Chinese New Year, heralding the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit’s wealth and happiness, will be marked with a dance in Clallam Bay . . .
More than 40 vendors will offer everything a doll needs in Port Angeles . . .
Nights of storytelling are planned in Port Townsend . . .
The weekend is full of activities all across the North Olympic Peninsula.
WEST END
Chinese New Year
CLALLAM BAY — Clallam Bay will celebrate Chinese New Year with a dragon dance, parade and potluck Saturday.
The dance, celebrating the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit, will begin at 3 p.m. in the parking lot of the Weel Road Deli, 17203 state Highway 112.
It will continue through town and conclude with a 4 p.m. potluck at the Three Sisters of Clallam Gallery, 16590 W. state Highway 112.
Bluegrass music will be provided by Loose Gravel.
New dragon headdresses will be used this year.
The original dragon, “Pollyanna,” was retired after several years of service and replaced by two dragon heads — a silver-haired female, “Aurora,” and her sparkle-horned purple mate, “Ching Chang.”
The new heads were constructed by Forks artist Greg Hubbard.
The dragon bodies were made by Clallam Bay Preschool students.
The Year of the Rabbit represents happiness, wealth and longevity.
Children are welcome to help the dragons dance.
Noisemakers and costumes are encouraged.
PORT ANGELES
Passenger runs set
PORT ANGELES — The Victoria Express passenger ferry will provide foot-passenger ferry service between Port Angeles and Victoria this weekend, while the ferry MV Coho is out of service for its annual maintenance.
The Victoria Express will depart Port Angeles at 8:30 a.m. and Victoria at 4 p.m. each day today through Sunday.
Crossing time across the Strait of Juan de Fuca is approximately 55 minutes.
Departures from Port Angeles are from The Landing mall, 115 E. Railroad Ave.; departures from Victoria are from the Victoria Passenger Ferry Terminal at 254 Belleville St. on the Inner Harbour.
Fares are $25 U.S. one way or $50 U.S. round trip.
For reservations or information, phone Victoria Express at 360-452-8088 or visit www.victoriaexpress.com.
The Coho is scheduled to resume sailings to Victoria for passengers and vehicles at 8:20 a.m. Friday, Feb. 11.
Doll show slated
PORT ANGELES — Just Dolls of Washington Doll Club will hold its 2011 Promise of Spring Doll Show on Saturday.
The show will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St.
This year’s theme is “Dolls Ahoy!,” with doll club members and vendors in nautical costumes.
More than 40 vendors will be on hand, offering everything from antique and modern dolls and bears to doll furniture and accessories.
Numerous door prize drawings for dolls, bears and accessories, offered by the club and vendors, will be held throughout the day.
The grand prize is the American Girl Doll of the Year, “Lanie.”
She comes in a rolling carry-on suitcase filled with a trousseau of handmade clothes and accessories, including a miniature laptop, horse and grocery cart with groceries.
The proceeds of the drawing will be donated to the Peninsula Daily News’ Peninsula Home Fund.
Soup and sandwiches will available for purchase at the show.
The entry fee is $2, and grand prize tickets are $1 each.
One door prize ticket will be given in exchange for bringing a donated canned food item to the show to benefit the local food bank.
For more information, phone 360-683-1006 or e-mail dori@olypen.com.
Fort Casey lecture
PORT ANGELES — Terry Buchanan, historian and author of The History of Fort Casey and the Defense of the Pacific Northwest, will be the featured speaker at the Clallam County Historical Society’s History Tales of Clallam County on Sunday.
The presentation will be at 2:30 p.m. in the Port Angeles City Council Chambers, 321 E. Fifth St.
Buchanan has been fascinated by Fort Casey — located three miles south of Coupeville on Whidbey Island — since his first visit there in 1962.
He collected photographs, talked with men who had been stationed at the fort and wrote his master’s thesis on “Fort Casey and Coastal Defense.”
He retired in 2006 after a 34-year career as an elementary school teacher in Anacortes and now lives in Sequim.
Buchanan will share the history of Fort Casey, which served as a key part of a defense system in the Pacific Northwest, from its beginnings in the late 1890s to its present-day function as a tourist attraction.
Buchanan’s book will be available for sale.
History Tales is free and open to the public.
For more information, phone the society’s office at 360-452-2662.
Ranger stories
PORT ANGELES — Storyteller Alice Susong will share tales of her life with National Park Ranger Dunbar Susong and his experiences with bears, moose, elk, other wildlife and tourists in “Living with the Wildlife” tonight.
The event will be at 7 p.m. at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
Alice Susong is an active member of Story People of Clallam County who meet monthly to promote the art of storytelling.
She has been a frequent visitor to local schools and has presented programs to the Olympic Park Institute, Elder Hostels and in other Western Washington events.
The Susongs can also be frequently seen at the Heart O’ the Hills Campground telling stories of the Olympic National Park during the summer evening campfire programs.
The event is free and open to the public.
For more information about this program or other library services, e-mail PAprograms@nols.org, phone 360-417-8500 or visit www.nols.org.
