CENTRALIA, Wash. — Halfway between Seattle and Portland, we find ourselves at the most popular coffee shop in Centralia, Fiddlers Coffee. For 20 years the Voetberg family has been serving coffee and fresh pastries in a spacious cafe decorated with fiddles and fiddling trophies. Managing the shop is Rudy Voetberg, one of eight siblings who make up the Voetberg Family Band. Though some of the members have married, they often play holiday concerts together.
"My family, who owns this, we are all fiddlers," Voetberg said. "Some of my siblings are national fiddlers champions so fiddling is a very big part of our family."
We're playing "Send Saint" today so we asked Voetberg to send us to our next stop: some place fun.
"I think a great place to learn about our history and our culture is the King Agricultural Museum in Centralia," he suggested.
We've actually been here before. Dave King may be 70-something years old, but get him near a tractor and you'll catch a glimpse of the little farm boy who grew up in rural Lewis County.
“You know what they say about taking the kid off the farm, you really can't get it out of his heart,” King said.
We met up with Jeff Tresness who manages the museum. There are more than 100 tractors here. Every one of them still runs and looks brand new. In the Maritime Room there's an entire display devoted to the art deco Kalakala Ferry. The museum is like a giant toy box with hundreds of California Raisin figurines, egg beaters and a free jukebox cranking Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff."
We only had time for a small taste of everything at the museum before hunger set in so we asked Tresness where to go for lunch.
"The Centerville Cafe," he suggested. "It's just a Ma and Pa restaurant with home-cooked meals and a little family atmosphere."
The cafe has new owners but server Molly Calhoun says it's still the same kind of place that serves food from scratch made recipes.
"This is the perfect downtown diner where everybody comes," Calhoun said. "And we always have grandma Judy's homemade cinnamon roll."
We tried one of the most highly recommended meals. The Tower Breakfast burger comes with a 6 ounce patty, ham, bacon, a fried egg, cheese and tots.
We asked Calhoun where we should go shopping.
"The Shady Lady," she said immediately. "Hands down. One of the best antique stores I've ever been to."
Holly Ryan owns the store.
"We do resell clothing," she said. "We do all things that are upcycled and recycled for your home. We love the fact that we can really resource, repaint, redo or just save really great antiques."
Upstairs, behind a door, there's even a bordello museum which we have featured on the show before.
We have one final stop before we head out of town. This time we are looking for a sweet treat.
"Oh, I would say O'Blarney's," Ryan offered. "They have a wonderful brownie and a wonderful bread pudding. It's the best!"
The Irish pub may be best known for its beers, ales and hot wings, but don't say no to dessert. The Apple Dream is bread pudding topped with ice cream and caramel sauce and then there's Ryan's favorite, the brownie sundae.
"That's just a great chocolaty treat with two scoops on top and whipped cream on top," said manager Larie Pass.
Not one but two sweet treats to end our super day in Centralia, a city well worth visiting.
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