PNW Bainbridge

We did it. The magazine made it through its first year.

Overall, I’m pretty darn happy. We’ve told some great stories and there have been remarkably (and thankfully) few stinkers, as I affectionally call them. I continue to be amazed at how good our go-to writers are and inspired by the angles that they find that take an article far beyond the facts, to reveal a subject’s true beauty. The photography delights me and learning which photographer will best complement the articles’ crafted words is a matchmaking pleasure. I read each story dozens of times and stare at the magazine online for days before it ever goes to print, and yet I’m still excited (and astounded that all the moving parts came together) each time it shows up in my mailbox.

My highlight (not just of 2022 but of any story I’ve ever written) was getting to interview Lilly Kitamoto Kodama and write about the 80th anniversary of the Japanese Exclusion. I listened to her for nearly two hours, spellbound, tears streaming down my face, letting myself experience what she was telling me and letting go of needing to feel professional. I will always be humbled and grateful for her.

None of that of course would have been possible without our contributing editors, Connie Bye and George Soltes. These two are my heart. In addition to being better at my job than I am, they have been the most steadfast of friends and confidants. I’m still amazed they want to do this with me, and I hope we have many years ahead of us, gathered around my dining table (never at Connie’s because her dog is prohibitively cantankerous), creating our homage to the island.

Thank you all for being our readers, letting us tell your stories, and of course for your vital support. It truly is a blast. And we love you.

Allison Schuchman Editor in Chief

OWNER & EDITOR IN CHIEF

Allison Schuchman

D IRECTOR OF SALES & COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Stephanie Reese

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Connie Bye

George Soltes

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Gisela Swift

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Mark Swift

WRITERS

Christy Carely, Jeff Fraga, Isabelle Haines, Malia Lemieux, Audrey Nelson, Judy Pansullo, Kerrie Houston Reightley, Bajda Welty

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Art Brice, Keith Brofsky, David W. Cohen, Annie Graebner, Tanner Reightley, Dinah Satterwhite, Hunter Stroud

CONTACT

(206) 486-4097 • pnwbainbridge@gmail.com

Instagram @pnwbainbridge

Facebook at PNW Bainbridge

High Notes

We plan, God laughs.

Moving to Bainbridge Island was a stretch. As a singer and actress, I had the wonderful blessing of being able to do what I loved all over the world—so I had no idea what it was like to put down roots. A suitcase was my living room, and I made “home” wherever I was.

I was never a person who longed to settle down (much less get married) but ah, life! After falling in love with my (now) husband, I made a huge decision. I married him, moved to the island and finally unpacked my living room/suitcase.

It didn’t take long to recognize that I was a fish out of water. Learning what it was like to look out for garbage day or saying hi to people on the street (people I didn’t know!) were completely new (and weird and wonderful) to this traveling city girl.

I grew up never knowing the names of neighbors or people at the supermarket. I certainly never said hello to people when I went out running in big cities around the world. While traveling alone, I put on a suit of armor as a means of survival. But Bainbridge challenged me not only to unpack my suitcase, but to shed that cumbersome suit, too. I now know the names of the people helping me at Safeway, greet people while walking the dog, feel safe to take the garbage out by myself at night—and reserve burying myself under a giant coat and hat for those rare instances when I need time to myself on the ferry.

It’s a wonderful thing. The community we live in has been the biggest change and blessing of my life. And while I still love singing, acting and traveling, there is nothing like arriving back to Bainbridge, getting off the boat and being greeted with a wave and hello, knowing I am home.

Letters

CONTENTS spring issue 2023

departments

Editor’s Letter 4

Contributors 5

Epilogue 9

Calendar 62

secrets

Having a Ball 11

BIMA celebrates 10 years with art scavenger hunts.

Abandon Ship 12

The spunky Elwha awaits her final destination at the Bainbridge ferry dock.

sHORTS

Raising the Curtain 16

inD gives audiences a fresh perspective on theater.

Mulch Ado 18

TILZ builds a family legacy brand.

Hitting a High Note 20

St. Barnabas’ pipe organ commands center stage.

Licorice Pizza 22

Backstreet Beat honors vintage vinyl and books.

Glass Wench 24

Julie Hews-Everett wears the title proudly.

Hope Springs Eternal 26

Bulbs, shoots and spikes declare warmth is on the way.

Of Sound Mind 28

Eddie Williams keeps the Rock rockin’.

AND ANOTHER THING

Now & Then 14

A century of island hoops

Magic Moments 54

Ferry wine is over the top.

Kvetch Me if You Can 56

Dan Rosenberg pleads with pedestrians to mindfully share the road.

Sisters’ Cider House

JJ Johnson

YoYo Poke

ABOUT THE COVER

Islander Kevin Knight, who snapped this serene shot, reflected, “Our lack of sand beaches and abundance of smooth, Puget Sound-tumbled, glacial-era rocks make cairns the Bainbridge equivalent of sand castles. When I’m climbing mountains, I’m always comforted seeing them to mark the way, a reassuring reminder of a safe route ahead.”

Traditionally, an epilogue is reserved for followup to a story or as a space to issue a correction or sometimes (thankfully rarely) to make a groveling apology. Basically, it’s looking backwards. But today, I’m commandeering it to do the opposite—to happily look to the future and anticipate all the blessings still in store.

So, without further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Stephanie Reese, PNW Bainbridge magazine’s new director of sales and community outreach.

I first met Stephanie years ago, long before she came to work with the magazine, when she came to our house with her then boyfriend (now husband) for dinner. Picture this: She’s tiny and stunningly beautiful. She’s wearing a very fuzzy ice pink sweater and patent leather platform boots. Her waist-length jet black hair cascades around her shoulders in loose curls. Eyelashes for days. Our daughter, Elle, is instantly spellbound and charmed, stunned that she has unfettered access to her own Disney Princess for an entire evening. Within half an hour, Elle is sitting on Stephanie’s lap, singing with her and getting as close to her as possible. It’s a night we’ll always remember.

We’ve gotten to know her lots better since then. But the most important things we’ve come to know are not that she is a world-class singer and actress, who has toured the globe performing leading roles in “Miss Saigon,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “The King and I” in London as well as solo concerts in Asia, Europe and America, including Carnegie Hall. Nor is it most notable that this year she will once again be touring her autobiographical one-woman show “The Journey” or that she just launched her incredible podcast “Citizen Sister.” It’s not even that she regularly uses her talents to help raise money for UNICEF, Red Cross, Feed2Succeed and Make a Wish Foundation.

Though all those things are true, and remarkable, it is her servant’s heart, her incredible intellect and generosity, her insane sense of humor, her integrity and her unwavering friendship that have cemented her as a sister. I am certain she will be a cornerstone of this magazine and will continue to support and enrich our community too. We’re lucky indeed. I can’t wait for you to meet her.

Connie Bye

Contributing editor Connie Bye has been a professional writer and editor for more than three decades, including at The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Kansas City Star and The St. Louis Business Journal. She has written about topics ranging from the environment to schools and government, but she most enjoys doing stories about people and community life. Since moving to Bainbridge nearly 11 years ago, she and her husband, Dale, have performed in numerous Ovation musicals and sing with the group Crescendo. They live near Winslow with their little dog, Molly, and enjoy spending time with their children and five grandchildren.

Tanner Thomas Reightley

Tanner Thomas Reightley is a 2021 BHS graduate and is pursuing a business degree at Olympic College. He got his first camera at 8-years-old. Reightley is a passionate photographer who loves to tell stories through his images. His goal is to travel the world and document its beauty with his photography—both professionally and personally. He’s excited about taking on new challenges to continue his travels and present his work to others. His other interests include music, skateboarding, and dirt biking. See the beautiful photos he shot for this issue’s short on soundman Eddie Williams on page 28.

George Soltes

Contributing editor George Soltes is an interventional radiologist at the University of Washington, where he performs a variety of minimally invasive procedures. Before getting sidetracked into medicine, he earned an English degree and has been fascinated by words ever since. George lives on Bainbridge Island with his wife and three children, plus a variety of animals. He enjoys running, writing, exploring the outdoors and listening to music that he thinks is amazing, but which those around him, for the most part, do not.

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HAVING A BALL WITH BIMA

BIMA’s Treasure Trek, a Glass Float Seek & Keep

This year, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art celebrates a decade of local art patronage, and they’re taking the party outside!

BY ISABELLE HAINES

PHOTO BY HUNTER STROUD

In celebration of the museum’s 10th anniversary, BIMA’s Treasure Trek—dubbed its Glass Float Seek & Keep—brings an art scavenger hunt to public lands around Kitsap County. Scavengers should look for glass balls, roughly the size of grapefruits, that will be hidden within a few feet of trails on parklands or above the high-tide line on beaches. One hundred balls will be hidden for the April 1 launch date, and another hundred will be distributed over the next eight weeks. And the best part? If you find a ball, it’s yours to keep!

“Don’t forget to look up, down, all around,” said Korum Bischoff, BIMA’s

director of communications and visitor experience. “They may be hiding off the ground, in trees, behind logs, on old fence posts—they just won’t be out in plain sight.”

