Seattle Vacation Ideas

For some people, camping means hiking up the side of a mountain and pitching a tent. For myself, I like a few more amenities. A roof for example, and maybe a room with a view. It’s nice to have the wilderness all around, but nicer to have a few walls in between me and it. Of course, there’s no reason you need to stay in some bland cabin out in the woods. Not when you could stay in a tree house.

The Cedar Creek Treehouse is a privately owned vacation rental, located one mile as the crow flies (10 miles by car) from the Nisqually River entrance to Mount Rainier National Park. The lofty cabin is perched 50 feet up in a 200-year old Western Red Cedar. Inside there is a sleeping loft with two double beds (skylights brighten the area), a bathroom, a kitchen, a dining area, and an observation room, though it looks like there are great views of the forest and the mountains from every window.

Tree house living doesn’t come cheaply though. You’ll have to pay $300 per night (for two people–$50 extra for each additional person) to reserve this rental, but maybe it’s worth it just to say you’ve truly slept among the stars…

http://www.cedarcreektreehouse.com/

I never liked Clue growing up, but going away for a weekend and being in a live “Whodunit” actually sounds kind of fun. Think of a dinner mystery, but over a whole weekend where you don’t necessarily work with (or normally spend time with) the perpetrator, so your best friends get off the guilty-hook. Langley hosts and annual Mystery Weekends in late February. The point of this whole thing is to solve an unusual crime by talking to people, finding clues and doing some brain exercises under the guise of a weekend away.

You’ve got two days to solve the mystery and you can pick up a map for $5 starting at 10 am Saturday morning in the Langley Visitors Center. If you’ve solved the mystery by 4:00 PM on Sunday, drop off your answers and then head over to the middle school starting at 4:30 to see a 30 minute “play” as the key suspects are questioned and the crook is confronted.

 This event has been around for a number of years now and draws crowds upwards of 2000 souls! Not bad to triple the population of the town for the weekend! There are a huge number of beds and breakfasts in town, so finding somewhere to stay should be easy if you check with the Chamber of Commerce.

Link: http://www.visitlangley.com/mystery/mystery.htm

If you’re from Washington, you doubtlessly know that Walla Walla produces onions, lots and lots of sweet onions (and if you’re not from Washington and you’ve never chanced across a Walla Walla Sweet Onion, now you know something new). What you might not know is that in the last ten years or so Walla Walla has been earning recognition for something else it grows: wine (okay, it grows grapes, but those are made into wine, and that’s what’s getting the recognition).

Walla Walla might not be the first place that pops into your head as a vacation destination, but if you like bicycling and you enjoy wine, it may have something for you. If you can imagine yourself cruising past scenic vineyards full of grapes ripening under early summer sun, you can sign up for a bicycle tour through the town’s wine country.

Various outfits offer these tours, which typically include overnight accommodations, meals, and entrance into wine tasting events. If you’re looking to save money or can only get away for a couple days, you could check out the June 3-4 2007 (Sunday/Monday) bicycle tour put on by the Spokane Parks Department: “You will be amazed at the great wines, wonderful riding, and beautiful scenery of this area. Your lodging is in the historic and elegant Marcus Whitman Hotel located within walking distance of some outstanding northwest restaurants.”

The price is $199 and registration can be done online:

http://www.spokaneparks.org/

Remember, the nice thing about bicycle tours is that anything you eat (or “taste”) is burned off on the next day’s ride, so there’s no need for the usual vacation guilt about indulging yourself too much.

Langley, Washington is located on Whidbey Island, just about an hour and 20 minutes outside of Seattle, assuming that you’ve got light ferry traffic.  This wasn’t a problem in the off-season when a friend and I were up there last weekend.  This is a cute and fairly lively tourist town of about 1045 people located on the South East side of the island (that’s really a bit deceptive given that Whidbey Island is about 50 miles long and rather winding).

I went up there with my friend to get out of town for the weekend. Travel was really easy and hte town as surprisingly busy for a Saturday during the off-season, especially given that it was pouring!    Lots of the stores were interconnected and we could wander between them without really getting wet.

Some of my favorite shops included a French Bistro (find the name),  a puppet store that featured neat children’s books and puppets, as well as an eclectic store called “Music for the Eyes” the best part about this store was that you could touch everything! Nearby, there was also a wooden staircase that lead down to the beach.  Normally, I would have been the first to run down and see what was going on, but I didn’t have good beach shoes and the rain quelled a lot of desire to go exploring.  During the summer, I’d love to come back and eat dinner on one of the numerous decks that overlook the Sound.

My general impression of Langley was that is was a cozy and friendly town.  There wasn’t a chain store in sight.  Like many small towns, everything runs on Island time.  Everything pretty much was shut down by 9:30 PM or so on Saturday night.  I was a bit surprised by this because it was St. Patrick’s day, but I also didn’t venture over to the bar in town that likely still had a crowd.

Several things I would have liked to have done included eating lunch at the Living Green Natural Foods,  (they sold cute sandals and raw food and/or organic food). Also, if I’d been here for more than one evening, I would have gone to check out the Zydaco dance that was advertised at one of the local granges.

Seattle Vacation Ideas is run by two Washington natives who enjoy exploring without spending a fortune.