At the end of this year’s summer break, we took a family road trip to the San Juan Islands near Seattle. If you have ever visited this part of the country, you probably already know how magical it is, but before I get ahead of myself, let me back up a little.
We were going to spend five nights on San Juan Island before splitting up: James and the girls would slowly make their way home, stopping to visit a friend along the way, while I headed to Europe for a family event and a little culinary vacation.
Our stop in Leavenworth
Since the drive from Bozeman to Anacortes, where we would board the ferry, is quite long, we decided to break it up with a stop in Leavenworth, Washington. Leavenworth happens to be about as German/Bavarian as you can get this side of the Atlantic Ocean, and it almost made me feel like home. (But only almost ;).
The girls thoroughly enjoyed the stop, especially the Christmas store, followed by dinner at Yodelin Broth Company and Beer Garden, where we had delicious food and the most beautiful views from the patio. After a quick breakfast the next morning, we got back on the road toward Anacortes, where we made a brief stop at the farmers market before hopping on the ferry.
Patio and view at Yodelin Broth Company and Beer Garden in Leavenworth.
Some items I prepped ahead of our trip.
Because we had decided to drive to the San Juan Islands so we could bring our bikes and have a little more flexibility once we arrived, we also were able to pack a big cooler full of food and groceries. While I always like to save at least one lunch or dinner to eat out and get a feel for the local food, eating out for every meal gets expensive. It’s one of the reasons we usually stay in vacation rentals with full kitchens.
But even I don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen on vacation. There are places to explore, games to play, bikes to ride, and plenty of time that I would rather spend outside. This is where a little food prep comes in really handy.
It saves time and money and – perhaps most importantly – means everyone can get fed without turning vacation into a cooking project. When I prep for a trip, I try to keep things pretty simple (yes, I realize my kinda simple is not everyone’s simple). I make some of our favorite staples ahead of time and then plan to supplement them with things I can pick up locally once we arrive. That way, I’m not bringing our entire kitchen with us, and the destination still gets to influence what we eat.
What I made ahead
- 2 loaves of sourdough bread + sourdough burger buns, frozen
- Apple snack cake + zucchini bread (because we have so many zucchinis right now!)
- Granola + our favorite GF crackers
- Chocolate raspberry chia bites + crepes
- Hummus + chia jam + pesto
- Nut butter + homemade Nutella
- Salad dressing + aioli
- Cookie dough
This might sound like a lot, but most of it was very quick to make. And because I could freeze things like the sourdough bread and buns, chia jam, pesto and hummus, I could spread the work out over several days rather than trying to do everything at once.
What else we packed
- Ground bison + bison steak + beef brats
- Chicken breakfast sausages + eggs + yogurt
- Zucchini + onions + kale + cauliflower + carrots
- Goat cheese + Pecorino
- Pecans + sunflower seeds
- Peaches + watermelon
- Brown rice spaghetti + chickpea shells
- Fresh herbs + lemons
- EVOO + salt + pepper + cumin + granulated garlic
- Maple syrup + goat milk for my coffee ;)
- Coffee + crushed tomatoes
- Crisp apple Olipops for the girls (because everyone deserves a fun little drink on vacation ;)
I also had a short list of things I planned to pick up at the farmers market in Anacortes or on San Juan Island: corn, potatoes, tomatoes, berries, local honey and bread from a local bakery.
The idea wasn’t to completely plan out every meal. It was to have enough good food on hand that putting together breakfast, lunch or dinner would be easy – and enough flexibility to let whatever we found along the way become part of the plan.
The view from the ferry heading toward San Juan Island.
My youngest loved finding crabs by the harbor during low tide.
Grilled corn, zucchini, peach and tomato salad on our first night on San Juan Island.
Breakfast crepes with sweetened coconut yogurt and freshly picked blackberries.
And then we arrived
On San Juan Island, we stayed in a beautiful little one-bedroom cabin at the picturesque Snug Harbor Resort, right on the edge of the Salish Sea. We arrived in the afternoon and spent our first evening exploring the harbor area, which our cabin looked right out onto. The girls searched for shells and little crabs while we spread out a blanket and played games.
Dinner came together almost without thinking: brats, a salad made with grilled corn and tomatoes from the market, zucchini from our garden and peaches I had brought along, plus roasted potatoes with James’ delicious aioli. We ate with the harbor right in front of us, with plenty of time left to enjoy this little slice of heaven we had just arrived in. And that, really, was exactly why I had done the prep work ahead of time.