The balls, which are modeled on glass fishing floats, were created by students from Hilltop Artists, a Tacomabased nonprofit that gives young people tuition-free instruction in glassblowing.

“The museum’s mission is to support artists of the Puget Sound region,” Bischoff said. “It’s nice to work with a Tacoma group. It’s nice to partner with our Kitsap neighbors and have something for people beyond the shores of Bainbridge to be involved in without needing to trek to the island each time they want to have an art moment with us.”

Want to get in on the action? PNW Bainbridge and Tideland magazines have

come together to up the ante above and beyond coming home with a oneof-a-kind orb. If you’re lucky enough to find one of the 200 balls, post a picture of yourself on social media with the hashtag #BIMATreasureTrek on or before May 25. Five posters selected at random will win $100 to spend at BIMA’s café or gift shop. Additionally, BIMA will give each winner a pair of tickets to the Friday night BIMA Bash on June 9, a $200 value per winner, which includes food, drinks, music, silent auction and other fun activities.

Not to mention, the renown of being featured in both magazines’ upcoming issues. You’re practically famous already!

secrets

She floats motionless in Eagle Harbor, just a few feet from the rhythmic comings and goings of the Bainbridge Island ferries. Her car decks are empty, but long-abandoned tables and chairs are visible through the windows upstairs. Her name, painted over years ago, is tougher to see. If you look closely, though, you can just make it out. Elwha.

The Elwha was born in 1967, the last of the Super Class ferries. (The Kaleetan and the Yakima are her only siblings still in service.) She spent an uneventful youth plying the Seattle-Bainbridge route, serving as a maintenance relief vessel and carrying travelers to the San Juans. In 1983, the Elwha celebrated her 16th birthday. That was the year she went berserk.

That October, Captain Billy Fittro was piloting the Elwha through the San Juan Islands while simultaneously entertaining a female passenger in the wheelhouse. Ever accommodating, Fittro decided to detour the ferry and its 100 other passengers to give his guest a view of her waterfront home. Unfortunately, the side trip took the Elwha over a reef near Orcas Island, where she ran aground. The collision caused $250,000 in damage and led to the dismissal of Fittro along with ferry chief Nick Tracy.

The Elwha returned to service with a seemingly insatiable appetite for mayhem. Over the ensuing years she left a path of destruction in her wake, running over submerged obstacles, bashing into ferry docks and causing tens of millions of dollars of damage.

Finally, her wild life caught up with her. She was permanently retired in 2019 with terminal steel corrosion and eventually found her way to Eagle Harbor. WSF Public Information Officer Ian Sterling said that a deal to sell the Elwha for scrap is pending and that she could be towed away as soon as the next few months.

BY GEORGE SOLTES

Abandon SHIP

While the Elwha no longer menaces the Salish Sea, her legend lives on. She has her own Wikipedia page and the reef on which she grounded bears her name. She even inspired a cocktail and a song, both titled, appropriately, “Elwha on the Rocks.”

PNW BAINBRIDGE SPRING

PHOTO BY DAVID COHEN

now and then Taking the Rock to the Rack for 100 YEARS

PHOTO COURTESY BAINBRIDGE ISLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT

2022-23 Bainbridge High School Boys Varsity

1922-23 Winslow High School Boys Varsity

Photo: Iklil Gregg | Architect: McLennan Design

BY CONNIE BYE

Raising THE CURTAIN

Bainbridge Gets a New Way to Experience Theater

Tom Challinor and Matt Eldridge launched inD Theatre in 2018 with the goal of creating a new experience for Bainbridge audiences.

By paying actors a stipend, inD has become more than a traditional community theater, where actors aren’t compensated. It aims to produce shows that inspire social change. And by offering free admission, inD ensures access for anyone who wants to see performances, no questions asked.

The concept that Challinor and Eldridge call semiprofessional theater continues to build a following.

Productions are minimalist: small cast, simple set, with most performances at Rolling Bay Hall, where inD usually limits seating to 50 to 60 people.

“We don’t have fancy sets and all the extras that professional theaters might use as draws,” Eldridge said. “But at its heart, theater is so much about the actors.”

Both Eldridge and Challinor have been involved with other theater companies in and around Bainbridge. Challinor previously created Swinging Hammer Productions. After he directed Eldridge in “Glengarry Glen Ross,” Challinor broached the idea of joining forces on a new venture.

“He said if you’re doing it alone, you only can take it so far, but working with someone else, you can go twice as far,” Eldridge said.

To broaden perspectives—age, gender, life experiences—Challinor and Eldridge recently added Rachel Ruby Squires as a co-director.

Hay Fever

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

PHOTOS

“She asks questions we don’t even think about,” Challinor said. “She has answers to which we need to listen.”

Squires, age 25, discovered inD when she was cast in its 2019 production of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” shortly after she moved to Seattle, fresh from college.

“I was impressed with the kind of art they were making,” she said. “And they really cared about making theater accessible to everyone while compensating artists. When we started talking about me coming on as a producer with the company, I jumped at it.”

Patrons can reserve seats at no charge, then they have the option of making a tax-deductible donation online or at performances. Those donations help cover the costs for everyone in the audience, Eldridge said. “Over time, audiences have become more generous with donations,” he said, adding, “This model is not for everyone, but we hope other theaters will revisit their policies. The generosity of our donors has exceeded expectations and allows us to be more inclusive.”

People continue to discover inD, Challinor said. “Frequent responses after performances are ‘I can’t believe this is in my neighborhood,’ or ‘Where did you get such great actors,’ or ‘What are you doing next,’” he said.

Keeping things small has pros and cons, Squires said. “Having a smaller cast makes it easier to get to know each other and can make for some magical moments onstage. And I love the intimacy of a small audience. You see people as individuals, both as actors and audience members.” Still, a small performance space limits the number of people who can see productions, she noted.

The company has tackled a variety of shows. The 2020-2021 season, for example, ranged from Noel Coward’s 1924 comedy “Hay Fever” to “Lizzie,” a punk-rock musical about Lizzie Borden.

Challinor hopes all the plays will spur audience members to reflect and talk about what they’ve experienced. “Theater is a great gift to everyone who participates – clear back to the last seat in the house.”.

InD Theatre’s next production, “Venus in Fur,” is scheduled for March 17-April 2 at Rolling Bay Hall. For more information, go to indtheatre.org.

Walk in the Woods

Mulch Ado

Family Behind TILZ Building a Legacy Brand

BY AUDREY NELSON

PHOTO BY DAVID COHEN

Aaron Crane approached his father, Tom, with a proposal in 2015.

Aaron—fresh out of landscape architecture school at Washington State University—wanted to buy the Bainbridge property then owned by Ray Peterson Bulldozing. He wanted to use the site to start a local wood-waste recycling facility and materials yard. And he wanted his dad to join him.

Tom had been looking for a way to move on from a long corporate career without truly retiring. Aaron’s proposal fit the bill. Here was a project that would keep Tom occupied, offer a way to make a little money and—most importantly— provide a chance to build a community legacy alongside family.

Tom said yes. Thus, TILZ Soils & Compost was born.

TILZ—now a fixture on Miller Road— got off the ground just a few months after Aaron brought the idea to his father. The business wasn’t originally licensed for composting. But almost immediately, the Cranes recognized an opportunity for growth. At the time, Bainbridge had no state-licensed composting facilities, and the island’s burn ban meant that people couldn’t burn their yard waste and organic matter. Anyone who wanted to get rid of that waste had to use the landfill—or drive carloads of waste off island to composting facilities in Belfair or Hansville.

The Cranes decided to apply for a composting permit, hoping to reduce emissions by offering on-island waste disposal. A year and a half ago, they received that permit and TILZ added composting to its list of services. It’s still the only composting facility on Bainbridge, and it’s become a hyperlocal one-stop shop for landscapers, construction workers and homeowners across the island.

The business model is both efficient and environmentally conscious. Aaron put it this way: “Our footprint for basically our entire business is just…5 by 13 [square] miles.” In other words, the area of Bainbridge.

Aaron admitted there was a “steep learning curve” when he and his dad decided to expand TILZ’s services. But they “got an education pretty quickly,” Tom said. Now both Aaron and Tom can rattle off TILZ’s composting process in impressive detail.

When material arrives at TILZ, Tom said, it’s first screened and separated from any lingering trash, then ground up, blasted with air and soaked with water so decomposition can progress. The waste then must be “cooked” at 130 degrees Fahrenheit, while TILZ employees carefully monitor it to avoid fires. The waste typically decomposes in TILZ’s outdoor facility for up to two to three months.

Once the material breaks down, it’s screened again before being turned into TILZ’s popular topdressing compost and soil mixes, which the company sells to Bainbridge residents and businesses.

