The toy and kite store Into the Blue in Point Reyes Station is closing at the end of the month, owner Byron Muntyan said. This is Mr. Muntyan’s second retirement, as he ended his career as a “computer geek” with the state almost 20 years ago. But this time, he thinks retirement will stick. “Oh, I’m just getting old and tired,” he said of the decision to close shop. Mr. Muntyan moved to Point Reyes from Sacramento in 1997, having visited over the years with his girlfriend. He decided to open a store, but initial ideas, like an ice cream shop, seemed too expensive and complicated given the permits needed for food operations. But a few years previously he had started flying kites, so he decided to open a kite shop. “This is a great place to fly kites, with the beaches and cow pastures,” he said late last week in his store. First located in the Livery Building, he moved to the current location in 2001, the same year he also added a sizable stock of toys to boost sales. He sells traditional diamond-shaped kites on a single line, but he prefers two-line stunt kites, which can turn tricks in the air with a little training. He also has kites shaped like octopuses, with polka-dot legs that fly in the breeze, a butterfly-shaped kite and a neon green, box-like kite called a tumbling star. “You get it 100 feet in the air, and then let the string slip through your fingers really quickly. It will tumble down, but as soon as there is tension again it pops right back up,” he explained. For the rest of October, he said all of his wares are 20 percent off.
Into the Blue, Point Reyes toy shop, to close
