Seattle Vacation Ideas

If you enjoy the smell of lavender and you like taking the ferry over to Vashion Island, then here’s a day trip for you: lavender picking at Fox Farm.

The Fifth Annual Vashion Island Lavender Celebration will run the weekend of July 7th and 8th 2007. Some of the events include U-pick lavender, a table with activities for children, and lectures and demonstrations on lavender cultivation, cooking with lavender, harvesting and drying the flower, and other related topics.

Local artists will be around for the event, so you can peruse artwork for sale. You can also buy sachets, lavender plants, and other lavender-related products during the event. Also food booths will dot the premises (and in keeping with the theme, chances are there will be some tasty treats that feature lavender). Of course, the farm offers numerous benches and open lawns for picnicking if you want to bring your own food.

The celebration will run from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, and more details should be up on the farm’s site soon:

http://www.foxfarm.org

If a vacation where all you have to do is sit back, enjoy the wind in your hair, and keep an eye out for orca whales sounds pleasant to you, then you might look into one of the outfits that offers sailboat tours of the San Juan Islands and other beautiful Puget Sound destinations.

Emerald Island Sailing Charters offers a “Southern Great Bear Rainforest/Inside Passage” tour that sails between Orcas Island and Bella Bella, B.C. This true marine wilderness gives you the chance to see humpback, gray, and orca whales as well as dolphins. Peer landward and you might spot grizzly and black bears.

Some of the other highlights of the tour can include good salmon and halibut fishing, warm saltwater swimming in Desolation Sound, and a chance to experience native culture (you’ll visit the U’mista Cultural Center of the Kwakwak’wakw in the Broughton Archipelago area, where you can see totem poles, longhouse ruins, and other remains from the people who once lived there).

As for the accommodations, staterooms house two, most meals are provided (including wine), and there will be a maximum of 6 passengers, so it’s quite a bit more private and quiet than a cruise ship.

More information at Emerald Island Sailing

The San Juan Islands are a popular vacation place for Seattleites since they’re beautiful and peaceful, while lying only a couple hours (plus a ferry ride) north of the city. You can go up there and rent a cabin on the water just to relax, but you can also visit the San Juans for adventure too.

How does sea kayaking sound?

There are a number of outfits on the islands that offer kayak tours. You can be an expert or a novice and still find an excursion that is right for you. Not only is it fun to paddle your way through the scenic waters, but you have a good chance of seeing some wildlife (more than the usual squirrels and possums that run through your backyard when the dog is in the house).

One company, San Juan Kayak Expeditions, says its guests see everything from caribou, river otters, big-horned sheep, and porpoises to prong-horned antelope, bald eagles and orca whales. That’s on their three- and four-day kayaking trips. Sign up for one of those events, and you’ll visit numerous islands (places the ferries don’t go), such as Sentinel, Canoe, Obstruction, Skipjack, Goose, and Battleship. And on those islands you’ll see “a cormorant rookery, pass near harbor seal haul-outs and traverse coastlines of rugged, towering lichen-covered cliffs, deep Douglas fir forests and white sand beach.”

Sounds pretty cool to me (of course, I’ve never spent more than an hour in a kayak, and that was on calm and placid Lake Union… but maybe I’ll have to sign up for one of these trips soon). The three- and four-day expeditions start at the end of May, and prices run $420 for three days and $520 for four days (both price tags include your kayak and all the gear you’ll need).

http://www.sanjuankayak.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

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.