The Washington Trip
Five days. Eight missions. One apple cannon. Watch the videos, then vote on what we should actually do.
How this works
We land, and go straight to the pumpkin cannon
One mission today, on purpose. We touch down at 9, grab the car, and the farm is literally on the drive north.
One big one: whales
Slow morning, then we're on a boat at noon. The day that works no matter what the weather does.
Three things, all right next to each other
The biggest day, and it's mostly free.
Two things, way up in the mountains
North Cascades National Park costs nothing to enter. The whole day hinges on sun — the rain plan is below.
One easy view, then home
We fly at 6pm, so we're rolling south by 12:30. One thing close to the house, then the airport.
Activities we could add
None of these are on the plan yet. Vote on anything you want in, and tick it in the cost planner to see what it does to the number.
What the ticketed days cost
For our party of 5 — 3 adults and 2 kids
Take the Outer Island deal and this drops to about $849. On top: flights, the rental car, two boosters, food and gas.
How hard is it, really?
Things the locals might not know
Not the bridge, not the tulips, not the ice cream. This is the layer underneath — checked against tide tables, hatchery run timing, boat schedules and local historical archives for your five days specifically.
You are there for the LAST boat of the year on Diablo Lake
Skagit Tours runs the Alice Ross IV across Diablo Lake on weekends only, September 12 to 27. Sept 26 and 27 are the final sailings of 2026. Two hours on the turquoise water, wheelchair-accessible boarding and a restroom aboard, so grandma is fine.
$35 adult · $30 senior 62+ · $20 youth 3–12 · under 3 free. Check-in 10:15am. Reserve on (360) 854-2599 — this will not exist a week later.
DIABLO LAKE · SAT 26 + SUN 27 ONLY20,000 motorcycles are coming to Anacortes on your Sunday
The Oyster Run is the largest motorcycle rally in the Pacific Northwest and it is always the fourth Sunday in September. That is Sunday the 27th. Ten to twenty thousand bikes fill downtown Anacortes.
For a 6- and 9-year-old this is either the best thing they see all week or a reason to be nowhere near Commercial Avenue. Either way, knowing it before a local mentions it is the whole flex. Free, no ticket, no fixed route.
DOWNTOWN ANACORTES · SUN 27Your own town throws a harvest festival that weekend
B'Town Fall Fest at Skagit River Park in Burlington, the last weekend of September. Free kid zone, human-powered pumpkin slingers, a zucchini car building station, touch-a-tractor and pumpkin painting.
It is a five-minute drive from the house and it is free.
1100 S SKAGIT ST, BURLINGTON · SAT 26 + SUN 27The best tide pools of your whole trip are Thursday at 9am, and it is downhill from there
Everyone says "we should do the tide pools sometime this week." The actual numbers say otherwise. NOAA low tides at Bowman Bay:
| Thu 24 · 9:00am | +0.99 ft ← go |
| Fri 25 · 9:34am | +1.46 ft |
| Sat 26 · 10:09am | +2.09 ft |
| Sun 27 · 10:45am | +2.87 ft |
| Mon 28 · 11:24am | +3.75 ft |
The genuinely deep minus tides that week (−0.4 ft and −1.04 ft) fall at 12:05am and 12:51am. Useless. Rosario Head on Thursday morning or it does not really happen.
ROSARIO BEACH, DECEPTION PASSPoint at the two islands from the bridge and tell them this
Ben Ure smuggled opium, booze and Chinese laborers through Deception Pass in the 1880s. His wife Lizzie sat on Strawberry Island with a signal fire: she sat behind the fire if customs boats were around, in front of it if the pass was clear.
The darker part — that he tied people into weighted sacks — is local lore, not documented, so tell it as legend. Ure was arrested repeatedly and served at least two years. Ben Ure Island and Strawberry Island are both visible from the bridge.
