Seattle-adjacent anniversary "weekend"

September 29, 2015 7:58 AM

We have next Monday and Tuesday free for our anniversary and are looking for a last-minute overnight outing in or near Seattle (less than 1 hour or so away). Ideally the trip includes at least some of the following: great food including a possibly slightly fancy dinner, a swanky or at least interesting place to stay, water views, bookstores, light to moderate outdoorsiness, strange museums or art, low-key adventure. It need not include Hallmark-card-style "romance." It MUST include at least one really kickass sandwich.

We're early-30s people with not a huge budget but we can splurge a bit on one or two things. We have a car but a ferry-and-walking destination would be fun too. We've probably already had most of the kickass sandwiches in Seattle proper.

Bainbridge? Vashon? Salish Lodge (and other Twin Peaks locations)? Exploring a neighborhood of Seattle we don't usually hang in? (We live and work in the Capitol Hill/Downtown/Sodo radius.) Airbnb-ing some kind of boat?

posted by doift to Travel & Transportation (16 answers total)

Maybe stay at Rosario on Orcas Island? I've never been there, but it is drool-worthy on the Web cam.

San Juan Island has the Sculpture Garden and the Whale Museum, McMillan's Dining Room, and the Lime Kiln Cafe. The latter has a great hazelnut-crusted veggie burger and killer doughnuts in the morning. Roche Harbor has everything available that you are looking for, even if you do not lodge there.

The Highland Inn on SJI has this view. I'm not personally familiar with it, as I stay with family.

If you fly out of Boeing Field it's less than an hour. Or you could park at Anacortes, walk on the ferry, and rent a car or bikes on SJI.
posted by jgirl at 8:34 AM on September 29, 2015

La Conner is super easy and checks all those boxes (the water is a river though). Nell Thorn is delicious. They have a bunch of art galleries and a few museums (the quilt and textile museum is about as weird as it gets though). And a few strange antique stores. There is light to moderate outdoor potential by driving a few minutes in any direction. Sandwiches at Calico Cafe.
posted by jeffamaphone at 8:46 AM on September 29, 2015

Sequim might be good, too.
posted by jgirl at 9:10 AM on September 29, 2015

La Conner is on a slough (Swinomish Slough), which isn't a river as much as a strip of brine that connects two parts of Puget Sound. It's very pleasant in the day, and they roll up the sidewalks at 6PM, or 4 on Sundays.

You can drive to nearby Deception Pass and take in the vertiginous chasm from the bridge high above, or from the beach down below. IT's amazing, but if you have a problem with heights or dramatic angles, skip this one.

I'd consider Ports Hadlock/Ludnow/Townsend; take the ferry to Kingston (or Bainbridge, I don't judge), get on WA-3 to the Hood Canal Bridge and you're there in about 40 minutes out of Kingston. There's hiking, parks like Fort Warden St. Park (and old missile-defense base for defending against naval attack via the Juan de Fuca), restaurants, B&Bs, airbnbs, no EBDBBNBs. Not sure on the sandwich scene over there.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:31 AM on September 29, 2015

There is some very yummy food to be had on Orcas Island, and the bakery in Eastsound had a crazy delicious sandwich when I was there but it is not a sandwich place. I'd stay at Doe Bay Resort instead of Rosario, but, again, tips toward the hippie side of life.

Have you ever been to the Sleeping Lady near Leavenworth? Outdoorsy but very comfortable, outstanding food, beautiful creek to hike along.
posted by stowaway at 10:37 AM on September 29, 2015

Upon rereading, Orcas is too far and all the best restaurants are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays anyway. Sleeping Lady is two hours away but you can break it up with a pit stop at the Reptile Zoo or a hike at Wallace Falls or something.
posted by stowaway at 10:41 AM on September 29, 2015

Take the train to bellingham?
posted by Annika Cicada at 11:13 AM on September 29, 2015

Here's a sandwich place:

http://thesandwichodyssey.com
posted by Annika Cicada at 11:18 AM on September 29, 2015

Take the Victoria Clipper to that place it goes to, can't remember the name... :-)
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:09 PM on September 29, 2015

Yes, I was going to suggest the Clipper. You could stay at the Empress, visit the Royal British Columbia Museum, and Munro's Books is wonderful. The museum's El Dorado exhibit looks fabulous.
posted by jgirl at 12:16 PM on September 29, 2015

> Maybe stay at Rosario on Orcas Island? I've never been there

I've stayed there and it's very cool, but good sandwiches can be hard to come by on Orcas Island once the summer tourist season ends.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:33 PM on September 29, 2015

I was going to suggest a night's stay and dinner at Willows Inn on Lummi Island, but in October they are only open Thursday to Sunday.
posted by praiseb at 2:34 PM on September 29, 2015

If you're staying in Seattle, the Greenlake area has lots of stuff to do. The Woodland Park Zoo, and Phinney Ridge has a lot of cool restaurants. For epic sandwiches, I can't hype Bongos enough!
posted by Drosera at 6:40 PM on September 29, 2015

Last year for my birthday we stayed a night on the MV Lotus, which is docked by MOHAI on Lake Union - it's run as kind of a bed and breakfast when it's in port. We ended up spending the evening on the top deck with a bottle of wine, sitting in a couple of ancient wicker chairs, watching the sea planes take off and land, and trying to pick out the landmarks in Wallingford (near where we live). South Lake Union is like a foreign land to us north of the Ship Canal types! There are restaurants in SLU, but we ended up taking the streetcar into downtown and eating at Le Pichet, which is perfect for a romantic dinner and very affordable.

And yes, I'll second the previous post from Drosera - if you're ever on the west side of Green Lake, Bongos is great. On warm days you can sit outside at tables in the sand pit, and pretend that the traffic from Aurora is the ocean...
posted by plasticpalacealice at 7:30 PM on September 29, 2015

By the way, Great Sandwiches in or near Seattle:

Salumi (Pioneer Square): Get in line early, like 11:30 latest, for lunch. Don't plan on eating inside. Buy more sandwiches for later, and never be late, because they close when they run out of bread, just like Paseo used to. You probably have been.

Paseo and Un Bien are two cuban-sandwich places; Paseo (Fremont Ave around 40th) has a new owner but not the original sauce recipe, the old Paseo owner opened Un Bien (Ballard: 15th Ave NW in the 70s). I'm going to take it for granted that you've had this.

I'm seconding Bongos Cuban Cafe (65th-ish and Aurora), also cuban sandwiches from a guy who lived in PR for a number of years; he's often around and very friendly. Essentially a food truck bolted on to a fixed building. They have covered beach seating in a sand-pit right there next to Aurora Ave. at Greenlake, no shit. Newish, and still a bit undiscovered; I'm glad to see it already has a mention here.

Tubs Gourmet Subs (Lake City and Lynnwood): all delicious and judiciously composed subs. [Not related to the gross hot tub place that used to disgrace the U District.]

Grinders' Hot Sands (Shoreline, 198th and Aurora, so well out of Seattle proper) is really amazing and has, IMO, improved under the new owner (same person that owns Beth's). Unassuming location next to a brake-and-lube shop, but it's outstanding good subs/paninis, etc. Fork-and-Knife sandwiches.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:26 AM on September 30, 2015

Thanks for the suggestions. We ended up deciding on Salish Lodge this time but this is all great for future reference (including some sandwich places that are new to me!)
posted by doift at 2:58 PM on October 3, 2015