It all started with a selfie, when I was searching for a title picture for my article How to Plan the Perfect Girlfriend Getaway to San Juan Island. After asking Sarah, Lynette and Jill if I could use our pic, I suddenly missed them like crazy and decided to heed my own advice and plan a girlfriend getaway to San Juan Island.
It’s that time of the year. The holidays are over, the sun hasn’t been seen for weeks, it’s cold and dark and drizzly outside and you know it’s going to stay like this for, well, let’s just say “a while”. Do not despair. There are plenty of things you can do to brighten your days and mood:
Come up to the island for a few days and fight the Winter Blues San Juan Island style.
Are you looking for a cozy little restaurant that harkens back to your favorite aunt’s kitchen? Look no further. On the same block as the Farmer’s Market, the COHO Restaurant, Café Demeter and San Juan Bistro is Cynthia’s Bistro. Cynthia’s is a well-known name in town. She has delighted with her sweet and savory pastries at her Farmer’s Market stand for years and is one of the island’s top caterers. Now she has a brick and mortar place, an adorable former house and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.
In the sylvan heart of San Juan Island, overlooking a serene pond, in a cedar shingled house, overgrown with grape vines, find the Duck Soup. Duck Soup, now in its 39th year and originally built as a woodshed, has been a Farm-to-Table restaurant since long before the term was coined and is taking the concept to its next logical level.
Do you have a bucket list? Is San Juan Island on there? There is so much fun to be had on San Juan Island, including many once-in-a-lifetime adventures. Challenge yourself to participate in some brand new escapades and to fully experience the wilder side of our gem in the Salish Sea.
The cute, coastal, tourist town of Friday Harbor offers an abundance of unique gift shops, as well as restaurants, bars, boutiques, galleries and museums. But that’s not all. There is also an array of distinct places selling antiques, second hand clothing and previously owned books, musical instruments, furniture, arts and crafts and odds and ends.
Fall is that sweet time of the year, when you can squeeze in some down-time, a little self-care, relaxation and fun, after the hustle and bustle of Summer is over and before the holiday season starts in earnest. Who would you take on such a trip? With whom do you feel truly yourself? Who makes you giggle so hard that tears run down your face? Your best girlfriends! A good friend knows all your best stories, a best friend goes to an island with you. Read on to find out How to have the best girlfriend’s weekend ever in Friday Harbor.
Beautiful San Juan Island is nestled between the Olympic Mountains and Vancouver Island, just 65 miles north of Seattle. Precisely because of those mountains the isle enjoys a rain shadow and approximately 247 sunny days per year, making autumn the most astonishing time to visit. The hotels offer lodging specials, the restaurants proudly serve freshly harvested island fare. There are lovely shops, galleries and museums and you have the beaches all to yourself. But that’s not all. There is so much fun to be had on San Juan Island. Here are 10 ideas of things to do on San Juan Island in the Fall.
With kids in school and 9 to 5 jobs you are most likely going on vacation when everybody else is; in the Summer, on weekends and holidays. Everything is crowded, takes a little longer and is more expensive. Not so on beautiful San Juan Island.
Visiting San Juan Island’s Pelindaba Lavender Farm is always a treat. The serenity and beauty of this place with its rolling lavender fields, speckled with gorgeous sculptures, adorable, historic farm store and snow covered Olympics as the backdrop, makes for the perfect spot to indulge all your senses. The only thing better is coming for the annual Lavender Festival on July 15 & 16 during the “height of purpleness”.