VISIBLE FROM THE DECEPTION PASS BRIDGEYou will be at the Maiden on her dedication anniversary
The 24-foot cedar story pole at Rosario Beach shows Ko-kwal-alwoot, the Samish woman who married the king of the sea creatures and chose to live underwater so her village would never go hungry. One face shows her on land; the other shows her with kelp for hair and scales on her skin.
It was dedicated on September 24, 1983 — the exact day you land.
ROSARIO BEACH · DEDICATED SEPT 24Where the kids can actually watch salmon, this exact week
Samish Hatchery on Friday Creek is the largest hatchery in northern Puget Sound, and fall chinook crowd the collection ponds from mid-September through October. Your window is dead centre in the run.
College and high-school fisheries students work the sorting ponds during exactly this stretch, so there is often live activity. Pomona Grange Park next door has a short loop trail and picnic tables.
FRIDAY CREEK, NEAR BURLINGTON · FREEA waterfall that has been lit up in colour since 1929
In 1929 Seattle City Light's superintendent got permission to light a waterfall. He built a trail, installed coloured lights, heated the grounds so he could grow orchids and tropical trees in the North Cascades, and piped in music on Friday nights for Seattleites who rode the train up for the evening.
It was a marketing stunt for electricity. City Light restored it with LEDs and relit it in 2011. It runs every night, dusk to midnight, free, on a short loop across a suspension bridge — the same walk as Trail of the Cedars.
LADDER CREEK FALLS, NEWHALEM · FREE, NIGHTLYThe Diablo Lake view that the crowd at the pullout never sees
Everyone stops at the Diablo Lake Overlook, takes the turquoise photo, and drives off. Thunder Knob is 3.4 miles round trip on gentle switchbacks to a knob above the lake, and it is rated the best kid-friendly trail in the whole Ross Lake area.
Trailhead at Colonial Creek Campground, milepost 130. No fee — North Cascades has no entrance fee at all.
COLONIAL CREEK CAMPGROUND, SR 20 MP 130The empty half of the busiest state park in Washington
Deception Pass is the most-visited state park in the state. Hoypus Point, just east of the bridge off Cornet Bay Road, is one of the last old-growth forests on Whidbey and is almost always empty.
There is a flat paved shoreline option that works for anyone, and the walk ends at the old ferry landing where a cement support still stands offshore — from the ferry run that the bridge put out of business in 1935.
CORNET BAY RD · DISCOVER PASSA town that existed only because of a log jam, ten minutes from the pumpkin farm
Skagit City was founded in 1869 and the only reason it existed was a giant log jam upriver that blocked all boat traffic — so every boat had to stop there. Churches, saloons, hotels, a post office.
They cleared the jam in 1877, Mount Vernon opened up, and the town died. All that is left is the Fir-Conway Lutheran Church and a few farmhouses. It is right off the Conway exit, minutes from Gordon Skagit Farms.
CONWAY EXIT, TOWARD LA CONNERA local who has not been out this year does not know this exists
Yudwasta Big Rock Park near Mount Vernon reopened at about 100 acres after work by the county, Skagit Land Trust and WTA — and was renamed with the Upper Skagit name Yudwasta, meaning "of the heart."
Half a mile, 350 feet, with stairs and one steep pitch. Interim parking off Mount Vernon–Big Lake Road; the permanent lot is not built until 2028.
MOUNT VERNON–BIG LAKE RDThe first park in US history co-owned by a tribe and a state
Kukutali Preserve on Kiket Island near La Conner — 83 acres, three islands, over two miles of natural shoreline. It is the first park in United States history jointly owned and managed by a federally recognised tribe and a state government, signed by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and Washington State Parks in 2010.
It was very nearly a nuclear power plant site. Open dawn to dusk.
KIKET ISLAND, NEAR LA CONNERWhat is actually happening under the bridge
At peak flow, two million cubic feet of water pour through Deception Pass every second — roughly eight times the average flow of the Columbia River.
Ebb currents exceed 8.5 knots. Standing waves reach eight to ten feet. And slack water, the only safe window to transit, lasts about twenty minutes. The current is "hydraulic" — caused by an actual difference in water level between the two ends of the pass.