New baby program
PORT ANGELES — The Peninsula Pre-3 Co-op is offering free “Baby and Me” programs for parents and children up to 10 months of age each Friday in February beginning today.
The group will meet from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Peninsula Pre-3 classroom at First Baptist Church, 105 W. Sixth St.
The program allows parents to meet other new parents and join in conversations with specialists each week.
For more information or to register, phone Maggie Garcia at 813-846-9848 or e-mail maggielgarcia@yahoo.com.
Roller derby bout
PORT ANGELES — The Port Scandalous Roller Derby team will present “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre,” an intraleague bout between the Red Devil Darlins and the Black Betty Brawlers on Saturday.
The match will be at Olympic Skate Center, 707 S. Chase St.
Doors open at 5 p.m. with the bout beginning at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $7 or $10 and are available at www.brownpapertickets.com; in Port Angeles at Bada Bean! Bada Bloom!, 1105 E. Front St., and North By Northwest Surf Co., 902 S. Lincoln St.; and in Sequim at Salon 13, 521 S. Sequim Ave.
An after-party will be held at Castaways, 1213 Marine Drive.
Sound therapy concert
PORT ANGELES — “Rest in Restless Times,” a concert pairing sound therapists with a cellist, is planned at 7 tonight.
The concert will be at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
James Hoskins of Boulder, Colo., will play while therapists Marline Lesh and Vickie Dodd use their voices to create “vibrational waves” to relax the mind.
Admission is $15 or $12 for Friends of the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center.
Tickets are on sale at Port Book and News, 104 E. First St., and at the arts center.
For more information, phone at 360-457-3532.
Community dance
PORT ANGELES — A community dance is set for Saturday night at the Black Diamond Hall, 1942 Black Diamond Road, and this time, the French Canadian band La Famille Leger will be present to provide the music.
Old-fashioned Quebecois dance tunes will flow at 8 p.m., after a dance lesson at 7:30 p.m.
Dancers of all levels, including absolute beginners, are welcome.
Laura Me Smith is coming to call the contra and line dances, and she alone is reason enough to join in, said organizer Tom Shindler.
Admission is $6 for adults and $2 for children.
To find out more about the monthly dances, phone Shindler at 360-457-5667 or e-mail tom@shindler.us.
SEQUIM
Auditions Saturday
SEQUIM — Auditions for “Too Old for the Chorus,” a comedy about turning — and surpassing — age 50 are set at Olympic Theatre Arts this Saturday.
The auditions will start at 11 a.m. in the theater at 414 N. Sequim Ave.
“Too Old for the Chorus” is scheduled for a run April 29 through May 15.
Director Lee Harwell is looking for actors to play the five baby boomer-age adults in the show, plus four to six dancers of any age.
And since “Chorus” is set in a neighborhood cafe, there’s also a part for a barista.
Those who can’t make it on Saturday, as well as those who want to find out more about the production, can phone Harwell at 360-683-3022.
Olympic Theatre Arts can be reached at 360-683-7326; its website is at www.OlympicTheatreArts.org.
Poker tournament
SEQUIM — The Olympic Peninsula Eagles will host a poker tournament fundraiser Saturday.
The event will begin at 5 p.m. at the Red Wok Buffet in the Rock Plaza at Old Olympic Highway and Sequim Avenue.
Poker will begin at 6 p.m.
The $30 entry fee will include an all-you-can-eat buffet.
For more information, phone 360-670-5835.
Family Fun Night
SEQUIM — The Helen Haller Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization will host a Family Fun Night at the school, 350 W. Fir St., from 5 to 8 tonight.
The event will include games, crafts, a food court and a silent auction.
Proceeds will support the Cougar Wolf Writing Conference, participation in Olympic National Park Institute science education, the HHEART program and other student-enrichment activities.
Thrift shop
SEQUIM — The Sequim Dungeness Hospital Guild’s Thrift Shop will feature a half-price sale on all white-tagged items Saturday.
The shop at Second and Bell streets will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information, phone 360-683-7044.
PORT TOWNSEND/JEFFERSON COUNTY
Baril celebration
PORT TOWNSEND — The work of retiring Washington State University Jefferson County Extension Director Katherine Baril will be celebrated from 6 to 9 tonight.
Baril’s 20 years of service as director will be recognized at the event at the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St.
Suggested donation is $15.
The event is for Baril’s associates, friends and the public.
Mass speaks to trust
PORT TOWNSEND — Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Washington, will be the keynote speaker for Jefferson Land Trust’s annual meeting on Saturday.
The meeting will be from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Port Townsend High School auditorium, 1500 Van Ness St.
Mass will speak on “Regional Climate Change over the Pacific Northwest: What Do We Expect?”
Mass’s specialities are weather prediction, numerical modeling, the influence of topography on weather system, the structure and evolution of weather systems, and the weather of the western U.S.
He is currently the lead scientist for the Northwest modeling consortium, a group of local, state and federal agencies building a cutting-edge weather prediction capacity for the region.
Mass is involved in public outreach activities, including a weekly weather segment on KUOW-FM and the Cliff Mass Weather Blog at cliffmass.blogspot.com.
