Category Archives: Other Local Places

Duck Sighting

Posted on May 7, 2012 | 2 comments

Duck and truck


Amongst cows and other barnyard animals, the mascot for the Great Kitsap Duck Race was spotted yesterday in Gorst. It was a beautiful day so the sunglasses were definitely needed. The reason Big Yellow was hanging out with the Mattress Ranch menagerie is that the quirky Gorst business is one of the race’s sponsors. Or maybe it was because, as a great philosopher once said, “You have to be somewhere.” Note the replica of the duck on the Nissan pickup truck shown in the photo.

This year the Great Kitsap Duck Race is scheduled for Sunday, July 29 during the Whaling Days Festival. Sponsored by the Silverdale Rotary Club and about 30 other businesses and organizations, the race raises money for civic groups in the community. To participate you pay $5 for each rubber duck that represents you in the race. At race time the popular bathtub toys are dumped into a boomed-off area at the Silverdale Waterfront Park. The ducks that splash across the finish line first win great prizes. Top prize is a Nissan pickup.

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Dancing Man in Silverdale

Posted on February 20, 2012 | 3 comments

Just in time for President’s Day


First Silverdale took much of Bremerton’s retail business away. Now they are copying our advertising ideas. Today I noticed a new dancing man (see photo) boogying for business in front of Mattress Depot on Silverdale Way across from Arby’s. Judging by the dancing man’s enthusiastic moves and the like-new condition of his svelte balloon body, I don’t think he’s been on the job for long.

Silverdale is by far the biggest retail center in Kitsap County. And it’s growing. But a business needs to do more than just open its doors there to make money. With at least three other mattress stores in Silverdale—one of which advertises itself with a giant cow—Mattress Depot has plenty of competition. Plus it’s in a retail sector where success is based almost entirely on marketing. The dancing man is going to attract the attention of some passing motorists. Whether they will return later for a mattress upgrade is another question.

For the record I bought my last new mattress at Arnold’s Home Furnishings in Bremerton. A dancing man was not involved. You would probably see the pope in a tank top before you saw a dancing man at Arnold’s.

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North Shore Art

Posted on January 31, 2012 | Leave a comment

Taxi!


There’s always something interesting to see at the corner of Beck and North Shore Roads in Belfair. For one thing the owner is a car collector so in good weather you can usually catch a glimpse of some of the vehicles in his collection, which includes a beautiful 1955 Ford Crown Victoria. But old cars aren’t the only decorations in the big yard that’s across the street from Belfair State Park. On my bike ride today I noticed a new metal sculpture (see photo). It wasn’t named, so let’s go with “Balancing Act.” The torso is fashioned from an old water heater. The statue’s hard noggin looks familiar, but I can’t place it.

There’s another sculpture after the jump.
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The Dalby Waterwheel

Posted on January 5, 2012 | 1 comment

Big wheel keep on turning


I have always wanted my own waterwheel. Since I have never owned any property with flowing water, the next best thing is to visit the Dalby Waterwheel (see photo) whenever a day trip takes me along Hood Canal’s South Shore Road. The old waterwheel, now an historic landmark, is located on State Route 106 near mile post 7 just east of the Alderbrook Resort. Water from Dalby Creek has been turning the old waterwheel for almost 90 years.
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Wi-Fi in Allyn

Posted on November 20, 2011 | 4 comments

I'll have one coffee to stay.


Allyn, Washington, (population 2400) has gone high-tech. Last week Sail On In, an espresso stand on SR 3 at the south end of town, added Wi-Fi to its menu of great coffee, delicious pastries, and tasty soup (see photo). For years Allyn, a burg on Case Inlet’s North Bay, was known mainly, at least from a business standpoint, as the location of Big Bubba’s Burgers, a 1960’s-style drive-in across the street from the waterfront park. Now there’s another good reason to visit Allyn especially if want to surf the net without a data plan. Perhaps other local businesses will follow suit.

