La Conner's Halloween Parade all smiles and sweets

It was a dark and stormy Sunday night, but Monday at noon the breeze abated and the clouds lifted just before La Conner's school children took to First Street for the annual Halloween Parade. They were safe, for once again La Conner Hook & Ladder – many of them parents of school aged children – blocked First Street to traffic

In typical La Conner fashion, it was an all-in, all-ages costume ball, with toddlers and elders alike dressed as scary, strange, other worldly, puffed up and cute. And there were at least two dogs outfitted, of course, one with a lion's mane, befitting the king of beasts,...