Our visit to Leadbetter Farms on Sunday was overwhelming and mind-boggling and put us all (Nyel and I were with the Rose City Mixed Quartet) into serious sensory overload.  We looked up.  We looked out.  We looked down.  And no matter where we focused, both the scale and the detail were stunning.
     Even now, I can’t decide what impressed me most.  We probably spent the greatest amount of time in the lighthouse.  Only the first three floors are fully furnished and ‘ready for occupancy’ but there were views and vistas, knickknacks and tchotchkes everywhere.  I was so busy looking, I mostly forgot to take pictures.
     The elevator has not yet been installed, so we walked up all nine floors, stopping at each level to ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’.  Only Dale and Mark, the Intrepid Duo, climbed the ladder from the covered water reservoir up to the very tiptop – into the delicate-looking (from the ground) finial-type structure at the lighthouse’s apex.
     And all the while, Annie Daniels, artist-in-residence, explained and pointed out while her partner, Debra Olson proudly showed us all the work Annie and her crew had done.  The finishes on the woodwork, the Venetian plaster walls, even the faux copper piping (actually PVC pipe, disguised by Annie’s magic) provided an unbelievably elegant setting for the furnishings.
     As for the “little things” – there were classic, kitsch, one-of-a-kinds and collections.  Everywhere, a feast for eyes and mind.
     “Where does Mr. Tillotson get all this  stuff?” I asked, probably a bit irreverently.
     Annie laughed.  “Would you believe it?  Lots of it comes from garage sales!  He has a very good eye for the unusual.”
     As it turns out, Craig Tillotson is a great fan of The Longest Garage Sale in the World.  Although he only comes to Leadbetter Farms five or six times a year, he makes sure to be here on Memorial Day Weekend.
     “He hauls a trailer from one end of the peninsula to the other,” Annie told us.  “You can’t imagine the things he finds!”
     No, we really couldn’t.  Even though we were standing there looking right at some of his collections, it was all beyond belief!
Photo Captions: 
     Light Fixture
     Up to the Top (Courtesy Mark Petersen)
     Resident Pirate