The painstaking process and multiple screenings help TILZ meet one of its main goals: to provide safe, clean and welcoming service to customers. For several years, Aaron’s wife, Stacia, worked to ensure that atmosphere on the customer-facing side of things. She and Tom’s wife, Pam, headed the TILZ office, selling materials and helping people with their decisions. Although both Stacia and Pam have largely stepped away from office work, TILZ is still very much a Crane family affair. Tom, in particular, is a consistent presence around the TILZ yard and office. There are always inspections to organize, business decisions to manage and friends and neighbors to greet. Aaron is also active both on the yard and in TILZ’s off-site residential construction work.

Tom said that when he and Aaron first started building TILZ, they assumed it would be “a sleepy little business.” They couldn’t have been more wrong. But father and son are both pleased with the outsized impact they’ve made on Bainbridge.

“[We’re] doing good for [our] community and for the environment,” Aaron said. “We provide a service that everyone seems to be really appreciative of. But at the same time, it’s a way to make a living and also work with our family. And, you know, moving forward, something we could pass on to our kids.”

Grace Episcopal Church members

“I have yet to leave a service at St. Barnabas without being brought to tears by at least one hymn or piece. That only happens when the music is from an organ.”

— Parishioner Joan Collins

AHIGH NOTE

Pipe Organ Instrumental to St. Barnabas

BY JUDY D. PANSULLO

PHOTO BY DINAH SATTERWHITE

The unmistakable, powerful, rousing sound of the storied pipe organ has played an inspirational role throughout the centuries. Today, the instrument’s timbres still bring people to their feet, whether singing in a house of worship or cheering their team at a baseball game.

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church on Bainbridge, the pipe organ is a key voice in worship services and also acts as a focal point of church architecture. As Mozart said: “To my eyes and ears the organ will ever be the King of Instruments.”

When Paul Roy arrived at St. Barnabas in 1991 as the new director of music, the church used a World War II-era organ. “It was tonally and visually undistinguished and had a limited tonal palette to play the organ repertoire to support congregational singing,” he said. It was important to both Roy and parishioners that the organ be able to accompany the choir and congregation and do justice to the great organ composers, such as Bach.

Roy knew he needed to gain the trust of the parish before proposing the purchase of a new organ and allow time for the process to unfold. Eventually, an organ search committee was formed—professional musicians, choir members and architects among others—who studied organ building and design for a year before pinpointing the kind of instrument that would best serve their needs.

The committee then began a quest to find the right builder to design the organ. They visited Oregon, Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia before settling on Bond Organ Builders in Portland. A St. Barnabas member seeded the purchase by donating $300,000 in 2004. The church’s fundraising committee then raised the balance to meet the organ‘s $480,000 price.

The building of the Opus 33 began in 2006 and took about a year to complete.

It was then dismantled and the components loaded onto a Mayflower moving van to begin its journey to St. Barnabas. When the pieces arrived, the installation crew and volunteer parishioners gingerly carried the parts from the van into the sanctuary. “It was very delicate; it was like handling a baby,” Roy said.

St. Barnabas’ old organ was given to a church in California.

The Opus 33’s gothic design complements the architecture of the church, and its cherry wood blends with the church’s brick interior.

Every effort was made in the design and construction of the organ to accentuate the sound and beauty of the great

choral literature and hymns of the Anglican tradition. “The heavenly instrument at St. Barnabas, played so beautifully by Roy, is at the very center of our worship on the island,” said Michael Ditmore, a member of the St. Barnabas vestry. The church leadership felt strongly that the organ should be used both as a tool of evangelization and to further the arts on Bainbridge Island and the wider community.

Roy said the journey to design, build and install St. Barnabas’ organ could only have been accomplished by the trust, knowledge and ownership of the entire congregation.

Pat Speidel, a member of the choir, explained that she grew up on the East Coast, “blissed out” on pipe organ music in huge city churches. “The heart reverberation when Paul launches into Bach on our beautiful church organ spells home to me.”

LICORICE PIZZA

Out of Sight (But Worth Finding) Collectible Books & Vinyl

BY GEORGE SOLTES

PHOTOS

BY ANNIE GRAEBNER

Raymond Gendreau got his first record player, a gift from his parents, at age 14. Along with the turntable, they included “The Hits of Hullabaloo,” an album of rock covers from the short-lived musical variety TV show of the same name. The record was “horrible,” he recalled.

Realizing that he needed to take matters into his own hands, Gendreau headed out to a local record store, where he made his first ever vinyl buy: “Gimme Some Lovin’” by the Spencer Davis Group. That purchase was the first of many, a pursuit that would take Gendreau to record shops, yard sales, flea markets, estate sales and record shows across the country and around the world.

For most of his life, the acquisition of records and books was just a hobby. After graduating college with a fine arts degree, Gendreau spent the next 20 years as a commercial photographer, snapping photos for magazines and corporate clients. He met wife Anne while working in Dallas and, after being

sent to Bainbridge Island on a photography assignment, brought her over to check it out. “We came out and we liked it,” Gendreau said. “We just moved. Neither of us had jobs. We were young, with no kids and no real responsibilities.” Thirty-two years later, they are still here.

Anne found work at the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington and later at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts, while Raymond wound up teaching commercial photography at the Art Institute of Seattle. When he was offered early retirement after 20 years, Gendreau didn’t hesitate: “It took me about 30 seconds to say yes.”

That left a problem. Anne felt that he was too young to retire at 64, and there was also the matter of the thousands of records and books he had amassed. While he enjoyed selling items from his collection at the Fremont Sunday Market in Seattle, that side business barely put a dent in his stockpile. “OK,” she told him. “It's time for you to open that store you've always wanted.”

Gendreau found his ideal space in a former Town & Country Market meeting room down an alley and up a flight of stairs from Winslow Way. “Most good shops like ours are tucked away on a side street or, in this case, an alley,” he noted. Backstreet Beat,

named in honor of its off-the-beaten-path location, opened in 2015.

The records at Backstreet Beat tend toward classic jazz, R&B, blues and classic rock, with forays into more unusual genres that catch Gendreau’s ear, such as lounge exotica and “weird classical avant garde.” The books, which occupy most of the space, similarly range far and wide, with special cases set aside for signed books, first editions and other collectibles.

While most of the records and all the books are used, Gendreau does stock new albums that strike his fancy. (Taylor Swift and Lizzo, he discovered recently, are “kind of fun.”)

Despite the ubiquity and convenience of streaming music and e-books, Gendreau’s small, carefully curated collection of records and books (as well as a small gallery of his photography) attracts both locals and a steady stream of visitors off the ferry, who value a different kind of experience. “Hopefully, they find things here they can't find anywhere else,” he said.

Customers also benefit from the collective knowledge and guidance of Gendreau, Anne, and part-time staff member Luciano Marano, a local writer.

“I would never want to be any bigger,” Gendreau said. “It's really busy in the summer and sometimes it's almost distracting. I like having people in the shop who have the time to look at stuff and have conversations.”

Chuck Beek is the epitome of a Backstreet Beat regular. The retired espresso shop owner pops in most afternoons around 4 with his dog Smiley, who keeps busy greeting customers while Beek browses. “A used bookstore is kind of essential in my life,” he said. While he initially came hunting for books, Beek pivoted quickly to include records, often buying whatever was playing during his visit. He only got around to buying a turntable after two years of vinyl purchases.

Gendreau, now 71, has no immediate plans to retire. “I'm still having a good time,” he said. “I just extended my lease five years, so I'll be pretty damn old by that time. We'll see what happens after that.”

Backstreet Beat owner Raymond Gendreau (seated) alongside his wife, Anne, and staff member Luciano Marano.

THAT’S GLASS WENCH, To You!

Artisan Julie Hews-Everett Reflects on Creativity and Community

It happens all the time. Julie Hews-Everett will be sitting in her car on the ferry, only to learn that the passengers in the car behind her have spent the entire crossing trying to decipher her vanity plate: GLSWNCH.

BY ISABELLE HAINES PHOTOS COURTESY JULIE HEWSEVERETT

“They’ll say, ‘We’ve been behind you for half an hour, and we can't figure it out,’” Hews-Everett laughs. “So, it’s a bit of an inside joke.”

GLSWNCH is license-plate-speak for Glass Wench, a nickname a close friend gave to Hews-Everett years ago. She’s certainly earned the title. As the creator

of Island Spectrum Design, she serves as designer, builder, retailer and instructor in all things stained and fused glass. You’ve probably seen her work without even realizing it. Hews-Everett’s art has been installed in homes, businesses, churches and schools around the island—and the world.

Before she became the island’s resident Glass Wench, Hews-Everett was a California girl. She grew up in Riverside as her family’s designated artsy kid, spending her childhood drawing, sculpting and throwing clay pots. Glass art came to Hews-Everett by way of a college extension course—and then promptly took over her life. Just a few

years later, she was building windows and teaching classes through Judy Davies Design, a glass studio in Riverside.

During those same years, Hews-Everett married her high school sweetheart and welcomed two children. For the most part, motherhood and artisthood coexisted: “If my kids got sick, they came into the studio with a sleeping bag and slept in the corner,” she said. “It worked out great— I didn't have to worry about daycare.”

