Since the 2016 election I try to spend Fourth of July closer to Canada. It’s like a passive protest with excellent food.
Speaking of excellent food Wayside Cafe is Olympia’s first all plant-based restaurant. They do comfort food, and they do it well.
Here we have their seitan chicken wings in barbecue sauce with a side of house ranch.
And this is their lemon curd hand pie.
Walking trails around Evergreen State College, named one of the most innovative colleges by U.S. News and World Report. (The public liberal arts college tailors courses to individual interests, emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach, and gives students written assessments from their instructors rather than grades.) The campus includes miles of forest trails and some Puget Sound beach-front property.
Downtown Chehalis has my new favorite cafe, Shakespeare and Company, a book store/coffee shop/cat cafe. The owners are delightful human beings (one art piece in the bathroom includes pins saying, “I heart consent,” “Let them in,” “Destroy the patriarchy not the planet,” and “Resist much obey little”) who have both floors of their books memorized and excellent taste in cafe offerings. (That morning they made vegan yogurt parfaits with fresh boysenberries.)
We opted for golden milk lattes. Owner Karen said she makes the paste herself without a recipe. She was trying to convince us how easy it is, but I instead realized she has a culinary gift (especially after tasting my almond milk latte).
One of Shakespeare and Company’s cats. The cats take shifts, apparently, as one slept under a table while the other sprinted around the shop, supervised some window washing, and tried to stand on narrow things.
No trip to Olympia is complete without food trucks. This is Arepa Latin Street Food’s tajadas, plantains with salty sour cream.
It speaks to my background sheltered in the Adventist bubble that my first happy hour was 36 years into my life (for our CTO’s going away party). I’d always dismissed happy hour as something for non-teetotalers, but this year I realized the truth: happy hour has amazing snacks. So here we are a bit after 4 p.m. at the Swing Wine Bar, which has a tranquil outdoor deck perched above one of the most scenic spots in town.
Had we just eaten lunch? Yes. Did our server tell us that his sister made some vegan peach-raspberry pie that would change our lives? Oh, and they have rose-honey sorbet if we want to enjoy our pie with something cold? Also yes.
Because of the pie on top of lunch we needed a walk around the lake.
Road trip! Every road trip needs a mascot. This is Jellycat’s Gabby Goose, who we called Bill. Bill (who aspires to be a drummer) saw us through many adventures that weekend, and on the last full day, we left home early, piled into the car, and headed for Whidbey island.
The Mukilteo ferry terminal.
In addition to a mascot, every road trip needs a motto. I’d like to thank Ivar’s Fish Bar for ours: Keep Clam and Ferry On.
On the ferry! I forgot how much fun the ferry ride is. We crossed on the MV Suquamish, a ferry that has been in service for nine months.
Arriving in Whidbey Island, you can see some of the beach houses.
The delightful, adorable town of Langley, where they have blown glass sculptures in the flowerpots. (The glass gallery is in what used to be the firehouse.)
Part of the Langley’s charm is the well-curated shops. This is Chocolate Flower Farm.
The Moonraker Bookstore.
My favorite was Music for the Eyes, which carries beautiful things from all over the world.
If you need a luxurious Whidbey Island experience, you won’t go wrong with the Inn at Langley right on the water.
The view behind the Inn.
They even have a totem pole!
Wandering Langley. They have random idyllic scenery everywhere.
After leaving Langley we did some Whidbey Island hiking around Clinton.
I never thought a nursery could be a trip highlight, but Bayview Farm and Garden is remarkable. The plant diversity, health, and size surpass other garden centers.
Oh, and they have hippo planters.
Bayview Farm and Garden has a cafe. This is the vegan cookie from the Flower House Cafe. It was fairly close to the perfect cookie.
The nursery is located in a small area of shops linked by scenic pathways.
Bayview Bicycles. The sign on the door said, “Sorry we’re out riding.”
Greenbank Farm features another collection of delightful shops and stunning scenery.
The pond outside Whidbey Pies Cafe at Greenbank Farm.
I’d spent the day with an eye out for the perfect Whidbey Island magnet. Greenbank Cheese not only had a plethora of perfect magnets, but they also had them in patch, postcard, greeting card, coaster, tea towel, and trivet options.
Raven Rocks Gallery is another Greenbank Farm institution. We especially enjoyed the Ravens in Love series by D.H. Windwalker Taibi: “Wanna come see my bright shiny objects?”
Riding the ferry!