As Che’ Gilliland buzzed around her classroom, sorting through boxes and decorating walls, a smile rarely left her face.

Setting up a classroom just before the start of a school year never felt so good for Gilliland, a kindergarten teacher at Olympic View Elementary School.

“I’m so excited,” Gilliland said. “I’ve just been waiting and waiting and waiting.”

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As the wife of a major college football coach, Kellie Tormey has grown used to life on the go.

She’s learned not to get too attached to one particular community, or feel too snug in any one place.

But as Tormey starts a new chapter in her marketing and communications career on Whidbey Island, this time the feeling is very much different.

Tormey recently was hired as the new communications coordinator for the Oak Harbor School District, just in time for the start of a new school year. The first day of school in Oak Harbor is Thursday, Sept. 5.

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Dan Ishler has found that people around Oak Harbor are quite familiar with his art studio.

At least, the exterior.

It’s hard to miss Ishler’s light green studio as you approach Oak Harbor from the south along State Route 20. Atop the hill before you reach Swantown Avenue, Ishler’s place is due east with the structure in his front driveway almost hugging the highway.

A red neon “open” sign signals when the pottery studio is open, which it usually is seven days a week.

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From the top floor of Louie-G’s Pizza restaurant, it’s easy to get caught up gazing out the windows that offer a nearly panoramic view of Oak Harbor.

It’s a unique atmosphere for a bar with natural light and such scenery. Toss in the four big screen televisions upstairs and the restaurant’s subscription to DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket, and it’s easy to see why the place increases in popularity come game time.

But those better acquainted with the surroundings understand that the real magic happens downstairs.

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Even though Chris Bolin has fished from the beaches of Whidbey Island nearly every day this month, he’s still astounded by the scenery.

He set down his pole and took a photo with his phone of a wispy white cloud formation at sunset Wednesday, then snapped another shot of a full moon that appeared in the sky a short time later.

“This is the best kept secret in the world,” Bolin said as he stood on a log at Keystone beach in Coupeville. “I don’t think I’ve fished anywhere on this planet with the scenery this place has. And it’s different every day.”

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Jim Short can create a lot of things with his hands.

Just not miracles.

He figures he’ll make a dent, but doesn’t expect to move mountains as he prepares to unveil the workshop where he performs his woodturning magic.

He’s one of 31 artists participating in the Whidbey Working Artists Summer Art Studio Tour, which runs on back-to-back weekends beginning Aug. 24-25.

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Eight years ago, Duane and Mary Scollard’s 1937 Studebaker was in rough shape.

They had just purchased it from a man in Sedro-Woolley for $700. It was missing a hood on the outside and a floor on the inside and was covered with primer and rust.

“It spent most of its life behind a barn,” Mary said.

On Saturday, the Scollard’s restored Studebaker was on display at the 28th annual North Whidbey Car Show at Windjammer Park in Oak Harbor.

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A little early-morning rain didn’t dampen Scott Fraser’s outlook Sunday.

He’d seen that before on his favorite August day in Oak Harbor.

There was no need to panic.

“I said, ‘It’s going to be a scorcher,’” Fraser said.

By the time the sixth-annual Fidalgo Avenue Block Party and Pig Roast got underway at noon, the clouds had parted and the sun was shining on one of Oak Harbor’s biggest parties of the year.

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When Brenna Casey visited her stepfather’s workplace in Oak Harbor three years ago, it didn’t take long for a nearby structure to catch her attention.

A short distance from Jeffery Pleet’s Edward Jones Investments office on Midway Boulevard sits Whidbey Playhouse. Introductions would soon be in order.

“My dad would work late at night, I’d go to the playhouse,” she said.

Casey, a 2013 graduate of Anacortes High School, acted in two shows at the playhouse and worked with the stage crew in another.

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A block up from historic downtown Oak Harbor’s main thoroughfare is Scott Fraser’s restaurant.

Frasers Gourmet Hideway is tucked away, indeed.

More visible in these parts is the man behind the restaurant and the handlebar mustache. Fraser is popular these days.

It’s August, and in downtown Oak Harbor, that means it’s “Pig Roast” time, a tradition Fraser established in 2008, a year after he opened his restaurant on Fidalgo Avenue.

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It’s no coincidence that Gary Swanson’s triple black Chevrolet Chevelle Super Sport is a 1967 model. For Swanson, 1967 is a year to savor.

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Dark skies had threatened before but this time Nancy Hakala was taking no chances.

“It looks like it’s going to rain,” she said, standing on a platform high enough to see the rooftops in downtown Oak Harbor. “I think we’re not going to paint anymore.”

Hakala pulled on a toggle switch and down she and her apprentice, Kelsey Krueger, went, settling near ground level in time to take care of some quick cleanup work before the raindrops arrived.

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