In 1993, 10 years into Hews-Everett’s window-building career, her husband changed office locations to Seattle, and the whole family moved to Bainbridge. Island Spectrum Design was the product of that first year in the Pacific Northwest. Hews-Everett started her business with $750 and a handful of ads in the Kitsap Sun. By 1994, she was teaching classes in both stained and fused glass through the parks district.

“After we moved up here, I really got my own identity,” Hews-Everett said. “People would say, ‘Oh, you're the glass lady. Oh, you're the one that did that.’”

Starting over in the Pacific Northwest ended up being a major creative charge for Hews-Everett, a homecoming to a place she’d never been. Once she got used to the rain, of course.

“It took about two years. I was like, ‘It’s so cold! It’s so gray!’ But …” Hews-Everett holds up her phone, her lock-screen set to a neon sunrise over a rocky beach, “… how does that not inspire you?”

Along with geometric patterns, Northwest motifs are ubiquitous in Hews-Everett’s work. Trilliums, evergreens and mountains fill up her windowpanes and lampshades. Her largest and most complicated piece to date is a commissioned, 45-square-foot tableau of Mount Rainier during wildflower season.

“It’s my Sistine Chapel,” she said.

She works out of a home studio at the head of Fletcher Bay, where she teaches classes, works on commissions and repairs, and generally putters around. You could call it a Studio of One’s Own, but the space is more communal than that. It’s where Hews-Everett has forged lifelong friendships with students, some of whom have been taking her classes for 25 years. During the surreal first summer of the pandemic, the space was a precious bubble of normalcy for the neighborhood kids to come and make things. Even on quiet days, her 15-pound tuxedo cat, Star Lord, keeps her company as she works.

Hews-Everett welcomes the throngs. As a devoted teacher and self-identified Chatty Cathy, she finds purpose in other people. Often, that means helping students see their own potential. “When I teach a class, students say, ‘Oh, I can't do it. I'm not artistic.’ And I always say you don't have to be. There's no failure in this class.”

In particular, she loves the moment when beginners assemble and solder their first piece. “They hold (the glass) up to the light, and, wow, the looks on their faces,” Hews-Everett said, cracking a smile. “The joy that it brings them is what really keeps me going.”

Almost 30 years after founding Island Spectrum Design, the Glass Wench is looking toward a soft retirement. But does that mean an abrupt end to designing and teaching? Really, it’s a silly question— Hews-Everett laughs and shakes her head. “Oh, no. I can't stop! My students won’t let me.”

HOPE SPRINGS

ETERNAL

A few weeks ago, my friend said, "Spring is nigh!" Wow, really? Everything is dead, cold, heavy, deep and still. But looking closer, I see signs and stirrings of warmth, light and movement before the full effervescence of spring erupts. On my runs, I've noticed the green shoots of bulbs parting the dirt, the spikes of the wild iris leaves in the ditches and miniscule buds swelling the ends of the otherwise bare branches.

Although spring doesn’t officially begin until mid-March, the ever-changing force of vital energy is visible in nature—and this reminds me of the ever-changing nature of vital energy in our bodies. Every day in my clinic, I watch, listen, feel and evaluate how energy moves in people's bodies, looking for early signs of an upset to the balance of someone's health.

Traditional Chinese Medicine—including acupuncture, herbal treatment, physical

BY BAJDA WELTY PHOTO BAJDA WELTY

modalities and exercises—is built on this framework of vital energy in flux. Health, wellness, equilibrium and homeostasis all depend upon the coexistence, contrast, transformation and relative balance between Yin and Yang energy. Vital, lifeforce energy (that moves through the universe, nature, the human body/mind) is divided into these two parts: Yin, which is cold, still, wet, dark, feminine, heavy, solid, passive, receptive and moves downward and inward, and Yang, which is warm, active, dry, light/bright, masculine, light weight, hollow, aggressive, productive and moves upward and outward. Absolute Yin and absolute Yang are extremes and not sustainable. The interaction and dynamic dance of their relationship is where life and wellness exist.

For example, the winter months are the most Yin time of the year (the winter solstice being the most Yin day of the year)

and the summer months are the most Yang (the summer solstice being the most Yang day of the year). Everything in between is a combination (spring equinox being when Yang energy finally surpasses Yin and fall equinox when Yin energy again dominates Yang). We notice the signs of spring because of the contrast with the predominantly winter/Yin season we've been in and are moving away from. We notice this in our bodies as well: the sluggish, slow, heavy winter blues giving way to a little more energy, ambition, action and a brighter mood as we move into spring.

Noticing the natural environment will help you observe similarities in your own body and mind. Connect with the rising Yang energy and take advantage of the uplifting trend by allowing more movement into your daily and weekly life. Gently push against the hibernation pace of winter. Get outside in the ever increasing green of our PNW surroundings. Witness the calm strength of the woods and look at its reflection in the still pool of Yin energy you've gathered over the winter.

One of the most common reasons my patients seek treatment is because of

overwhelming stress and/or anxiety and depression. Often, this experi ence is stacked on top of another disease or injury. There are many useful management tools, acupuncture being a great one! But how can we help ourselves to manage this as we emerge into the season of spring?

1. Get moving—physically moving energy in your body and mind.

2. Get in nature—go out in the green; bathe in the renewal of the woods

3. Breathe on purpose, deeply. Facilitate this by running, walking, doing yoga or lifting weights. Breathing deeply draws our aware ness back in to our bodies and allows us to let go of waste. A simple mantra while waiting at a stoplight or walking is "I breathe in the new, I breathe out the old" or "I breathe in light, I breathe out tension." Noticing your breath and doing simple breathing exercises is a powerful way to calm your body and mind

4. Drink water throughout the day—adding fresh-squeezed lemon is ideal in the morning

5. Decrease alcohol, dairy, potatoes, yams, squash, beans, beef, lamb, coffee. Increase peppermint and green tea, fresh greens, fish, sauteed leeks, onions, garlic

Following the trend of rising Yang in our external environment, we can raise our energy, let go of winter lethargy, purify our bodies and calm and soothe our minds.

Bajda Welty MS, EAMP, LMP, practices acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine on Bainbridge Island.

Of Sound MIND

LOCAL PRODUCER MAKES SURE THE ROCK’S ROCK STAYS IN TUNE

Eddie Williams, owner and founder of Full Circuit Sound, is known as Mr. Soundman of Bainbridge Island.

BY KERRIE HOUSTON REIGHTLEY PHOTOS BY TANNER REIGHTLEY

“He’s also an accomplished musician,” said Jim Ferguson, a.k.a. Roger Daltrey of his The Who tribute band, The Relay. “Anything having to do with sound around here, somehow involves Eddie.”

And involved he is, influenced by his Los Angeles radio and newspaper past, including interviewing and working with the likes of Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, The Ramones, Elvis Costello and Red Hot Chili Peppers. More recently, and closer to home, he has booked and managed sound for Greg Brown, James McMurtry, The Wailin’ Jennys, Tom Russell, Ray Wylie Hubbard, LeRoy Bell and many

more. He’s also the official sound person for Bainbridge Island Metro Park and Recreation District, which includes the beloved Sounds of Summer concert series at Battle Point Park.

His love of music started at age 12, when in 1970, his foster mother brought home Van Morrison’s “Moondance” album. “Every night, I’d fall asleep with my headphones on, listening to him,” he said. “I’d wake to the sound of the record needle going ‘spedft, spedft, spedft’…”

His radio career began in the late 1970s, for the famed KROQ, which was “the voice” of the burgeoning Los Angeles new wave and punk scene. Williams did everything from answering request lines to getting publicity for unsigned bands.

“We were the first punk station in the country,” he said. “We were playing the Sex Pistols and The Clash before anyone else. I got to hitch my wagon to that star.”

Something about a girl and owning a Ford Econoline van eventually landed Williams on Bainbridge Island in the late ‘90s. “I came here to build a recording studio,” he said. “I got the idea to record live shows. I started with recordings, but something was ruining them, and I realized it was the sound guy. I learned I needed to do both. That turned out to be what I do best, and how I started making ‘real’ money, in 2000.”

He reminisced about the radio days of old, of how he’d splice tapes “on the diagonal” with a razor blade, contrasted with how today’s music can be managed digitally on an iPad. And how every venue poses a unique sound challenge.

For Ferguson’s “The Who” fundraiser, held years ago in the Bainbridge High School Commons—with its cement, tiered, seating—the setting devolved into a nightmarish echo chamber. “Any time you get hard surfaces, the sound waves bounce off of them,” Williams said. “The show was a success, but the sound was a disaster.”

In stark contrast is the intimate Treehouse Café, where Ranger & The Re-Arrangers recently honored the late Romani-Belgian jazz guitarist and composer Django Reinhardt. Williams credits former Treehouse owner Arnie Sturham’s love of music with transforming the old space— formerly inhabited by Walt’s general store—into a room Williams described as completely made for sound. “We put in dampeners, red curtains and did everything we could to soften the room.”

“Although Covid destroyed my business, I will survive,” Williams said. His dream is to someday build a tiny home, retire with his two cats and listen to Van Morrison, “really loud!”

His advice to those entering the music business? “You need a lucky break. Everything you do might be that break. You just need to know when you’re having one.”

