If you're visiting, check out these spots:

• Island County Historical Society Museum, west end of Front Street, Coupeville. Winter hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays through Mondays. Admission, adults $2; families with three or more, $4.50. A 15-minute video features longtime residents telling of their history and preservation efforts. Outside the museum is one of the area's four remaining "blockhouses," built more than 140 years ago to protect settlers from Indians. The museum's annual home tour, which takes visitors through interiors of many historic homes, is Dec. 13.

  

• Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve is an unusual effort in private-public conservation of history and open space. Brochures explaining the history, with maps showing trails and points of interest, are usually available from a kiosk near the Coupeville wharf. National Park Service ranger Melanie Ford conducts guided walking tours starting from Sunnyside Cemetery at 1 p.m. and the Prairie Overlook Wayside on Cemetery Road at 2 p.m. Saturdays. Also on Saturdays, there's a slide show that starts at dusk at the Fort Casey State Park amphitheater. On Sundays, Ford guides a tour of the fort that starts at 2 p.m. on the parade grounds.

• Fort Casey, a turn-of-the-century military fortification of interest to military buffs, children and hikers. The big gun escarpments and munitions bunkers below them have lots of ladders and tunnels to explore; bring a flashlight. The postcard-perfect Admiralty Head Lighthouse is also on the Fort Casey grounds.

• Toby's Tavern, right in the center of the arts and gifts shop section of Coupeville's Front Street, is a watering hole where locals congregate for beverages and great hamburgers. It's housed in an 1890 structure, and features an elegant back-bar from that period.

• Visitors Center, at 302 N. Main St., has information on more than a dozen small inns and bed-and-breakfast houses and 16 restaurants in the Coupeville area.

• Special events are held year around. A "Dance Bonanza" is scheduled for Nov. 1, featuring 12 hours of dance in eight categories ranging from Scottish and Irish to hula and square. From Dec. 6 to 24 Christmas in Coupeville offers residents and visitors visits from Santa, concerts and holiday fare. Information about events is carried on the calendar accessed through the Internet, at www.whidbey.net/coup/. Information also is available from the Central Whidbey Chamber of Commerce, 360-678-5434.