-Monday July 2nd-
We love Bed & Breakfasts when we travel and try to make them account for at least 40% of our overnight stays. A lot of times they work out to be about the same cost as a nice hotel room.
One of the downsides to B & B’s is that you never know what you are going to get. I imagine it is a little like internet dating, it is pretty easy to enhance your perceived positives and downplay or outright omit your weaknesses. That said, we have only been really disappointed twice, once in Arkansas and once in New Mexico.
A big positive for almost everyone, but is very often another downside for us, is the breakfast. At these types of lodgings, breakfast is usually served late, a lot of times it won’t start until 9:00AM. We are early risers so as to jam as much fun as we can into each day of vacation (we can rest at work.) Plus breakfast is typically something fancy and very rich, not our usual bagel, grits or cold cereal repast. We always wished we could find a B & B without the second B, that way we could eat what we wanted and when we wanted and now that we also have to tack on Donna’s new dietary restrictions, finding that sort of place would be awesome. Enter the Juniper Lane Guest House in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.
On the internet it looks perfect, B & B style rooms, nice price, free WiFi, a casual common area, cool concept and with access to a full kitchen all day. The inn is far enough from the town, but not too far to be inconvenient for shopping or dining and the innkeeper is friendly, inviting and has a very laid back west-coast vibe. We managed to have both breakfasts and one lunch in the house’s kitchen.
The only negative about the Juniper Lane Guest House was because the summer weather on the island is such that it begs to have the windows in the room flung wide open, meaning you hear any traffic that passes by right out front on one of the island’s main north-south routes. And as it turns out, there is quite a bit of traffic on that road until late at night.
Move this building about 50 yards further off the road and it would probably be in the top 5 places we have ever stayed at.