The glories of Hood Canal - includes related articles on food offerings, Victoria's restaurant, Union Country Store and a list of tourist attractions

Sunset, April, 1997 by Jim McCausland

* Where: E. 6790 Highway 106, Union.

* When: 4-8:30 Mon-Fri, 11-8:30 Sat, 9-8:30 Sun.

* Cost: Entrees from $14-$28.

* Contact: (360) 898-4400.

UNION COUNTRY STORE

Born into a family of immigrant storekeepers, Bruce Rosenstein spent two decades working in the wholesale garment industry. He sold from San Francisco to New York, Dallas to Seattle, often trying to get the attention of Nordstrom buyers. Then serious illness struck, and he and his wife, Sheila (right), re-assessed their lives.

Rosenstein knew he wanted two things: a quieter life as a storekeeper and a way to indulge his passion for cooking. So in 1990 the Rosensteins bought the Union Country Store, which Sheila runs while Bruce prepares everything from magnificent strawberry cheesecakes to stuffed crab loaves to exquisite dips for chips. The store's haute fast food has attracted a lot of attention along the canal's south shore, and now the Rosensteins find that some of their best customers, ironically, are the Nordstroms.

* Where: E. 5130 Highway 106, Union.

* When: 8:30-7:30 Sun-Thu, 8-8 Fri-Sat.

* Contact: (360) 898-2641.

Reporter's notebook

* Hood Canal Floating Bridge. This bridge, a mile west of Port Gamble on State 104, was nicknamed "Hood Canal Sinking Bridge" after it went down in a 1979 storm. Gets you to the Olympic Peninsula. Enormous Trident nuclear submarines occasionally pass through the span, stopping traffic for miles.

* Wolfe Property State Park. First right after crossing the bridge is Paradise Bay Road. From there it's 1/2 mile to Seven Sisters Road, then right and 1/2 mile to the beach and park. Wander north along Bywater Bay, or south to Shine Tidelands State Park. Beachcomb, dig for clams, gather oysters, or watch winter birds on the water between the park and a lovely little island called Hood Head.

* Mount Walker. Between mileposts 299 and 300 on U.S. 101, look for the dirt road to Walker's 2,804-foot summit. It opens, weather permitting, in March or early April.

* Divers' paradise. Two dive shops near Hoodsport hint at other Hood Canal secrets: long underwater walls and ledges that lead to the canal's 500-foot-deep trench. Giant octopuses (the world's largest) share these ledges with wolf eels, rockfish, crabs, urchins, and anemones.

* Whitney Rhododendron Garden. In Brinnon, Anne and Ellie Sather (shown here) run one of the best specialty nurseries in the Northwest. Early rhododendrons are just starting to come in now; don't miss the blue-flowering varieties that are prevalent this month. Open daily; 306264 Highway 101, (360) 796-4411.

* Twana Longshore. Art dealer on the Skokomish Reservation (between mile-posts 338 and 339). Longshore sells mostly Northwest native art, from beadwork and baskets to wooden masks and cradle boards. She's open when she's open; call (360) 8776897 to be sure.

* Pete Merrill. A very talented woodcarver, whose collection of full-size humans and animals stands in front of his shop at E. 14103 Highway 106. If nobody is around, look through the window at A Political Machine, then press the button outside to see this remarkable kinetic art operate (it owes as much to Merrill's background as a civics teacher as it does to Rube Goldberg).