right away.
In our family (ie: Lynda’s family – The Austins) the spouses are called “the married into’s” meaning we married into the Austin family. We have developed our own support group and quietly smile as we hear once again the story of Grandpa Roy using his 80 year old wife, Edel, as ballast in the old Ford truck so he could get traction going up the driveway. She fell out at some point, much to Roy’s surprise, but she survived.

Lynda kept saying that what happened today would not be unusual in her family…in fact she remembers traipsing through family homes in Oregon and Minnesota without an invitation or without batting an eye. “It’s just what we do”. I guess the Vradenburgs have some of the same genes and I’m glad they felt as free as the Austin’s to “just drop by”.

Roy & Edel Austin with son Chuck and grandson David

Wine on Whidbey WoW

Whidbey is fast becoming a wine destination in the Puget Sound. That suits us just perfectly here at the Lovejoy Inn. We enjoy wine. We can use a few descriptive words like “jammy”, “oaky” “spicy”, “earthy” and “mmmm.” Our Coupeville neighborhood wine merchant, Beth at the Bayleaf, says in a friendly way that we are more “quantity than quality” – I can’t exactly argue with her. She has introduced us to some wonderful red wines from Spain (Tempranillo and Garnacha), affordable dry and citrusy Italian bubbly (Prosecco). We also pick up local wines from the Bayleaf, usually Whidbey Island Winery and Greenbank Cellars.

But that’s not all . . . there are now 6 wineries on Whidbey Island (two more opening next year) and 3 with vineyards. http://www.whidbeyislandvintners.org/
Last week I tasted a Pinot Noir with grapes grown on Whidbey and it was excellent. There’s also some nice white varietals grown here - Sieggerabbe, Madeleine Angevine, and Pinot Gris. There are at least 4 great wineshops around the island.

Link: Seattle Times story: Whidbey Island's got grape expectations

I started writing about this because one of our guests yesterday was here for a digital photography class that featured Whidbey wines, vineyards, wineries and local food. She had field trips to a local farm, a restaurant that features food from that farm, a lavender farm, two wineries, two vineyards, two wine shops, 1 cheese shop – the entire time taking photographs, drinking and eating. The class was taught by professional photographer Jan Goff-LaFontaine through Coupeville’s own Pacific Northwest Art School. I think I would sign up for any class that paired food and wine – (Intro to Statistics with . . .)

Cheers!

Full Weekends, Quiet Week (alternate title - City Mouse and the Country Mouse)

This has been the best summer weatherwise for many years – beautiful days – day after day. So where are the people Monday through Friday? Weekends are full here at the Lovejoy Inn with the occasional opening. Mid-week we have plenty of room. Just had a cancellation for the weekend of July 24 which has got me thinking about availability/vacancy.

If you want to have a break from your urban/city life – try a couple nights in Coupeville on Whidbey Island.

I’m not saying the city is bad, usually when the Richards getaway for a couple days, it’s to a city – Seattle, Portland, Vancouver BC. (picture is view from our room in Vancouver last month).

We have all the natural beauty, peace and quiet, wildlife, pastoral vistas and overly friendly people for a lifetime. We love the action, energy and population of the city. And, cultural diversity, dining diversity, fashion – we love it. We feel a little like the Beverly Hillbillies when we head to a big city – we don’t know how to dress anymore and we gawk at everything (I think I’m a cross between Jed and Jethro, Lynda is equal parts Daisy Mae and Miss Hathaway).

Ya’ll come back now, ya here!

Published in USA Today!

I've gone big time! Well, I wish there was a write up about the Lovejoy Inn in the newspaper - we've had a couple local mentions, but I just found out a photo I took last summer was used in a USA Today story about places to camp.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/10great/2009-07-16-state-park-volunteers_N.htm

USA Today - Travel - Destinations - City Guides - 10 Great Deals - July 16

"10 Great Places to Pitch in a State Park"

USA Today featured Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve (a National Park that encompasses all of Coupeville) as a place to camp - we have two State Parks within the National Park). I helped promote Ebey's last summer for their 30th anniversary celebration and 1st ever Ebey's Forever Conference so anywhere I went around here, I snapped pictures.

Well, my "Cabbage" picture has now received national recognition. It's okay as photo's go, but MY PICTURE AND NAME ARE IN USA TODAY!

Now I'll go back to cleaning the Carriage House and Penn Cove Rooms.

Whidbey is the Greatest this Summer!

We can't believe we live on Whidbey Island this summer. Probably 4 nights a week, our family has dinner on the front porch overlooking Penn Cove, or on our back patio. That's because it's warm, sunny, dry. It's crazy, but what a treat.

Our Lovejoy Inn guests are loving it too. Our inn is already a happy-relaxing place, but to have all this sun! Joy joy joy! The guests just leaving today came down from Vancouver BC with their 5 month old daughter. Loved the Carriage House, the balcony, dining at the Oystercatcher and walking through town. Once they parked in our driveway, they haven't needed to drive till they left.

3 nights this week we had a family from Atlanta that lived in Coupeville 12 years ago. To them, Coupeville hasn't changed - picnics, walks on the beach, Toby's tavern - they lived it up.

And ... this week is Whidbey Island Race Week - a sailboat regatta where most of the time the boats are racing around Penn Cove. I get distracted everytime I look out the window. The best place to watch is downtown Coupeville and the Coupeville Wharf.