The crepes were a huge hit with the girls the next morning. We filled them with lightly sweetened yogurt, homemade Nutella, pecans and fresh blackberries that James picked on his run. Later in the week, we found another beautiful patch of blackberries and made sure to pick enough for the rest of our stay – and enough to freeze and bring some home with us.
Breakfasts were otherwise simple: yogurt with granola and blackberries, watermelon, breakfast sausages and eggs. I also wanted to make sure the girls had the chance to visit the little coffee shop right next door for a morning treat or drink.
We spent the next day exploring the island and hoping to see our first orcas from Lime Kiln Point State Park. No such luck, but we still had fun watching river otters and seals and checking out the tide pools. We packed PB&Js, vegetables and hummus for lunch and spent the day exploring before coming back to the cabin for spaghetti with bison Bolognese, kale salad and garlic bread made with a delicious locally bought baguette. The extra Bolognese became lunch the following day with chickpea pasta.
Then came crabbing
Our first attempt at crabbing did not go particularly well. If you ever get the chance, ask James about accidentally chucking the bait basket into the ocean when a particularly crabby crab hung on to it;). Fortunately, we had bison burgers, grilled zucchini and corn, and roasted cauliflower as a backup.
That same day, we went whale watching, which was spectacular. I admit that I can get a little nervous on a boat out in the open ocean, so I strategically picked a vessel that was slightly larger – small enough to still feel intimate, but big enough to make me feel comfortable;). The captain and naturalists on board were incredibly thoughtful and knowledgeable. And while I have seen humpbacks before, seeing orcas in the wild was a first for me – and a lifelong dream.
The next day, we had more luck crabbing! One of the crabs we caught was the right gender and size to keep, and some kind new friends who were a little more seasoned in the crabbing department “donated” a couple of additional crabs to us.
And suddenly, we were ready for surf and turf. We cooked our crab and grilled a bison steak – the steak had originally been our backup plan in case we had no luck crabbing – and topped the steak with pesto. I made a big panzanella salad with sourdough, grilled zucchini, tomatoes, blackberries and goat cheese.
Kayaking near Snug Harbor.
We picked so many blackberries!
Panzanella with grilled zucchini, sourdough bread, tomatoes, blackberries, goat cheese.
On our way in search of tide pools.
And honestly, I can’t even remember the details of our dinner on the last night. Instead of going out, which we had originally planned to do one night, we ended up throwing together all of our leftovers.
The girls had loved being at our little harbor cabin, so we had dinner sitting on a blanket next to the water, played Scattergories and started reminiscing about the wonderful time we had already had. And I think that may have been my favorite meal of the whole trip.
Not because it was the most elaborate or the most memorable food we ate, but because it was exactly what I had hoped all that food prep would give us: more time to be together, explore, play, eat well and enjoy where we were.
That, to me, is the real beauty of prepping a little food before a trip. It doesn’t have to mean planning every meal or bringing everything from home. In fact, I think it’s better when you leave some room for the place you are visiting to become part of the menu.
Prepare a few things you know you’ll use. Pack a few versatile ingredients. Pick up some local produce when you arrive. And then let the meals come together from there.
Sometimes the best vacation meals are the ones you barely had to think about.
Orcas as seen from our whale watching boat.
In addition to being a creative and wonderful chef, you could be a food and travel writer.
This sounds as if it was a perfect trip. So well planned and, most importantly, fun!
Such great family time and so important for the girls to experience what is possible.
It sounds like it was a magical.
Thank you so much! It really was such a special trip and such wonderful family time – I love being able to share experiences like this with the girls and showing them some of the beautiful places around the country. And thank you so much for your sweet words about my writing – it means so much to know that my stories and recipes are being read and appreciated!
Briefly put (?), your written piece was a little bit of heaven! The preparation, planning, choices of food, photography, love of family & the simplicity of moments together, enjoyment of nature and of course, the marvelous “HEALTHY FOOD”. You make us feel like we all could do this. Thank you for the wonderful
article!
Thank you so much for taking the time to ready it and for your thoughtful words! I really enjoyed sharing some of what made the trip so special for us and yes, I really do think we can all do this – a little planning makes such a difference!
Thanks for sharing your tips. Blackberries are always such a fun summer treat in Washington!
Thank you! Picking blackberries was definitely one of the fun little treats of being on the island!