MOVING THE

Needle

The Lamb & Kid, a specialty yarn shop on Bainbridge, first opened in the summer of 2021. Originally it was in a small space near the corner of Winslow and Madison—the walls bursting with yarn and samples draping off every shelf. Today, the shop’s new location on Winslow Way (just east of Highway 305) has greatly improved its ability to serve the area’s knitting community. Since relocating, Lamb and Kid has expanded inventory, hosted events, and is establishing itself as a yarn powerhouse in Kitsap and beyond.

Lamb & Kid owner Sarah Dimond first started dyeing yarn in her kitchen sink 15 years ago, inspired by the difficulty she had finding the right colors and bases for her knitting. Since 2007, Dimond’s love for yarn and color has flourished into the fiber haven it is today—and she is still thinking up new colors and bases.

YARN STORE’S RELO UPS OFFERINGS AND EVENTS

yarns. They can be held single, double or marled with each other to create a wide variety of textures and fabrics.

BY MALIA LEMIEUX

PHOTOS BY ANNIE GRAEBNER

Each base is dyed in many vibrant colors. Their names, which take inspiration from nostalgia, current trends, nature and travel, include Grandma’s Button, Three Dog Night, Foxtrot, Microgreens and one of Dimond’s favorites, Plaid is my Favorite Color. These varieties represent only a taste of the yarn the store offers.

The Lamb & Kid is a cozy in-person store with comfortable couches and chairs providing the perfect place to sit and knit for a while. But it also recently surpassed the 10,000-follower mark on Instagram and boasts a thriving online business that offers kits for popular or new patterns and selections from each of its bases.

Lamb & Kid’s recent expansion has made possible special events including a brunch with the hosts of the knitting podcast Cady Jax Knits, bi-monthly DyedTo-Orders events and Wednesday Knit Nights, with more knitting activities on the horizon.

Lamb & Kid is open Tuesday through Saturday and welcomes beginning and experienced knitters alike. More information is available at thelambandkid.com.

For the most part, Lamb & Kid is stocked with Lamb & Kid or Dimond Laine yarn (brands created by Dimond) which contain a mixture of hand-dyed and custom-mill dyed colors. Their soft and squishy bases, including Tod, Birdie, Mho Mho and Elmer, are built with high quality blends of merino, yak, cashmere, alpaca and silk

Fifteen-year-old Malia Lemieux is a sophomore at Bainbridge High School. She has been knitting for eight years and is always excited to bring more people into the knitting community.

FOOD FIGHTER

BY GEORGE SOLTES

PHOTOS BY DINAH SATTERWHITE

As a young attorney, Bill Marler took on fast-food giant Jack in the Box after tainted burgers sickened scores of diners and resulted in the deaths of four children. After winning compensation for numerous victims, Marler joined forces with former rivals to form Marler Clark, touted as America’s only law firm dedicated solely to foodborne illness.

As I walked into the Bainbridge outpost of Marler Clark, a squat gray building adjacent to the ferry terminal dominated by a large sculpture of a kraken tentacle and a sign declaring it “The Food Safety Law Firm,” Marler was wrapping up a phone call. “Call me if you need anything,” he said in closing. “Don’t be a dumbass.”

What was that about?

A group of Marines got exposed to E. coli while they were undergoing basic training. This kid I was talking to had a really rare reaction and had to have a hip replacement at age 20. These kids are like 25 years old now and they’re all going to get a bunch of money. The kind of stuff that I do, not only do you have to get the money, you sort of feel obligated to make sure that these kids don’t do something stupid.

What made you decide to start your own firm?

My background is different from most lawyers. I grew up on a small farm. My parents were teachers. Between my junior and senior years at Central Kitsap High School, I worked as a migrant farm worker. In college, I became the youngest person ever elected to the Pullman City Council and spent four years doing that. I had a different perspective. I never really felt like I fit in at the law firms where I was working, primarily because I had aspirations to do big things and good things. I always sort of knew that I needed to be my own boss.

Why did you open this space separate from your main office in Seattle?

Basically, to get out of the house. During COVID, my kids came home to Bainbridge and my wife was home. I’d be downstairs yakking on Zoom while my kids were working or in school. I was out walking one day and somebody was out here pounding in a “For Lease” sign. I said, “I’ll lease this,” so they took the sign down.

What makes Marler Clark different?

We run ourselves kind of like a public health agency. Not only are we investigating outbreaks and figuring things

out, sometimes before the government does, but we’re also doing things to prevent outbreaks from happening in the future. There’s no other law firm that has invested so much in legislation, and I travel around the world giving lectures on why it’s a bad idea to poison people. For me and the people in my firm, I think it’s more fulfilling than just making money.

Do you have any food advice to help people stay safe? Here are the six things I don’t eat:

1. Sprouts, like alfalfa sprouts. Just stay away from them because they’ve caused the largest foodborne illness outbreaks around the world.

2. Unpasteurized milk and juice.

3. Bagged salads. All the outbreaks I’ve been involved with regarding salads have been from triple-washed bagged salads.

4. Raw oysters. It’s not worth it anymore with global warming.

5. Raw or undercooked fish, like sushi.

6. Undercooked beef or chicken.

You were instrumental in spurring passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act, the most sweeping food safety reform in a generation, and there is a new Netflix documentary based largely on your work. Are your kids impressed? My kids aren’t impressed by much of anything.

Stroll 150 acres of gardens, forests, meadows, and trails with stunning views of Puget Sound. The outdoor air, plants, and trees will activate your senses and brighten your spirit.

That’s More Than Skin-Deep

Bainbridge is Taking the LEED in the Energy Efficiency Movement

From the soaring lobby to the cushier seats, new studio, elevator and fresh finishes, audiences this fall will be blown away by Bainbridge Performing Arts’ bigger, better playhouse. But the building’s real beauty might well be largely out of sight.

By Connie Bye

Sustainable features—solar panels, prime insulation and glazing, a whisper-quiet, super-efficient heating-and-cooling system and much more—will ensure that the venerable theater in the heart of Winslow is a sentinel of the environment for decades to come.

BPA aims to win LEED Gold certification with its $18 million renovation, the Buxton Center for Bainbridge Performing Arts. LEED, a rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, recognizes “healthy, efficient, carbon and cost-saving green buildings.”

Photos by David Cohen, Keith Brofsky and Art Grice

If BPA succeeds, it will join the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, which achieved LEED Gold in 2016, and the Kids Discovery Museum, which attained LEED Silver in 2011.

Together, these buildings make a high-profile statement about Bainbridge’s commitment to the planet, said architect Matthew Coates, who designed BIMA and KiDiMu. “They show how we value sustainability and the environment.”

That local commitment also manifests in institutions such as IslandWood and Bloedel Reserve, noted Ralph Spillinger, who has overseen design and construction at BPA and BIMA at no charge to the institutions.

Both BPA’s and BIMA’s boards of directors made sustainable design the top goal, Spillinger said. “And the board members’ passion is infectious.”

Achieving sustainability can cost more upfront, compared with other types of construction, said Scott Farwell, BIMA’s facilities and operations manager. But energy savings mount up over time.

“I’m really proud of what our designers started,” said Farwell, who began work at BIMA after it opened in 2013 and helped push the museum to LEED Gold. “But it will go beyond all of us. We’re just the stewards.”

Off-Stage Assets

Spillinger is passionate about the advantages of sustainability and offers unique credentials for managing such projects. He retired to Bainbridge Island after overseeing design, construction and maintenance of onshore buildings with the U.S. Navy, followed by 11 years at NASA. He discovered Bainbridge while working for the Navy in Kitsap County.

He is onsite at BPA nearly every day, checking progress, dealing with issues, verifying that work is proceeding as the

architect intended. Spillinger also meets each week virtually with the architect and contractor.

Initially, the BPA board considered tearing down the theater and building new but found that was cost-prohibitive, Spillinger said. As it turned out, LEED gives credit for preserving buildings, “so, we had an easier time meeting the standards.” BPA chose LMN Architects, a Seattle firm that specializes in such projects, and Carley Construction Inc., a Bainbridge company, to handle the work.

The rooftop solar array is expected to generate 25 percent of the electrical needs at the complex. Energy-efficient LED lighting will be used throughout, including most stage lights, Spillinger said.

Just as at BPA, some key green elements at the art museum are not obvious, including the rooftop solar array and a geo-exchange system that taps into constant temperatures deep underground to help maintain the heating-and-cooling balance needed to preserve artwork.

Some sustainable aspects at BIMA are highly visible, however. A series of giant louvers across the building’s face respond to sunlight, helping to maintain

Ralph Spillinger and Scott Farwell at BIMA's rooftop solar array. Photo by Keith Brofsky.

interior temperatures and regulate the amount of natural light inside. While eye-appealing, Farwell noted, the louvers “are more than decoration.”

High-Performance Homes

Besides public buildings that feature energy efficiency, Bainbridge Island is home to “some world-class residential

structures that are recognized worldwide as the ultimate,” Spillinger said.