SAY THIS WHILE STANDING ON THE BRIDGEThe least-visited great national park in America
North Cascades has more than 300 glaciers — more than any national park in the lower 48, more than Glacier and Yosemite combined.
It gets roughly 30,000 visitors a year. Comparable parks get four million. It is two and a half hours from Seattle and there is no entrance fee.
160 life-size people painted on the buildings downtown
Bill Mitchell painted over 150 life-size cutouts of real historic Anacortes residents and mounted them on buildings, starting in 1984. Mitchell was quadriplegic, paralysed as a teenager in a car crash, and a descendant of the town's pioneers.
There is a free phone map with a pin and a story for every single mural. Best free kid activity in the county.
DOWNTOWN ANACORTES · BILLMITCHELLMURALPROJECT.ORG · FREETwo things every guidebook still gets wrong
Cascadian Farm's roadside stand in Rockport has not opened since 2020. It is still listed as a must-stop in dozens of current-looking North Cascades itineraries. Do not drive there for organic berry ice cream.
And skip the bioluminescence. September 26 is a full harvest moon, and the glow needs a dark night. It runs roughly June to mid-September anyway. Anyone who promises it for this trip has not checked.
Salmon sold by the ounce, straight out of the smoker, on your Friday
SeaBear Smokehouse in Anacortes started in 1957 as a backyard smokehouse — the founders invented the shelf-stable salmon pouch. It is now a 44,000 square foot plant with a retail store.
They run "Fresh from the Smoker Fridays," sold by the ounce, straight off the smoker. Your Friday is the 25th.
605 30TH ST, ANACORTES · FRI 25Plan for the costs
Tick what your family would actually do. Set your own headcount. It adds up live and saves on your phone, so you can come back to it.
🧮Open the cost plannerBuild your own version of this trip and see the number⌄
Prices verified against operator sites on 4 September 2026. Flights, the rental car and food are estimates you can edit. Nothing here books anything.
For the planners
The boring, useful stuff. Open only if you want it.
🚗Which car should we rent?Model Y vs Pathfinder, and where to book⌄
Nissan Pathfinder
- 5.6 inches more shoulder room. Two boosters plus grandma fit without negotiating.
- Fold the third row day one: 45 cu ft on a flat square floor.
- Grandma steps in instead of dropping down into it.
- Gauges in front of the driver, normal brakes on a mountain road.
- Firm ride, and testing flags weak low-beams — relevant driving back from Diablo Lake at dusk.
Tesla Model Y
- 0–60 in 4.6–5.4 seconds. This part fully delivers.
- Flat rear floor, no transmission hump, genuinely helps the middle seat.
- 321–357 miles of range and charging is a non-issue.
- Two boosters eat ~36 of 54 inches, leaving grandma ~18 for 1h35m each way to Diablo Lake.
- No instrument cluster. Speed and range live on the center screen.
- Regen braking is a known carsickness trigger for passengers new to EVs, on roads exactly like SR 20.
Charging, confirmed for our stops
Charging is a non-issue. About 500 miles across five days on a 320+ mile battery, with two Superchargers in the town we're sleeping in. You'd stop twice all week.
Where to rent, ranked
All twelve companies share one building and one shuttle at SeaTac, so nobody is faster.
National
Highest score at SEA. The Emerald Aisle lets you walk the row and pick your own car — the only way to check the luggage and boosters actually fit.
You reserve a class, not a car. "Pathfinder or similar" is contractual. National's Emerald Aisle is the only mainstream way to actually choose.
🧾Costco or Enterprise direct?The honest answer, including what's a myth⌄
Book through Costco — but not for the reason everyone gives.
What it actually is
- Costco Travel is a booking channel, not the merchant. Enterprise holds the reservation, you pay Enterprise at the counter, and you get two confirmation numbers.
- Not a tier and not a coupon code. It's a negotiated rate plus Costco's coupon optimizer.
- The primary driver must be a Costco member and may be asked for the card at the counter.
