After our colorful morning admiring all the pretty tulips, Lori and I head over to the small town of La Conner. As a kid, Lori would often spend summers up here with her friends and family, playing on the beach. She has great memories and enjoys showing me around.

There are two major streets in La Conner – the main one you drive in on with the slightly newer businesses, and the more historic one running parallel to the river. This is where we find ourselves.

The bridge in the photo below is called the Rainbow Bridge. It leads to the Swinomish tribal reservation, where Lori’s parents would get a cabin in the summers. Lori calls it the Golden Bridge, which frankly, makes more sense to me.

There are several little pubs and seafood restaurants along the river that all look to have great food. Neither one of us is very hungry though, so we skip them in favor of coffee and pastries at the Calico Cupboard Cafe. It has an hour wait time to be seated and a line out the door for coffee – if that tells you anything about how good it is.

We wander through some shops and I purchase a jar of jalapeño stuffed olives to enjoy later, then hop back in the car to drive across the bridge. Lori tries to find where she stayed as a kid, but can’t quite remember where it is. We end up on the beach and soak in the salty air.

On a nice summer day, this would be a fun beach to spend a day on, but today is cloudy and cool, so we don’t stay long. Soon we’re back on the road, but we can’t head home just yet! First we need to stop at the farmer’s market to buy some flowers.

We each buy 4 pots of brightly colored tulips. I can’t wait to get home and get them planted. They’ll add a much need pop of color to my yard.

If you find yourself in this area, either for the tulip festival or something else, La Conner is a cute little town to stop and grab lunch in, maybe wander the shops or even find a beach to hang out on for the afternoon.