Orcas of Course!

The next day we were off! I picked the girls up at the MarQueen in lower Queen Anne and set off for 1.5 hour drive to the ferry port of Anacortes. Best to arrive at least 1 hour in advance and the wait really isn’t such a bad thing. There is a place to get coffee and we had a lot of catching up to do so killing time was a breeze. The ferry ride is a big part of the whole Orcas experience!
We landed around 1pm and headed straight to the hotel – the Outlook Inn in the tiny, cute town of Eastsound. The rooms were beautiful! Spacious with full seating areas and big fluffy beds (nice long bathtubs too!). We each had the same view as Annabella does here from our balconies (not too shabby!). But it was lunch that was on our minds (of course…) and I had a new place to try – the Doe Bay Cafe (part of Doe Bay Resort).

Overlooking the water, the food here was absolutely delicious- Island chef Abigail Birreil supports the local farmers here serving up fresh seasonal fare and does a great job of it – cannot wait to come back to this place- so charming! Can anyone say blood orange Mimosas? Well – apparently we can! Is this what they mean by cross lighting? Elizabeth had the delicious frittata with seasonal delicata squash and goat cheese! The charming General Store – Doe Bay resort has a variety of accommodations from cabins to yurts to camping. Definitely on my list to return! We were having so much fun at lunch we missed the Eastsound Farmers market but not to worry – next on the list was to head over to the Inn at Ship Bay to watch Luke feed the eagles! Marc and I experienced this last time with Elizabeth and Ryan and it was not to be missed. Watching eagles swoop out of the sky to eat salmon – great. Accompanied by a glass of wine – even better! I almost thought it was going to be a no show but finally finally not one but two eagles did appear – funny enough they didn’t seem to be very hungry on that day which made the seagulls very happy – sloppy seconds no problem for them! Our happy hour continued back at the hotel in our room until dinner time. We had decided to have dinner at the New Leaf restaurant in the hotel. A GREAT decision as the food was absolutely delicious! We shared some fresh island oysters with horseradish-carrot mignonette -unusual and delicious! Elizabeth and I split the salmon special – grilled with a buerre blanc aside a local root mash (YUM!) and roasted gold and purple beets – amazing! Annabella had a Northwest shellfish pot of clams, mussels, crab claws, shrimp in white wine, garlic and herbs. And then the we shared the perfect decadent finale – a flourless chocolate cake with ganache,salted caramel sauce and whipped cream (wow!).
What a perfect dinner and even better as we are a hop, skip and a jump away from our hotel rooms! But girlfriend weekends only happen once in a while so a little more wine, a lot more conversation and even a little candy (was that necessary?!!!) all led to sweet dreams for all! See you in the morning Orcas Island…