Sunny Sunday....

Today Summer arrived!!! It is absolutely GORGEOUS here. It also is the first Sunday of THE CONCERT ON THE COVE, SUNDAYS IN THE PARK series. Today's performance was A big band sound from a band called the SeaNotes. A Band from Oak Harbor, Not the very best, but for 7.00 it was good! Played for 1.5 hours of 40-50's style music. Great Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, etc jazz. Super day to plop your beach chair on the grass, open up your umbrella and sit in the sun and watch people, and sing. There will be 6 more of these concerts through August. Can't wait!


bandstand

After the concert, We walked through the park and down the path towards town and the parking lot, and just as we came out of the trees, there was this view. I couldn't pass it up, so I stopped, put down all my gear, and snapped away. This is looking right down at the Coupeville Wharf and the Port of Coupeville. Across the water is more of Whidbey Island, and Oak Harbor, and the Navy Seaplane Base. On the Horizon, you can just make out Mt Baker, our wonderful kind benevolent sleeping volcano. May she sleep for a looooong time yet.


wharf

This is the view at the entrance to the wharf, and down Front Street and the rest of the town. Big isn't it? It is being turned into a tourist destination, but we are keeping the old feel of the town, and really it is pretty much the way it was when We were growing up. The paint is newer, and the car models have changed. The big red bldg WAS an Evinrude outboard motor, and boat repair station, but now it is a number of little shops inside and a gourmet restaurant and brewery.




Most of the people that grew up here cant afford to live here anymore, and their old family businesses and homes have been sold and purchased by nouveau retirees from the big cities with lots of money to fix up these buildings. I cant say it is a totally bad thing, because it does bring tourist dollars into the county, but it is sad to see people dislocated because they cant pay the high taxes any more.

such is the way of life in utopia I guess. Days like today don't help much either, because if it was the first time you had seen it, you would fall in love with this area too, The sky is blue, the water is cool and blue, and the breezes are just enough to cool you off from the hot sun. The days are LOOONG this time of year, and there isn't much NOT to like. HOWEVER, had you been here in June or the first part of July, the skies were a dark gray, it was windy and cold, SUN? What sun? And it rained, and rained, and rained.

today is the jewel of a day that sustains us through the rest of the dark cloudy year. I wouldn't live anywhere else...Well maybe Alaska...