This weekend we embarked on a short trip to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. Staying at a B&B on the island, going with our friends Billy and Valerie, and being a short trip it felt more like a staycation than anything. Providing relaxation and leisure activities, it was a very nice getaway for all four of us.
Bryan and I were fortunate enough to leave early on Friday and left at noon, packed and ready to go. Our drive to Anacortes was a smooth 1.5 hour and we had some time to kill before our ferry was ready to debark. We drove our car on the ferry and had THE. BEST. FERRY. RIDE. EVER. The sun was beaming through the glass, we had picturesque views of all surrounding mountains and islands, I had one of the many puzzles kept on the ferry, and we randomly had a couple of polka players performing for us the entire hour and fifteen minutes through. And they were good. We checked into our bed and breakfast at the Tucker House Inn and were instantly at ease and happy. We had the whole first floor of one of their houses, a full kitchen, a sunroom that held our dining table, a living room with TV and wood burning fireplace, and two large bedrooms each with their own TVs, bathrooms, homemade soaps, and robes.
Friday night we had to ourselves before the other two joined us later. Being who I am I had read about a fantastic deal at the neighboring Coho Restaurant. For $70 we each got a soup and salad starter, an entree (normally priced at $30 each), ice cream or sorbet and bottle of wine to split. WHAT?!?!?!?! Two entrees alone would normally be $70. The deal is only good from 5-5:45 pm but we easily got there at 5:15 and were the first guests seated so we had the dining room to ourselves for quite some time which was awesome. We were delivered a bruschetta each for palate cleansing, then we received our fabulous and creamy cauliflower and leek soup with pancetta and mixed greens salad. I chose the special of the day which were huge scallops seared to perfection in a light cream sauce with some brilliant sauteed kale and squash and Bryan chose the roasted chicken with potato and blue cheese rosti and braised greens. The tempranillo-cabernet from Spain that we chose rounded everything out. And for dessert I selected the amaretto and Kahlua ice cream and Bryan chose the dark chocolate ice cream, before deciding we like the others better and switching a few bites in. Dinner was great all around.
After greeting Billy and Valerie and catching up over our ginger cookies and truffles left for us upon arrival we rested for the next day. Saturday we were greeted with a 3-course breakfast delivered to our sunroom. We were provided with creamy yogurt, homemade granola, sliced pears, four omelets filled with roasted potatoes, ham, peppers, onions, mushrooms, and goat cheese, and a vanilla creme brulee topped with candied apples for dessert along with milk, OJ, and coffee. Fantastically stuffed we got into the car to start our tour of the island. In our drive around the whole island (about 60 miles) we stopped at the American and British Camps with a history museum on the Pig Wars, two lighthouses with short walks, an alpaca farm (awesome!), False Bay, Roche Harbor which was super beautiful (for a snack) and a local distillery which led us through a tasting of their interesting ciders and gins made with island apples, herbs and botanicals (lots of lavender). Saturday night we picked up some super fresh King salmon that we cooked in our room along with butternut squash and salad and the bottle of Champagne, compliments of the Inn. We soaked in the hot tub, picked up A Fish Called Wanda from the Inn’s video library, started a fire, had the Inn’s lavender hot chocolate and glazed pumpkin raisin cookies, and Bryan and I fell asleep on the floor next to the fire.
Sunday we were greeted again with a great breakfast. This time we had chicken, spinach and goat cheese enchiladas/tacos topped with poached eggs, spiced cooked carrots, rice, yogurt, granola, and a fruit salad, and each had our own pumpkin spiced creme puff for dessert. Again delicious!!! We checked out and then headed to a local bar next to the harbor to watch the beating of the Seahawks against the Falcons. Bryan and I chose to take a later ferry and walked around Friday Harbor a little bit to go into the antiques stores. Our ferry back was nice and long with one stop at Lopez Island. We didn’t mind, we like the ferry, the puzzles, and a quick catnap. We were back to Seattle around six. We had a great relaxing weekend away to the islands and I think we both really needed it!
Chelsea
Evolving in the Emerald City 