Weekend Getaways: Bainbridge & Chuckanut

Vacations are wonderful, but even a very short break away from normal life can feed the soul. This long weekend I had the chance to spend a lot of time with my amazing wife, Meghan, enjoying each other’s company and some beautiful drives. I’m very lucky to have a partner that appreciates the journey as much as the destination.

We celebrated Valentine’s Day with a surprise getaway to Bainbridge Island. Dinner at Hitchcock, an overnight at the Inn at Pleasant Beach, breakfast at the Good Egg and a driving tour around the island…partly because I got lost trying to find the restaurant 🙂

Monday we found ourselves with both kids in camp from 9 to 6 and with the day unbooked. We could have done laundry or other chores that we neglected earlier in the weekend but there will always be more laundry. Instead, we charted a course to great coffee, amazing tacos and a fun twisty road, Chuckanut Drive.

After dropping the kids off at Flying Circus Camp, we fueled up at one of favorite breakfast spots in Seattle, The Wandering Goose. Our next destination was the entry point to Chuckanut Drive, one of the most scenic twisty roads we have in the area. After carving our way up the road, we made it to Bellingham for some coffee and a bio break at The Black Drop Coffeehouse. The coffee was great and it was fun to be surrounded by college students overdosing on caffeine while cramming for an art history exam. Then back down Chuckanut Drive where we had just enough time to walk to the beach at Larrabee State Park and stop at a few scenic overlooks on our way to lunch.

Our lunch spot was really the inspiration for the whole trip. I was looking for a good day drive option in the winter and googled “restaurants worth driving to from Seattle”. Mariposa Taqueria was high on that list and we found out why. Amazing food, fresh made tortillas and a fun vibe made this place the highlight of the trip. After lunch we had to drive fast and get through bad Seattle traffic in time to pick up the kids but this is a day drip we could easily turn into a long weekend of exploring when we have more time.