When well-informed, people often opt for earth-friendly construction, said Kevin Harris, who serves on advisory boards and committees nationwide, including as vice chair, executive committee, of the American Institute of Architects’ National Custom Residential Architects Network.

Builders, architects and remodelers form the front-line in educating residential customers about the advantages of “high-performance homes,” he said.

“Securing the envelope—keeping air and moisture from penetrating the walls of a building—can take the cost of heating and cooling down 90 percent,” he said. “The largest cost of a structure is not construction. It’s ongoing costs, such as heating, cooling and maintenance.”

The key is communicating the advantages, Harris said, especially cost savings over time. He recommends hiring an energy rater to assess overall performance of various choices, so consumers can make informed decisions.

Harris is director of sales and marketing for AGS Stainless Inc., a 30-year-old Bainbridge company that manufactures custom railings. Its products don’t rust, don’t rot and, if someday the owner

wants a change, are recyclable. “That’s how we fit into the equation,” he said.

Creature Comforts

In addition to sustainable features, BPA aims to enhance the audience experience, Spillinger said. The new elevator will make seats at the top of the theater accessible for people of all abilities. Added interior aisles will simplify getting to seats throughout the theater. Patrons can gather and mingle in the spacious lobby.

The laminar heating and cooling system will not only be super quiet and efficient, it will improve air quality, a consideration that has gained importance since the pandemic began. Filtered air will mix with fresh air and drift upward from vents under the seats. “It is the new standard for theaters,” Spillinger said.

Great & Small

By Connie Bye

Photos by David Cohen

Three tiny new houses at the Morales Farm view ecofriendliness through a different lens. The reHOME project relied on reclaimed and repurposed materials to create housing for Friends of the Farms interns.

In December, it won an American Institute of Architects Award of Merit.

Architect Matthew Coates said he became concerned a decade ago that still usable items—cabinets, fixtures, doors, lumber—go to landfills when a structure is demolished. He found an opportunity with reHOME, a collaborative effort by Coates Design, Friends of the Farms, Clark Construction and Housing Resource Bainbridge, to give these materials new life. Coates’ staff donated 500 to 600 hours to the project.

Friends of the Farms began housing interns in the Morales farmhouse in 2012, Executive Director Heather Burger said via

Performers were part of the planning as well. Dressing rooms and other behind-the-scenes areas in the old theater building are part of the upgrade. For musicals, the orchestra can be seated on a balcony perched above the performance platform, opening the entire space below for a show to unfold.

Supply-chain delays and other COVID-related problems meant switching materials in some instances and coping with schedule changes and price increases. Still, the project is on track to be finished in time for the start of BPA’s performance season in the fall, Spillinger said.

“The audience’s experience, the actors’ experience will be phenomenal,” he predicted. “When we have the first performance and everything works, I’ll feel like my job is done.”

email. “With three small bedrooms and only one bathroom, it was not ideal as group housing.”

Now, interns can share the farmhouse’s updated kitchen, laundry and gathering spaces. Each tiny house provides sleeping quarters for two, a bathroom and shared space.

“Affordable housing and access to farmland are the two biggest

threats to local agriculture,” Burger said. Rescued materials and volunteer labor made the tiny houses affordable.

“Our local farmers are stewards of the land, using sustainable practices and protecting our natural resources,” she said, “so creating environmentally responsible housing builds on that ethos.”

JustRight

By Alli Schuchman

A Perfect Little Story About a Perfect Little Home

Photos by David Cohen

When Kevin and Amie Ryan came to Bainbridge from Texas in 2016, the island felt like a Goldilocks Zone.

“We were looking for a retirement place, and we came out to the Seattle area,” said Kevin. Close enough to the airport, minus the Seattle traffic, all the ambiance of the San Juan Islands, but closer in. “It all made sense,” he said. “People might actually come visit us.”

After deciding on Bainbridge, the Ryans bought their high-bank property off Hidden Cove on the west side of island. The waterfront homesite included a house that was built in 1967, “and then this was just an empty extra lot full of Douglas fir trees that came with it,” said Kevin, describing the halfacre where their new home now sits. »

“We originally thought we'd build a smaller guest house here for family and friends and we'd rent it out occasionally ... and then it just morphed into a much bigger thing.”

In the hopes of finding a blueprint that would satisfy their needs and tastes, but one that wouldn't be too expensive architecturally, Kevin stumbled upon Perfect Little House Company, brainchild of islanders Stella Carosso and her partner, Peter Brachvogel (pictured at right), principals of renowned architectural firm BC&J. PLHC offers a menu of modestly sized, value conscious homes that can be a good fit for people who are downsizing, young families and first-time buyers, among others.

Carosso and Brachvogel created PLHC in 2008 in the face of a recession, “because all the big custom homes kind of flatlined,” said

“...I knew there were going to be a lot of trees, and light in the Northwest particularly is a hot commodity, so the windows certainly were a big draw.”

Carosso. “We didn't want to lose staff, so we put them to work to create the construction documents.” PLHC continued to gain steam, and as the housing market recovered, more and more clients who started with a PLHC design went on to work with BC&J to adapt it, which is what the Ryans did.

Carusso and Brachvogel said that now PLHC and BC&J often work hand-inhand, though it’s not something they saw coming. “We've opened up an entry level that allows a lot more people to be able to get the services of a designer,” said Carus-

so. PLHC’s plans are between 40 to 50 percent modern designs, with the “cottage aesthetic,” as Brachvogel described them, making up the balance.

“I really liked this particular plan called the Tamarack,” said Kevin, who explained that the PLHC portion basically comprises one leg of their L-shaped home, and that BC&J added the wing that houses the entry and the bedroom onto the Tamarack’s blueprint. “The style of the house with all the glass and its modern nature was what drew me in when I first looked at it. I knew there were going to be

a lot of trees, and light in the Northwest particularly is a hot commodity, so the windows certainly were a big draw.”

Kevin worked with Carosso and Brachvogel to enlarge the kitchen by bumping out the front wall, and modified what was originally an outdoor storage room to become the home’s living room and dining nook.

It was necessary to add the second wing of the home for livability, but Carusso said she didn’t want to affect the original design, so the connecting courtyard had to be just right. “I think that was

essential and that it worked out really well,” she said. “While the original design transitioned out into what should be the gathering place, that additional wing made it that much more special.”

Kevin said he also worked with interior designer Michelle Burgess to figure out how to use nearly the entire living room/ dining nook’s back wall as storage, which freed up space in the kitchen for open shelving. Smart storage can be found behind deep pantry drawers under the stairs as well.

To build the home, the Ryans worked with lifelong islanders Brian Russell and John Viele, co-owners of Craftsman Building, who have been building on Bainbridge for more than three decades. Craftsman Building was already involved with the Ryans’ existing home remodel as well as a small boathouse down on the beach. “We weren’t sure which project we would do first,” said Kevin. “Believe it or not, it was easier to build a new house than to remodel an old one, so for many reasons, we ended up putting this

one in front.” Construction got under way in October 2020 on the 1,400 square foot home.

Like the home’s smart design, its finishes were kept clean. “I really like Scandinavian style, so I wanted pale wood paneling and insisted that we have no drywall at all in this room,” said Kevin. As he had hoped, the main room’s walls instead have a maple veneer over a plywood underlay, which can be seen along some of the raw edges. Kevin originally leaned toward using Baltic birch

for its white tone, but the cabinetmaker steered him toward maple as a product that looked similar but that was more readily available.

Radiant concrete floors were poured by Azteca Decorative Concrete and hand-finished by its owner, Clemente Ramilez, before being honed, ground and topped with a wax finish for easy maintenance. The kitchen’s Caesarstone countertop is offset by simple black hardware and black-metal aluminum windows

as well as wide-flange steel beams, which encase the room. In preparation for the beams’ arrival, Russell and Viele created the framework and plates onto which they would be attached. “We coordinated a crane to get here first, and then the steel showed up right behind it,” said Russell. “Everything was labeled and numbered. And we just started setting all the pieces in place. They were out of here within an hour and a half or two hours.”

The wooden beams that run along the celling came from Douglas fir that was milled from logs from the homesite, as were the stairs. Russell said that one of the trees was almost too big to mill. “It was sitting here for a long time, and I finally figured out a

way to get it to someone who could break it down,” he said. “We built a little onsite kiln and dehumidifier and dried the material for months and months. The same person who did the cabinetry, William Walker, milled it to give them their final shape. Then we just cut them and set them in place with our carpenters.”

The steel railings that surround the loft—where a tidy TV room and office are located—are from AGS Stainless and add a bright counterpoint to the black metal, wood ceilings and cabinetry.

The home’s exterior is wrapped in striking, charcoal-colored siding from Nakamoto Forestry Products, a Portland, Oregon,

company. The product is made from a type of Japanese cypress, or yakisugi, that goes through a burning and oiling process. In the entryway’s parapet, the same material is used, but in a subsequent step was run under a wire brush, so that some of its original color shows through. The underside of the overhangs is painted corrugated metal—one of Russell’s ideas—which was less expensive and lighter in weight than the glass that was called for in PLHC’s original design.