- Gold Star vs Executive makes no difference to the rate. Executive earns 2% back on the pre-tax base, about $9 here.
The real downsides
- You can't modify a booking. Every change is cancel-and-rebook.
- No prepaid rates, which are sometimes meaningfully cheaper.
- Only four brands — Avis, Alamo, Budget, Enterprise. No Hertz, so Costco cannot book you a Tesla.
- No stacking with AAA, a corporate code, or an outside promo.
- Costco support is business hours only. Mid-rental you call Enterprise anyway.
Why it still wins
- Free cancellation, no prepay, unlimited re-booking. That's the real product. Book now, re-book every time the price drops. One traveler took a rental from $425 to $244 doing exactly this.
- Base rates typically run 0–25% under public.
- You give up almost nothing — no Enterprise status to protect, and their elite upgrade certificates cap at full-size so they'd never apply to a 3-row SUV.
🛫Getting out of SeaTacBudget two hours, don't eat at the airport⌄
- Every rental company is at one off-site facility a mile away. No faster counter.
- Shuttle leaves from the doors by carousel 1 or carousel 15, every 5–10 minutes, 8-minute ride.
- Budget 2 hours from wheels-down to driving. The terminal curb is under construction — add ten.
- Don't eat at the airport. Drive 8 minutes to Southcenter in Tukwila.
- Both drivers must be at the counter with their licenses.
📏Both kids need a boosterWashington goes by height, not age⌄
- Washington requires a booster until the child reaches 4 feet 9 inches. Height, not age.
- Most kids don't clear that until 10–12, so the 9-year-old almost certainly still needs one.
- Buy, don't rent. Two backless boosters at Target: ~$20–35 each. Renting two for five days: $120–140.
- Target Southcenter, 301 Strander Blvd, Tukwila — 8 minutes from the rental facility, on the way north.
- Measure for Boeing too. The factory tour has a hard 48-inch minimum, no exceptions, no carrying kids.
Most asked questions
The things everyone asks before a trip like this.
What should we wear?
- Highs near 66°F, lows near 51°F, 29% chance of rain any given day. Expect one or two wet ones.
- Cold mornings with valley fog that burns off around eleven. About a 20-degree swing between 8am and 2pm.
- Layers, not coats.
- A rain shell with a hood, not an umbrella. Nobody up there uses umbrellas and the rain comes in sideways.
- Waterproof shoes for both farms. Gordon's own policy warns the fields are dirt with deep tire ruts.
- Warm layer and a beanie for the boat and the bridge.
- A full change of clothes that lives in the car for the 6-year-old.
Where should we eat?
Breakfast
- Calico Cupboard, 121B Freeway Dr, Mount Vernon. From scratch, 40+ years, opens 7:30am.
Dinner in Mount Vernon
- Skagit River Brewery, 404 S 3rd St — the easy family win, open later than most.
- Il Granaio, 100 W Montgomery St — the nicer one, pasta is the safest bet for a 6-year-old.
- Pacioni's, 606 S 1st St — the pizza.
The one nobody should miss
- Snow Goose Produce, 15170 Fir Island Rd. 48 flavours and the menu calls the scoops immodest. Cash only for ice cream. Season ends October 1.
Closed, despite still being all over the internet
- Cascadian Farm Home Stand (2022), Buffalo Run in Marblemount, the Marblemount Diner, Deception Cafe & Grill.
What are we skipping, and why?
- The Tulip Festival. April through early May. The 2026 tulips ended May 3rd — on our dates the fields are bare dirt.
- Northwest Trek. Pitched as within 50 miles. It's 114 miles each way, a five to six hour round trip.
- Kayaking at La Conner. Both outfitters' websites are dead.
- The seaplane from Anacortes. Kenmore Air departs from Kenmore, north Seattle, 75 miles the wrong way, at $336 a person.
- The ferry to Friday Harbor. Reservations effectively mandatory, eats a full day, and missing the return strands you overnight.
Nothing here is booked. Votes and comments are shared with everyone who has this link.