Jefferson Land Trust Executive Director Sarah Spaeth will give a summary report on the land trust’s work in the past year and highlight projects for 2011.
The meeting is open to the public.
Admission for land trust members is free. There is a suggested donation of $10 for nonmembers.
For more information, phone 360-379-9501.
Storytelling
PORT TOWNSEND — An evening of old-fashioned storytelling will unfold at Better Living Through Coffee, 100 Tyler St., tonight.
This First Friday Storynight from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. features Daniel Deardorff, founder of the Mythsinger Foundation, poet and storyteller Brian Rohr and musician-dancer-storyteller Aimee Ringle.
The gathering also has an open-mic section for those with tales to offer, and “the only rules are it must obviously be a story, and no reading,” said Rohr.
“Everything must be shared in the ways of the oral tradition.”
Admission is a suggested donation of $10. Food and drink will also be available for purchase at Better Living.
For more information about this event, which happens every first Friday of the month, phone 360-531-2535 or visit www.brianrohr.com.
‘Last of Us’ to screen again
PORT TOWNSEND — Another showing of the locally made feature film “The Last of Us” is slated at the Rose Theatre, 235 Taylor St., at 2 p.m. today.
“Us” is the story of a family living in Prague just before World War II begins; the narrator is Mauchen, an elderly man who fondly recalls the stories his mother told him when he was a boy sitting in her kitchen.
The movie premiered at the Rose with two sold-out screenings Jan. 21 and 23, and will soon be submitted to film festivals around the country, said Sam Force, who co-directed it with Jeremiah Morgan.
It stars local actors Amy Sousa as Mama, Morgan as Papa and former Port Townsender Richard Clairmont as Mauchen.
Libby Strickland, a recent Port Townsend High School graduate, served as the costumer, and Paul Chasman of Port Angeles composed the original score for “Us.”
Tickets to the matinee are $10 and available only at the Rose box office.
For details, visit www.RoseTheatre.com.
To watch a trailer about the movie, visit www.theLastofUs.com.
Jewelry trunk show
PORT TOWNSEND — The Magnificent Seven Jewelry Trunk Show will be held at Undertown, 211 Taylor St., from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. today.
Seven regional jewelers will sell their wares, donating a portion of their sales to the Jefferson County Community Foundation’s Fund for Women & Girls.
Participating jeweler Micki Lippe is inviting attendees to bring their old, tired and mismatched jewelry to the event.
She takes secondhand jewelry and cleans and reworks it into pieces that she donates to women’s shelters throughout Western Washington, including the one in Port Townsend.
Lippe’s nonprofit is called the Women’s Shelter Jewelry Project, and tax-deductible receipts are available for donated jewelry.
The other Magnificent Seven jewelers are Jennifer Lawrence Bennet, Mary Edwards, Victor Judd, Mary Lynn Maloney, Marlene Newman and Sharon Saindon.
For more information about the show or the Jefferson County Community Foundation’s Fund for Women & Girls, visit www.jccfgives.org or e-mail kris@jccfgives.org.
Generous, abundant
PORT TOWNSEND — Buddhist Monk Erik Jung of Portland, Ore., will conduct a series of workshops on generosity and abundance this weekend.
The events are sponsored by the Dzogchen Dharma Choling of Port Townsend.
An introductory workshop will be held from 6 to 9 tonight; and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Sunday’s workshop builds on Saturday’s teachings.
All workshops will be held at the Towne Point Community Center, 2240 Towne Point Ave.
Suggested donation is $25 but no will be turned away for lack of funds.
No experience with Buddhism is necessary.
Jung is an authorized Mahayana Dzogchen dharma teacher under the guidance of Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche.
For more information, phone 360-301-2608.
Benefit art show
PORT TOWNSEND — Marilyn K. Kurka will exhibit paintings at the Undertown, 211 Taylor St., from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
The showing is a benefit for her daughter’s study abroad trip to Florence, Italy in March.
Book talk reset
PORT TOWNSEND — Author Mark Borax will hold a book signing at Phoenix Rising, 696 Water St., at 7 tonight.
His signing was originally set for last Wednesday but he was delayed due to the Chicago blizzard.
Borax and Ellias Lonsdale are co-authors of the book Cosmic Weather Report: Notes form the Edge of the Universe.
For more information, phone Phoenix Rising at 360-385-4464 or Borax at 415-595-7984.
Gardening lecture
PORT TOWNSEND — Master Gardeners will present “A Year in Flowers: Sustainable Flower Growing and Design” on Saturday.
The presentation by Debra Prinzing will be from 10 a.m. to noon at the Port Townsend Community Center, 620 Tyler St.
The lecture is part of the Yard and Garden Lecture Series, scheduled each Saturday through Feb. 12.
Series tickets were $42 for all six sessions. If space is available, day tickets are sold at the door for $10.
Prinzing, of Seattle and Los Angeles, is a writer and lecturer specializing in interiors, architecture and landscapes.
For more information, phone 360-379-1172 or see http://jefferson.wsu.edu/.
