I only recently realized the word “staycation” is actually in the dictionary, defined as “a vacation spent in one’s home country rather than abroad, or one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions.”
I don’t know if a two-and-half-hour excursion on a watercraft counts as a staycation, but the time my date and I spent aboard San Juan Cruises’ Salish Express boat last Friday night made me feel as if I was a tourist in my own backyard. It was a neat trick, as it only took about 15 minutes to drive from home to the company’s headquarters at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal.
First, we made sure we were boarding the correct vessel for the Chuckanut Cracked Crab Dinner Cruise, offered at 6 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. A similar outing was taking place aboard the Victoria Star, and some of the passengers waiting in line with us realized they were supposed to be on that boat, instead.
After checking that our names were indeed on her list, Captain Cassidy welcomed us aboard. Because the 30 or so passengers who’d procured seats were basically overflow from the bigger boat, we had our choice of seating both in the dining area and also on the upper deck.
Even though the dining room featured large windows with jaw-dropping views in all directions, we dropped off our sweaters and water bottles at a large table already set with silverware, claw-crackers and a plastic bowl for our crab remnants, purchased a round of refreshing rum and ginger ale cocktails (on special for $5.50) and headed outside. It was shortly after 6 p.m., so the sun was still shining and the water was illuminated with light. A briny breeze blew as we motored farther out into the bay, past forested shores on Eliza Island and the coastline of Lummi Island.
“Can you believe we live here?” I pondered, not really needing an answer.
After about 20 minutes of soaking up the sights, Captain Cassidy’s voice came over a loudspeaker to let us know dinner was ready, and to come on down.
Served buffet-style, the menu items consisted of Dungeness crab, Tuscan herb chicken, broccoli salad, rice pilaf and freshly baked bread. We were asked to wait until our individual tables were called to get our grub, and to only take a half of a crab on the first go-round to ensure everybody got their fair share.
It had been a while since I had Dungeness, but I’ve eaten so much of it my lifetime that the claw-cracking and extrication of the meat came naturally. And although it wasn’t quite as savory as the fresh-off-the-beach, still-warm crab I’m used to consuming at the porch table at my family’s cabin on Lummi Island, it was well-seasoned and tasty — and yes, I went back for another half when we got the go-ahead. My date also extolled the flavors of the Tuscan chicken, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much of a zing the broccoli salad had.
Throughout the meal, the two bartenders/deckhands/cooks assisting Captain Cassidy kept things moving by pouring drinks, emptying crab shell bowls and restocking menu items. They also brought hot towels for us to wipe our messy “crab hands” with, and after dinner was over and most of the guests had gone back to the deck to take pictures and digest their meals, brought still-warm cranberry crisp topped with whipped cream directly to us.
By that time, Captain Cassidy had slowed the boat down, and as we lazily cruised along Chuckanut Bay, my date regaled me with stories of the time he’d spent building trails at locales such as Teddy Bear Cove, a part of Chuckanut Mountain Park we passed where it’s possible to spot sea critters, sandstone formations and the occasional nude sunbather. He also pointed out where Chuckanut Drive was in relation to where we were and drew my attention to the Amtrak train passing by.
As the waxing moon peeked above Mount Baker, we observed eagles in flight, windsurfers moving swiftly through the currents, the Schooner Zodiac ferrying its own passengers through the bay, and beachgoers waving from shore.
I’ve been on similar tours before, but it’s been a while since I was on the open waters of Bellingham Bay, and it made me want to immediately book another staycation. Choices abound in the summer: In addition to San Juan Cruises’ crab dinner events, they offer whale-watching cruises, day trips to Friday Harbor and Sucia Island, brewers and wine-tasting cruises, and bird-watching events.
At $69 per person for the crab cruise, I considered it a deal. We got to soak up the natural beauty of the place we live, sit down to a delicious dinner and dessert, then arrive back home around sunset with full bellies and even fuller hearts.
To find out more about San Juan Cruises’ summer offerings, go to whales.com.
