{Vintage Inspiration} 25 cent fun...

I live near a really sweet, channel town called La Conner. I am very familiar with this town. My parents have kept their boat there since I was in elementary school. I can remember going to a odd little penny arcade with my brother after being out on the boat for our two week vacation. We would walk down the street with coins stuffed in our pockets, life jackets still on, anticipating the games we would play (while my parents packed up the boat). The arcade had a circus like feeling to it. There was even a fortune teller in a glass box that asked you for a nickel and told you about your life. Kitty corner from the arcade was a building with a large antique store- and it is still there today. In front are two very old coin operated rides- an elephant & horse and they give me that  same vintage, circus feeling. 

After grad school, I moved to La Conner and lived in an old apartment on top of a shop, overlooking the channel. I worked at the Museum of Northwest Art on the main street a while ago, and Chris and I got married at an old mansion on the hill, that houses a quilt museum. My parents now live in La Conner and Chris works across the fence from their house. So you can say, that I have walked by various vintage coin operated rides at this antique store over the years. I frequently touched them, sometimes sat on them, and have always wanted to photograph them or capture their coolness somehow. I recently saw a post at Modern Kiddo about vintage coin operated rides and it sparked my interest all over again. 

We celebrated the 4th of July in La Conner last weekend and I finally got my opportunity to take some snapshots of these fine vintage treasures in all of their glory. There are so many inspiring elements to these objects and the story that they visually tell. But coupled with where they live, they evoke all sorts of feelings of nostalgia. 

By waiting until now to document these awesome rides, I was able to capture a whole different kind of inspiration. How cool to watch Sayer discover the joy a quarter can bring!