The Dark Side of Petaluma

On our recent trip, we spent a lot of time discovering downtown Petaluma, which was always a place with lots of interesting old architecture and a cool little strip of downtown, but in the twenty years since I'd last been, it had turned into quite the place to be - lots of great shops and restaurants and of course still lots of great architecture.

I loved this old water fountain. I totally coerced these two perfectly good strangers (well, I'm assuming they're good) into posing for me. I wanted them to act like they were drinking. They do look like they're drinking - water. Which is not what I meant. So, they won't be showing up on Broadway any time soon. But they were still good sports.

The name of this shop is conveniently right there on the window. I asked if I could take a photo of this amazing pumpkin king in the window. The entire display was amazing (as was the store itself, filled with Halloween loveliness!) but I just couldn't get the shadows and reflections to play nice. You can sort of get a feel for how large the windows are and how tall the pumpkin figure is by finding my reflection down at the bottom.

We strolled back by the window at night and I took another shot, you can see the display better but the lighting cuts the jack's head in two.

While the first window display is totally over the top, I loved this window because of it's simplicity. Those are just little black paper cutouts. I've seen this idea used a lot in Martha Stewart publications, I keep meaning to use the technique myself but never seem to get around to it.

Can't remember what kind of store this window was in, but zombies in a graveyard are always a good choice to sell products, don't you agree?

This was in the window of an antique store and he was HUGE. At least two feet high. Maybe three. I can't remember now. There was nothing near him to show perspective. I would have totally come back and bought him but I kinda assumed he was out of my price range.

And with the many references to the evilness of bunnies (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bunnicula, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Donnie Darko....) I thought this little window figure belonged in this montage.

Well, EYE guess that's enough photos. I SEE that's all we have time for now. But don't forget to come back. I'll be WATCHING you. Mwahahahahaha!