[Jeff Higgins]

If you do decide to take the ferry up to Friday Harbor, make sure you get reservations. It does sell out, sometimes days in advance. Especially now, with folks fleeing the craziness that has become Seattle during the pandemic and the protests.

One that has not been mentioned yet is Vashon Island. It's kind of a quirky, quiet little island with lots of aging hippies. The ferry leaves out of West Seattle.

All of these ferry runs can get overwhelmed on weekends, with several hour waits in line to get on most of them. The only one that takes reservations is the San Juan ferry. So, if you want to head out to Kingston (not an island, but out on the Olympic Peninsula) from Edmonds (just north of Seattle), or out to Whidbey Island (from Mukilteo, a little further north of Seattle), it's best to leave very early in the morning.

From Vashon Island and Friday Harbor, you have to take a ferry to get back. From both Kingston and Whidbey Island, however, you can avoid the long ferry lines to get home by driving around. Both are beautiful drives.

If you go over to Kingston, another option to get back is to head north to Port Townshend, where you can catch a ferry to Whidbey Island. That's a pretty small boat and sometimes requires reservations as well. Once on Whidbey, you can head south to Clinton and catch the ferry back to the mainland in Mukilteo, or you can head north and go around, going over Deception Pass on the way back to the mainland.

Port Townshend is a cool little town. On Whidbey Island, Langley is a pretty cool little town as well. Fort Casey is very near where the Port Townshend ferry dock is on Whidbey Island, and well worth seeing.