Langley, Washington
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.