48 Hours in Coupeville, WA (Whidbey Island)

Last month, we took a family trip. Nothing but relaxation, family time, adventures in a small town and board game victories! We had agreed to take a long, well deserved, weekend out to Whidbey Island as Summer turned to Autumn. Whidbey is about an hour and a half just north of Seattle. It’s an actual island and you can take one of the ferries there. Not taking the ferry results in an additional hour drive but to cross Deceptions Pass bridge is worth it. We, for the sake of time, took the ferry.

If you’re visiting Seattle, I definitely recommend hopping on the ferry to one of the Islands. It doesn’t matter which one but the ferry experience is super fun and relaxing. It’s also very kid friendly. For those of you who have never been on a ferry before, you have two options: pay to drive your car onto it or simply walk aboard. There’s also a large food court that sells all of Seattle’s local coffee, bites and desserts.

Let’s get to the “to do list” shall we?

1) Find a quality Airbnb – We found an amazing house right on the water. There are a lot of really affordable options, that were either in the town or a short distance from it. We stayed within in Coupeville’s boundaries but when we went into town, we drove because there were so many of us.

2) Support Local – This little town has its own local Red Apple grocery store, which is locally owned, operated and catered toward the community it supports. The art gallery, Penn Cove Gallery, houses only art from local artists and is co-operated by each one of them. There’s a beautiful bakery on the waterfront called The Knead & Feed as well as the Vail Wine Shop that doubles as a tasting room. We were immediately welcomed and felt as if we were apart of the neighborhood!

3) Check the Events Calendar – The weekend we were in town, there was a kite festival! Though a quick drive away, it was absolutely adorable! A beautiful day for kite flying and meeting some of the people who run the town. There were tons of vendors, the local radio station and a parachute run and catch game for the kids (they put a stuffed animal on a kite and kids had to run after the kite to win). It was so much fun to watch them run after their flying teddies!

4) Crimes of Coupeville – There’s a joke within Washington State that nothing ever truly happens in Coupeville. There’s a podcast from our local country station about it and all of the police logs are in The Whidbey News-Times. It’s pretty entertaining.

5) Spot scene locations for the movie Practical Magic – The Knead & Feed was used as Sally’s (Sandra Bullock) Botanical Shop. If you walk along the waterfront, on Front Street, that’s where the farmer’s market in the film was shot, as well as the infamous Coupeville Wharf. You might even be able to see some whales, depending on the time of the year. The old Victorian homes is the reason the town was picked to shoot the film.

6) Explore the Island – We ended up taking the ferry over from Seattle, as mentioned above, but on the way home we all decided to take the long way home and stop into Oak Harbor for brunch before truly heading off the island. What a beautiful drive! There’s a little glimpse of heaven out on those islands. Can’t recommend doing this enough. I highly recommend checking out the shops in the historic district of Oak Harbor. They had wonderful antiques and a pretty good coffee shop!

7) Water Sports – We weren’t able to do this but I’m putting this on my list because it would have topped the cake for our weekend, if we had had the opportunity. You can easily rent kayaks, stand up paddle boards and seafood catching (not really a sport but easy to rent!). There were so many places to catch shell fish, etc. My dad was fascinated by how many shells covered the shores.

That’s it, friends! A nice, easy, fun and relaxing weekend in Whidbey Island. I can’t recommend enough and I’ll definitely be bad for a breezy weekend.

For outfit details, check out my post: Coupeville, WA & Original Hunter Boots