The joke around Nichole Porath’s home is she wasn’t the first runner in the family to get a sponsor.
Mesa, the family dog, beat her to it.
Porath, 29, gave up her job as a finance manager to run full-time with her eye focused on training for the Olympic marathon trials.
But before she landed a contract with Brooks Running Co., her dog put her paw print on a deal with Stunt Puppy, maker of a hands-free leash that latches around a runner’s waist.
Katie Salinas doesn’t see herself carving wooden shoes any time soon.
“I couldn’t imagine ever having to do it,” she said.
Salinas is the director of Holland Happening, one of Oak Harbor’s biggest annual festivals.
The 44th celebration of Oak Harbor’s Dutch heritage is April 27-28 downtown but will be missing one of its most popular attractions.
When Karen Mueller stares out of her storefront window, she sees signs of progress downtown.
From the street and sidewalks that were part of a major downtown Oak Harbor improvement project to a bronze statue of a mermaid just up the street, Mueller is surrounded by recent upgrades.
However, in the one and half years since she’s owned the Wind & Tide Bookshop on Pioneer Way, Mueller has also endured a direct view of what she calls a “graceless eyesore.”
She decided to do something about it.
If Mercy Speth was still feeling any lingering effects from a nasty cold last week, her email inbox perked her up and put a smile on her face Monday.
Speth was tasked with chairing a Downtown Merchants Association committee that only had six weeks to organize an event titled Spring Fling.
Sunshine and a larger than expected crowd spilled on to the streets of downtown Oak Harbor Saturday, and that led to a flood of emails thanking Speth and others for their efforts.
Although it’s still months away, the second Oak Harbor Music Festival is constantly playing in Margaret Livermore’s mind.
Livermore is busy preparing for the Aug. 30-Sept. 1 festival, which will take place in downtown Oak Harbor under a new name.
It kicked off last year as the Oak Harbor Music and Jazz Festival, drawing more than 20 bands and a crowd estimated in the thousands.
Lynn Brown couldn’t stop beaming.
She’s witnessed a lot of proud moments in 25 years as an elementary school teacher. Seeing little Trina Desquitado win a regional Spelling Bee ranked right up there.
“I was amazed,” Brown said. “She was so calm and collected.”
A humbling experience in the woods nearly 50 years ago made Paul Lischeid realize he’d rather hunt with a camera than a rifle.
The turning point in his life came during a hunting trip with his brother-in-law near Cle Elum in the 1960s. Jim Norman had just scared some deer toward Lischeid, who had begun walking up a hill.
Suddenly, five deer charged over the hill. Lischeid froze.
“They ran right by me,” Lischeid said. “I said, ‘I can’t shoot this thing.’ I said, ‘I’d rather shoot them with a camera.’”
K.C. Pohtilla was so embarrassed by the attention from being grand marshal at last weekend’s St. Patrick’s Day parade that she can’t remember much of the details.
But she’ll never forget what happened three days later.
Below a threatening dark sky, community members and civic leaders gathered to celebrate Oak Harbor’s newest piece of public artwork.
Gusts of wind and damp air threatened to cut short the occasion on the first day of spring Wednesday.
But the weather cooperated just enough to allow the event to proceed and the community to formally welcome the arrival of an elaborately crafted 14-foot cedar bench that now rests in front of the Oak Harbor Post Office.
One by one, actors step forward and share personal stories, cutting each other off in the process.
The fast pace and interruptions are by design, all part of improvisational theater, better known as improv.
It was going the way Adam Novak wanted it until an actor stopped talking and no one jumped in, leaving an awkward silence.
“Keep going!” Novak blurted.
Ross Kepner is standing next to a bulldozer a few steps outside his garage when a P-3 Orion aircraft appears above the treetops.
The sound is loud enough to stifle conversation, yet Kepner hardly flinches. He’s lived on his North Whidbey property for 23 years and is used to the aircrafts that soar over his home regularly as they approach the air field at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.
Leah Norton-Gaudreau tried everything.
She scattered bird seed. Tossed dog bones. Anything to try to deflect attention from the pastries at the drive-through window.
But this seagull, already accustomed to the finer things in life, saw no reason to alter its dining habits now.
“You’d see feathers flapping and he’d grab a pastry,” Norton-Gaudreau said.
From K.C. Pohtilla’s kitchen window, she can see historic downtown Oak Harbor and the blue waters of the Puget Sound.
For a photographer like Pohtilla, the beauty isn’t lost. But this view also is the source of a bit of apprehension.
In one week, Pohtilla will play an uncomfortable role just down the street from her home. She was named Grand Marshal for Oak Harbor’s 40th St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which will wind its way through downtown on March 16.