Bliss Garden Design’s Tish Treherne was the creative force behind the landscape architecture. The courtyard, which is nestled between the home’s wings, is accented by a dry riverbed, Japanese maple and a cozy firepit. Some of the giant boulders were even found on site.

Both the builders and architects enjoyed Kevin’s involvement in the process “He was thoughtful, he was methodical and he knows every inch of the house,” said Carusso. Kevin liked it so much so that he’s starting a business of his own to help other people navigate the design and construction process. “I’m trying to be somebody to help coordinate, but bring it to the average person who’s not building a multimillion-dollar house.”

Although Kevin said he and Amie haven’t decided which house they’ll ultimately live in, no matter what they choose, from the looks of things, it will be just right.

The wooden beams that run along the celling came from Douglas fir that was milled from logs from the homesite, as were the stairs.

Untested Waters

Turning the Tide through the Salish Sea

BY AUDREY NELSON

PHOTOS BY JEFFERY HUMMEL

796 miles.

That’s the distance island resident Jeffrey Hummel traveled on his racing-style, stand-up paddleboard between July 25, 2021, and August 25, 2022.

He calls his journey the Island Quest: an ambitious plan to circumnavigate every island in the U.S. Salish Sea, solo and unassisted. And after diligent research, Hummel is confident in saying he’s not only the first person to accomplish the voyage on a paddleboard, but the first person to accomplish it on any paddle craft, period.

Hummel completed the Island Quest in 45 separate circumnavigations, which took 189 hours total. He circled 405 islands along with what he called “significant rocks.” Initially worried about how to define an island, Hummel ultimately settled on “a landmass surrounded by water with anything living on it,” narrowing that to land that could fit him and his paddleboard “with some room to spare.”

As a self-employed architect, Hummel says he enjoyed the technical aspects of his journey. In addition to tracking statistics, such as his average paddling speed (around 4 miles per hour), he spent hours decoding the Salish Sea’s wind, current and tide patterns, which are some of the most complicated in the world. But he is the first to tell you that the Island Quest is far more than numbers and definitions on a page.

In March of 2018, Hummel suffered a traumatic brain injury when a tree he was trying to cut down crushed his safety helmet into his head. The accident left him with both physical and emotional symptoms. For the first time in his life, he struggled with PTSD, depression and severe anxiety. On July 21, 2021, after a nearly complete recovery, he experienced another concussion, this time while playing hockey for his Bremerton-based adult league team. His teammates told him enough was enough. He was done with the sport.

Hockey—as well as rock climbing, mountain biking, and other vigorous physical activity—had been Hummel’s outlet. It helped

reduce stress and fight despair. Without that outlet, and with the COVID-19 pandemic still dragging on, he knew he would rapidly become depressed and isolated. So, he focused on the one passion he could still manage: paddling.

Before his first encounter with a paddleboard, years earlier, Hummel had assumed that paddling was “no more work than floating on an air mattress.” But a Lake Chelan headwind changed his mind. “I got the message that this could be a very good workout if it’s done with intention,” he wrote in a currently unfinished, unpublished manuscript about the Island Quest.

Just four days after his second concussion, Hummel turned himself over fully to paddling. He circumnavigated all 30 miles of Bainbridge Island on his 14-foot racing board, fighting the wind and falling in the water again and again. But his frequent spills didn’t dampen his enthusiasm.

“The funny thing about doing hard stuff that takes all your will to complete and can be literally painful to do, is that at the completion of it, time erases the memory of the hardship and pain and replaces it with a longing to…do more of it,” Hummel wrote.

Hummel worked his way up through the South Sound, documenting each trip on Facebook and Strava—a distance-tracking exercise app—as he went. He intended to finish the islands in the South

Jeffrey 3h

Island Quest

Jeffrey 12h

Sound by November 1, 2021, but was done by the end of August. It was then that he decided to expand his scope and take on the entirety of the U.S. Salish Sea.

Although his most daring and athletic friends—ultramarathoners, fellow paddlers and extreme skiers—were all in favor of the Island Quest, others like his wife, Carla, worried for his safety. Hummel ruefully recalled one of his circumnavigations, when darkness fell and he ended up walking about 5 miles along a dike road, carrying his paddleboard on his head. Occasions like these, where his carefully laid plans for a trip went awry, didn’t help his family and friends come around to the Island Quest’s allure.

In some ways, though, it was the solo aspect of the journey that Hummel valued most.

“Although paddling like this is isolating from other people,” he wrote, “it was exactly what I needed. It gave me time to reflect on things and to separate the hurt and anger from the reality of what I still had.”

In addition to his manuscript, Hummel wrote poetry and essays that addressed the healing nature of his time on the water. He compiled hundreds of Strava stories about the individual circumnavigations and sometimes paired his poetry with pictures he took during the Quest. Although he’d tried his hand at creative writing before, he found that it was easier to write during and after paddling, to such an extent that he some-

times had to consciously slow down his brain to keep up with his typing.

Still, he was careful about the way he told his story online, adamant that he wanted to be more than just a “hey, look at what I’m doing!’ guy.” In his Facebook updates for his earliest trips, he asked people to support Alzheimer and cancer research. Above all, he wrote in his manuscript, he “wanted to be an example to people that they need to go out there and do things. It doesn’t have to be epic; it just has to get you inspired.”

Hummel’s not sure what’s next. He’s considering a similar Island Quest in the Canadian Salish Sea, which would involve another 400 or so islands in approximately 18 trips. The logistics would be even more challenging, because the islands are so remote. In the meantime, he hopes to paddle in a June race, Seventy48—a 48-hour, 70-mile boat race in which articipants must use “human power” alone.

No matter what Hummel does next, there’s no doubt that he’ll tackle it with the same mentality that helped him recognize joy as well as challenge in the Island Quest.

“You can’t really get off and walk,” he said, laughing. “There’s only going forward.”

Jeffrey 4h

Jeffrey 8h

Island Quest

HAPPY RESIDENTS. HAPPY FAMILIES.

“In December I moved my good friend from a memory care facility in Bothell to Fieldstone of Bainbridge Island. I have been extremely happy with the care and kindness shown to my friend as well as the excellent communication the sta has had with me about her care and her needs. Those things alone would have justified the move but, in addition, the building itself and the beautiful and safe outdoor area are a big plus. Also, I want to mention how incredibly helpful the sta was in helping me get her moved in and set up in her room. I'm very grateful to Fieldstone!” Google review by Susan G.

Fieldstone Memory Care

Now open & accepting residents

Fieldstone Rolling Bay Independent & Assisted Living Opening spring 2023!

GRAPE EXPECTATIONS

BY GEORGE SOLTES

With the ferry galleys open for business, at least some of the time, we can again enjoy a nice glass of wine during the passage. Sure, it costs $9, the vintage is questionable and the glass is plastic…but wine is wine, and any deficiencies are more than made up for by the galley staff’s gravity-defying pours, filling the cup up to the brim and beyond, laws of physics be damned. Consumption strategies vary: Take a gulp at the register? Tiptoe back to your seat and hope that smooth seas and surface tension hold it together? Whatever the method, let’s all raise a glass to the ferry sommeliers and their generous pours. Just make sure to raise it very slowly.

Where do you find the magical in the mundane? Share your moments with us at PNWBainbridge@gmail.com

Kvetch Me if You Can

headlight and taillight flashing like an early ‘90s rave. I see you. I can’t unsee you. I can practically hear you! You don’t need to shine your flashlight in my eyes as I veer through a yard to avoid the neon party-of-one that is you.

BY DAN ROSENBERG

It’s that wonderful time of day on the island: dusk. Or pre-dusk. Not quite dark enough to need your headlights as you drive home or to the store, but dark enough that you might not see that jogger or walker and have to make a last-minute swerve to avoid them. You know the type: the one who looks in the mirror, admires their dusk-colored jacket, pavement-colored vest and twilight-colored jeans and thinks, “I look amazing! It’s time to take my gravel-colored dog out for a walk.”

If this isn’t enough of a kvetch, I’d like to add someone who is almost as annoying: the overly visible walker. The one who wears a reflective jacket, yellow neon pants and hat with a

Speaking of walking in the road, why do so many pedestrians walk down the middle of the road? And why do those who do pick one side or the other not know the rule that you are supposed to walk against traffic? I drive an electric car and I’ve often scared people who don’t realize there’s a vehicle at their heels. While it’s good fun to honk from 6 inches behind and watch you jump out of your shoes, I’d rather that we see each other, give a friendly nod or wave and go on with our days.

On the subject of nods, please acknowledge the fact that I moved out of the way. I just swerved to make sure you had plenty of space to walk. I deserve at least a wave or a nod of acknowledgement for not knocking your fluorescent, ultra-reflective vest with blinking, multi-colored LED fiber optics into the ditch, don’t I?

Since the last time we heard from expert kvetcher, comedian, writer and actor Dan Rosenberg, A Lot has happened. A whole Lot. He just finished filming a sitcom pilot called (you guessed it) “It’s A Lot,” where he plays a used-car salesman with a rock-star dad (played by Rick Springfield). Rosenberg is also a radio host, emcee and author. We said it before and we weren’t wrong: He’s a lot. And we’re his very biggest fans.

