Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
4 La Conner & the Skagit Valley
70 miles N of Seattle, 10 miles E of Anacortes, 32 miles S of Bellingham
In a competition for quaintest town in Washington, La Conner would leave the
other contenders wallowing in the winter mud. This town, a former fishing vil-
lage, has a waterfront street lined with restored wooden commercial buildings,
back streets of Victorian homes, and acres of tulip and daffodil fields stretching
out from the town limits. Add to this three museums, numerous plant nurseries
and gardening-related stores, art galleries, luxurious inns, and good restaurants,
and you have a town almost too good to be true.
La Conner does, however, have a couple of shortcomings. In the springtime,
when the tulips blossom, the town and surrounding country roads are so
jammed with cars that it can make a Seattle rush-hour commute seem pleasant.
The other drawback is that La Conner is so close to the San Juans that it is hard
to justify spending more than a day here when the islands are calling. If, how-
ever, you have some free time in your schedule, this town should not be missed.
La Conner dates from a time when Puget Sound towns were connected by
water and not by road, and consequently, the town clings to the shore of
Swinomish Channel. The town reached a commercial peak around 1900 (when
steamers made the run to Seattle) and continued as an important grain- and log-
shipping port until the Great Depression. La Conner never recovered from the
hard times of the 1930s, and when the highways bypassed the town it became a
neglected backwater. The wooden false-fronted buildings built during the town's
heyday were spared the waves of progress that swept over the Northwest during
the latter half of the 20th century, and today these quaint old buildings give the
town its charm.
Beginning in the 1940s, La Conner's picturesque setting attracted several
artists and writers. By the 1970s, La Conner had become known as an artists'
community, and tourism began to revive the economy. The town's artistic legacy
eventually led to the building here of the Museum of Northwest Art, which is
dedicated to the region's many contemporary artists.
Adding still more color to this vibrant little town are the commercial flower
farms of the surrounding Skagit Valley. In the spring, tulips and daffodils carpet
the surrounding farmlands with great swaths of red, yellow, and white. These
flowers are grown to supply the fall bulb planting needs of gardeners across the
country, and heartbreaking as it sounds, the flowers are cut off in their prime to
channel more energy into the bulbs.
One more thing, although the name sounds as if it's a combination of Span-
ish and Irish, La Conner is actually named for Louisa A. (LA) Conner, who
helped found the town in the 1870s.
ESSENTIALS
GETTING THERE
From I-5, take U.S. 20 west toward Anacortes. La Con-
ner is south of U.S. 20 on La Conner-Whitney Road. Alternatively, take exit
221 off I-5 and head west on Fir Island Road to a left onto Chilberg Road,
which leads into La Conner.
The
Airporter Shuttle
(
&
866/235-5247
or 360/380-8800; www.airporter.
com) operates between Sea-Tac Airport and the Anacortes ferry terminal, stopping
at the Farmhouse Inn, which is at the junction of Wash. 20 and La Conner-
Whitney Road, north of La Conner ($30 one-way, $53 round-trip).
