An island jaunt

One of the nice things about Seattle is that there are so many options for quick day trips or weekend getaways that make you feel like you are hundreds of miles away from the city.

Exhibit A: Taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island.

My BFF had planned an outing to Bainbridge Island as a belated birthday activity a few weeks ago!

We lucked out with perfect weather. It was sunny, but not to hot. There were blue skies and Mt. Rainier was trying to peak out from behind some clouds.

The first thing we did when we arrived on the island was eat brunch. The woman at the counter who was taking our order asked what we were up to. Phyllis replied that we were just there to explore the island and celebrate my birthday. The woman wished me a happy birthday and gave us a cookie on the house!

No matter what island you are on, islanders are always so nice!

We enjoyed our breakfast as talked about normal things that friends talk about. As usual, it felt like we were being way louder than everyone else around us.

After our delicious meal of a shared shakshuka and breakfast sandwich, we headed to a coffee shop. (Yes, more eating!)

Did someone say “sale”?

Phyllis knew of a nice coffee shop outside of town so we drove there. However, on the way to the coffee shop, we found ourselves driving down a street that was lined with parked cars. And, I mean just packed with vehicles!

“What is going on here?” I asked to no one in particular. Obviously, neither of us knew what was going on.

As Phyllis slowly drove down the street, I noticed a banner that said there was a Rotary rummage sale.

Without much discussion, we decide to check it out.

We found parking on the street and walked towards the high school that the event was being held at. As we got closer, we started to realize that there was a lot of, uh, junk. We also noticed that everyone there seemed to be volunteers who were sorting through all of the items.

The parking lot in front of the school and surrounding lawn were full of items — everything from gardening tools and old small boats to car seats and yarn.

We then found out that the actual sale wouldn’t be happening until after July 4th! (We were there like five days early!) Guess it takes a lot of hours to sort through all the donations …

We chuckled at ourselves and headed back to the car. Onwards to coffee!

More free dessert

The main purpose for going to the coffee shop was so that the two of us could journal together. We have a sort of bad habit of trying to journal together, but then we just end up chatting. With the day together, maybe we’d actually get some journaling done?

As we were seated and began to take out our journals and all our pens and everything else, Phyllis tells me that the last time she was at this shop, they brought around free chocolate cake.

“Last time it was in the afternoon though so I’m not sure we’ll get any,” she added.

However, just as it approached noon, a barista came walking around with a full chocolate cake and asked us if we would like a complimentary piece.

How lucky!

And, again, another example of islanders being nice.

Walking it off

Afterwards, we went to a park along a beach and went on a nice walk. We couldn’t actually walk along the beach since it was high tide and the beach was super rocky and slippery with seaweed. I wasn’t about to have a pregnant woman (Phyllis) slip and fall on my watch!

There was a paved path we walked along that a lot of the locals were also enjoying. By “a lot,” I really mean a handful. It was by no means crowded like a park in Seattle would be on a nice sunny Saturday!

After we felt like we got enough Vitamin D, we got back into the car and headed back into town. We strolled around and did some window shopping. We were so eager to buy used goods at a rummage sale hours before but when it came to buying items at full price? Not as fun. No purchases were made.

Still full from brunch, we headed back to Seattle in the late afternoon.

The perfect weather and good food made for a great day trip. Of course, you can’t beat the even better company!