Wi-Fi in Allyn makes it harder to justify paying $130 extra for an iPad with 3G. (As an aside, the buzz created by Amazon’s Kindle Fire prompted a look at tablet computers in general; my conclusion is that I wouldn’t be comfortable with the Fire’s 7-inch screen despite its attractive price.) Now I’m back to thinking the Wi-Fi-only iPad might solve my connectivity issues when I’m away from home. Our vacation place at Treasure Island (3 miles from Allyn) is not connected to the Internet, and previously the closest Wi-Fi connection was 9 miles away in Belfair. Now Wi-Fi is just a short drive (or easy bike ride) away over back roads. And Sail On In has a comfortable indoor seating area for when the weather is bad. Perhaps I can do a blog post from there.

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The Missing Chums

Posted on November 8, 2011 | 4 comments

No fall chum salmon yet


I’m not going to pass up a great title even if it isn’t completely apt and also needs to be credited to the Hardy Boys. The fall chum salmon aren’t really missing (I hope) just late in arriving to the creeks at the eastern end of lower Hood Canal near Belfair. Perhaps we should call on Frank and Joe to solve the mystery of what’s keeping them or at least to find out where they are. The brothers’ motorboat, Sleuth, would come in handy.
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Oyster Bay View

Posted on November 4, 2011 | 1 comment

Oyster Bay at high tide


Oyster Bay is just south of Mud Bay. The two bays are separated by a narrow strip of land that forms the base of the Marine Drive peninsula. Oyster Bay is larger than Mud Bay, better known, and more scenic. Its name gets more respect too even if most of the oysters that lived in the shallow water along its shores are long gone.

The photo was taken this afternoon from the parking lot of the Family Pancake House on Kitsap Way. Bremerton’s Baymont Inn is in the background. Additional great views of Oyster Bay are available from Madrona Point, Shorewood Drive, the Baymont Inn, and several other restaurants along Kitsap Way. The Oyster Bay interchange, a major exit for Bremerton from State Route 3, lies just to the west of the bay.

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Lower Elfendahl Pass Road Reopens

Posted on November 2, 2011 | 3 comments

New fill and asphalt, old culvert


For nearly four years vehicles couldn’t drive on one of the most scenic roads on the Kitsap Peninsula. The lower section of Elfendahl Pass Road had been closed since December 2007, when 12 inches of rain over two days flooded Stimson Creek and caused several serious washouts. The photo shows the repairs to one of them. The road reopened last Thursday.

Photos of some of the damage caused by the December 2007 storm are included after the jump.
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More Dancing Men

Posted on October 24, 2011 | 4 comments

That's me on the left.


What’s up with West Bremerton and dancing men? Along a 1.5-mile stretch of Kitsap Way/6th Street, there are four of the quirky inflatables. Statistically this is off the charts (I think). The local business district might be the state epicenter for deployed balloon advertising. In Great Minds Think Alike I showed a picture of the Jiffy Lube and Blockbuster Video entries. A better title might have been “Herd Instinct.” Did all four businesses hit on the dancing-man idea independently or is there a bit of copycat go-go going on here?

To correct the photo caption, that’s not really me on the roof of the Mid-Town Market. I do support free ATMs though. And free debit-card transactions (although Mid-Town probably doesn’t have them). Certainly both are worth dancing about. As for the Pep Boys figure, maybe he’s just happy because of his name.

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Creepy Car

Posted on October 19, 2011 | 2 comments

Spider on board


Actually the vehicle is a truck (see photo), but calling it a creepy car makes a better title. The previous post was also about Halloween decorations, although the holiday is still almost two weeks away. Similar to Christmas, people in Bremerton like to get ready for Halloween early, using their homes, businesses, and, in this case, vehicles to display a creepy creativity. The truck’s owner gets my Halloween award for this week.

You can achieve a bit of notoriety by hauling around a giant arachnid that looks like it might leap out onto the hood of the car behind you. Even so, this big guy isn’t for me. If I looked into my garage one morning and saw one like it in the bed of my truck, I would slam the door and then freak out, hopefully in that order. I haul a lot of firewood and yard waste so spiders undoubtedly hitch a ride with me from time to time. But there aren’t any spiders in my truck right now. I just checked.

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