FINDING THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY

ORIGINAL PODCAST

CITIZEN SISTER

WITH STEPHANIE REESE

Sisters’ Cider House also features family-friendly activities, including board games, Skee-Ball and a Nintendo system, and recurring special events like trivia and Sip & Paint. All ages are welcome, with only the bar area reserved for patrons over 21.

“We really wanted to create an environment where entire families could have fun and of course, enjoy the cider,” said Caron. “It definitely feels like we’re going in the right direction,” agreed Randi.

Sisters’ Cider House 921 Hildebrand Lane NE, Suite 111 sistersciderhouse.com

At this cider house, the rules are simple: Have fun with your family

feast on this

JJ Johnson will cater to your every need

Here are three things you need to know about JJ Johnson. First, JJ isn’t a nickname—it’s his real first name. “It’s even on my birth certificate,” he said. Second, his first restaurant job was at a Japanese restaurant in Moses Lake, Washington. And third? He has won Best of Bainbridge for Best Caterer for three straight years.

The road that led Johnson to Bainbridge Island included stops at culinary school in Olympia and stints at Pike Place Market restaurants, such as Café Campagne, Matt’s in the Market and Il Bistro. Later, he was chef de cuisine at Hitchcock, Brendan McGill’s fine-dining restaurant on Bainbridge.

When it comes to catering, Johnson said that taking care of the details months before the event will help ensure its success. Here are a few of his tips:

The Date: Above all, have your date set before you call. “If you don’t have your dates figured out, it’s impossible to plan,” he said, noting that he’s already booked for Saturdays in December. “Everyone wants Saturday,” he said.

Food Allergies: “Be really clear as early as possible when it comes to dietary restrictions,” said Johnson. “If you have guests with food allergies, we will work with you, but finding out on the day of the event that you have 10 additional gluten-free people is very difficult to accommodate.”

Music: Some clients don’t think about music for a party,” he added. “If there isn’t any music, your guests will wonder whether they’re at a party or a funeral. I suggest some Billie Holiday to start things off!”

What Bainbridge Island needs is a Good Poke

That must be what the owners of YoYo Poke thought, because a year ago, there were no poke restaurants on the island and now there are two.

“We decided to open a poke restaurant because we didn’t see any of them on Bainbridge Island at that time,” said Bich Dang, co-owner of YoYo. “And we believe healthy, fresh food is good for people and the future.”

YoYo is from the same family that owns Emmy’s Vege House on Winslow Way, and Green Pot Deli in the Pavilion.

Soon after it opened, YoYo became a hit on social media with posts like, “Best poke bowl on the island! And reasonably priced!” and “Good news everyone—delicious poke bowls—open at Winslow Green,” and “I just went today and had a custom-made

bowl with ahi and salmon with lots of wonderful add ins!”

YoYo offers 16 choices of bowls and custom bowls six days a week. The bowls include a Simple Scallop Bowl, Spicy Mayo Tuna Poke (a customer favorite), Tofu Poke (vegan) and Spring Rolls with Ground Spicy Tuna.

What’s the one thing Dang would like people to know about YoYo? Simple: “That we’re making healthy and fresh food.”

YoYo Poke

160 Winslow Way West (in Winslow Green) 206-201-3165

PHOTO BY DINAH SATTERWHITE

1. Lynwood Center St. Patrick’s Weekend Celebration

St. Patrick’s Day lasts all weekend in Lynwood Center with performances from the Gothard Sisters: award-winning Irish dancers and musicians, Celtic folk rock band Sea Star and singer-songwriter Kara Hesse. Tickets available online. March 16 – 18 pleasantbeachvillage.com

2. The Piano Bar at Earth and Vine

Live music? On a Monday? Unwind from the worst day of the week with a glass of wine, good friends and notes of smooth jazz—or maybe something a bit more lively. Special musical guests rotate monthly. Monthly on Monday, 6 – 8 p.m. pleasantbeachvillage.com

3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at BPA

Mark Haddon’s 2003 novel about a mystery-solving 15-year-old was one of the Guardian’s top 100 books of the 21st century. Adapted for the stage by Simon Stephens, the story explores themes of family and neurodivergence, offering a thought-provoking adventure. Shows will take place at Bainbridge Cinemas Theater 3. March 16, 17, 18, 24, 25 at 7:30 p.m.; March 19, 26 at 3 p.m. bainbridgeperformingarts.org

4. Drink & Draw at the Alehouse

Want to hone your craft and quench your thirst at the same time? BIMA is partnering with Bainbridge Brewing to offer a Drink & Draw evening every third Wednesday at the Bainbridge Brewing Alehouse. Featuring an instructor and live model, open to all experience levels and free of charge. Limited to age 21 and over. March 16, April 20, May 18, 6:30–8:30 p.m. biartmuseum.org

5. Hilltop Acoustic Jam

Got a washboard lying around? Or maybe a penny whistle? Any and all acoustic instruments are welcome at Prue’s House on the third Friday of every month for an all-ages, all-skill-levels acoustic jam. For those on the shyer side, coming just to listen is fine, too. March 17, April 21, May 19, 7:30 p.m. biparks.org

6. Wine Down Wednesday at Fletcher Bay

Catch some live Irish folk tunes, country or Americana at Fletcher Bay Winery’s Coppertop location on Wednesdays. Kids (and dogs!) welcome. Weekly on Wednesdays, 6-8 p.m. fletcherbaywinery.com

7. Farmers Market

The first day of April is also the first day of this year’s farmers’ market, home of everything local and fresh: from veggies to cider, pastries to jams, and several craft booths. Enjoy live music as you browse in Town Square by City Hall. Saturdays, starting April 1, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. bainbridgeislandfarmersmarket.com

8. Intro to 3D Printing at BARN

From the medical field to construction to art, 3D printing is all the rage. If you’ve read about it and want to see the technology in action, Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network is offering two intro 3D printing classes this spring. Don’t forget to register online in advance.

April 8 and May 13, 10 a.m–noon bainbridgebarn.org

9. Teen Nights at BARN

Depending on the month, Teen Nights at BARN might offer woodworking and cooking or sewing and metal working. Music and food are always available, and the events are always free. Students in grades 7 to 12 are welcome. Pre-registration via BARN’s website is required.

April 14, May 12, 6–9 p.m. bainbridgebarn.org

10. Pride and Prejudice at BPA

BPA is taking on Kate Hamill’s lively, modern stage adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice.” In contrast to Jane Austen’s often subtle humor, the Wall Street Journal likened Hamill’s style to a “Hollywood screwball comedy” (and gave her a glowing review). Shows will take place at Bainbridge Cinemas Theater 3. April 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29 at 7:30 p.m., April 23, 30 at 3p.m. bainbridgeperformingarts.org

The Hipocrats at the Marketplace

Combining seamless harmonies and a healthy dose of twang, Seattle-based Americana group The Hipocrats released their debut album last year. Their performance is one in an eclectic lineup at the Marketplace, which will continue its Friday concert series through the spring. May 5, 7–9 p.m. pleasantbeachvillage.com

12. R E P O S A D O at the Manor House

Seattle group R E P O S A D O plays a style of music they call “Tequila Funk”: a funk, soul, jazz, Latin, afro-beat combo that, in the band’s words, provokes a “soothing yet profound fire in your soul.” It’s also hard not to dance to. Tickets available online.

May 6, 7–9 p.m. pleasantbeachvillage.com

Beautiful selection of gemstones custom cut for you by Robin and masters from all around the world

Bespoke custom engagement & bridal rings

Direct sources for certified natural and lab grown diamonds

Bringing you the most gorgeous selection of pearls from around the world

AWARDS:

2021 Spectrum Award winner

Voted Best Jeweler Bainbridge - 6 years

Voted Best Jeweler Kitsap County - 3 years

Custom Jeweler

Lapidary Artist

Jewelry Design

Truly the most beautiful ring I’ve Ever Seen!

Only art nothing else, just art

Some people are just good at what they do. Then we have people like you Robin that is CRAZY good at what they do!

Wow!!!! Beautiful, exquisite, enchanting, superb and amazing.

Bringing Designs to Life

Specializing in REDESIGN and giving NEW LIFE to unwanted treasures

facebook.com/robincallahandesigns | instagram: @robincallahandesigns | robincallahan59@gmail.com

2021 Spectrum Award winner

Voted Best Jeweler Bainbridge - 6 years

Voted Best Jeweler Kitsap County - 3 years

The reHOME Project: Innovation for Social and

Environmental Good

rehomeproject.com

Photography: David W. Cohen

Thanks to our exceptionally generous community, all design services, construction labor, and materials were donated.

As Coates expressed at the grand opening, “everyone had their hearts in the right place. It really teaches us all that there is so much joy in giving – and so much delight in seeing what we can do when we put our energies together!” This project was recognized with the prestigious 2022 Award of Merit from the Seattle, American Institute of Architects.

coatesdesign.com