Jan 3 2019

Thursday, Januaray 3, 2019

MAKE AN AIRBNB RESERVATION — Page 2

YOU’RE NEVER TOO OLD TO STAY IN A TREEHOUSE — Page 6

TOKELAND HOTEL AND OYSTERFEST BECKONS — Page 4

TAKE A PICTURESQUE FERRY RIDE TO VICTORIA, B.C. — Page 8

IT’S TIME TO GET OUT OF DODGE AFTER ALL THE HOLIDAY STRESS THE GET-AWAY-FROM-IT-ALL ISSUE

2 • LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, January 3, 2019

Exploring the Puget Sound Region’s Unusual Airbnbs

Airbnbs: Myriad Tiny Houses, Historical Exposed-Brick Apartments, Twee Victorians and a Hobbit-Hole Replica

By Tantri Wija

SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLE TIMES

Airbnb began as a service for thrifty travelers seeking couches to crash on, but the company has evolved.

What was once just a way to make extra cash off backpackers has become the go-to site for the truly bespoke vacation. A Hilton in Seattle feels more or less like a Hilton in Texas or a Hilton in New York, but a truly world-class Airbnb has the authenticity of the familial, the tang of terroir. After all, you’re renting an experience that someone — a local — wanted to badly enough to build it for themselves.

And the Northwest, where something vomit-inducingly char ming is always a stone’s throw away, is chock-full of Airbnbs that fall under the “so cute you want to squeeze

it to death” category. Myriad tiny houses, historical exposed-brick apartments, twee Victorians and even a hobbit-hole replica are sprinkled across the Puget Sound area.

Home on the Water

Of course, Seattle is all about the water, winking at you from every angle. A houseboat is the quintessential “Sleepless in Seattle” experience, with the waves rocking you to sleep, the scent of saltwater and wet wood in your nose and the odd gull or duck to greet you in the morning. With the novelty of scaled-down furniture and cozy corners, staying in a houseboat feels like living in a tiny home. The Knot Home, found on Airbnb’s kicked-up-a-notch site Airbnb Plus, has all those features in clean modern lines and blond wood, like a houseboat made by Swedes, with two decks, a fireplace heater, a hammock and a full bathroom — even a washer and dryer somehow squirreled away inside.

Your host on the Knot Home is Michaelle Wetteland, a retiree and fellow houseboat resident

Sean O’Connell

The treehouse is reached by a bridge suspended from the forested side — it actually slopes down toward the door.

whose current full-time gig is hosting three nautically focused Airbnbs.

Wetteland manages the Knot Home, a sailboat and what she describes as a “yacht home,” all of them listed on Airbnb. The Knot Home sits docked on Lake Union behind the China Harbor restaurant. The houseboat and yacht home stay where they float, but if you rent the sailboat, you can pay the owners to take you sailing on the lake for $50 a head.

“It’s really kind of magical … when people ask me how I live, I say I live on a houseboat. It’s the whole ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ thing,” said Wetteland. “You feel privileged to actually have made it to a houseboat.”

A Floating Cabin

Airbnb.com

The main room of a cottage on the Sol Duc River. The property has two cabins and enough room for 10 guests for $800 per night.

water, where ferries, ships and even the occasional orca can be spotted. And you don’t have to climb anything; the tree house is reached by a bridge suspended from the forested side — it actually slopes down toward the door. “It’s got to be the only tree house on the planet you walk down to get into,” said Sean.

The tree house was originally meant to be a writing studio for Bob, but presumably he’s back to writing in the house, because a place this Wes Anderson-adorable stays pretty booked during the warmer months.

And while it can sleep up to four, it’s popular with couples. “It seems like a majority of the people are here for a wedding anniversary, a proposal, honeymoons and birthdays,” added Sean.

And yes, somehow this flying cabin has a real bathroom, with a flush toilet, hot water and an outdoor shower rigged onto the forest-facing side.

“There’s a curtain you draw around to protect you from people, but it’s facing the forest,” said Sean.

“There’s an owl that likes to come sit on a near tree.”

“I just think he’s a peeper myself,” added Bob, which is cute, unless

But if water isn’t your thing, there’s always the woods, deep, dark and lushly unsettling, where you can go “Twin Peaks”-meets-“Twilight” and get a cabin — or better yet, a tree house cabin. Built on a dramatic slope, Sean and Bob O’Connell’s floating fairy house on Lopez Island looks like something Ewoks would live in, suspended (solidly) between two living Douglas firs that stick up out of the front and rear decks, one facing the forest and the other out to the SEE PAGE 3.....................................

LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, January 3, 2019 • 3

FROM PAGE 2. . ........................... you’ve actually watched “Twin Peaks” and are unsettled by the thought of owls spying on you.

Fire Up the Finnish Spa

If You Want to Airbnb:

Go to airbnb.com, type in a city or area, hit “show map” at top right of screen and start searching. A quick search of “Centralia” comes up with 26 options. Want a room on the Pacific Coast? Type in Washington state, click on the map, drag it over to the coast and analyze where you want to stay.

For $800 a night, you can get two log cabins on the Sol Duc River with room for 10 guests, including a mancave. For the more budget-friendly outing, $50 a night will get you a rainforest cabin on eight acres near Lake Crescent with room for four guests. Need to get away? Airbnb to start your new year right.

In the dead of winter in Western Washington, you can find yourself soaked in frigid rain, and you just want to get warm. You can do this at Jeffrey Frechette’s Airbnb in Greenwood, featuring an authentic Finnish spa that Frechette built with his own two calloused hands.

“There was a space back there that was part of a wood shop of the ritual of taking a classic Finnish mine,” he said. “I was a design-build sauna. It might be the only woodcontractor for a while, and I had fired sauna potentially in the city, a lot of scrap pieces of wood, so I and the only one I know of that you conceived of this wood-fired Finnish can experience privately.”

The house (and the sauna) fits sauna. I had an experience in a wood-fired sauna up on Orcas Island up to six, so you can come to the Airbnb for a romantic retreat or, as and was just blown away.”

The Airbnb is a courtyard house Frechette said happens often, a girls attached to the main dwelling night out or bachelor party. Once in (where Frechette resides), but the a while, Frechette even gets to use backyard, with the sauna and a salt- it himself. “We were able to use it the other day for water hot tub, the first time in are booked for maybe a year,” guests’ exclusive he said, laughuse. ing. “Because “It’s definitely it’s so booked. I considered to guess that’s one be the authenof the drawtic sauna,” said backs.”

Frechette. “I stock it with Tantri Wija: apple wood, the.twija@gmail. which burns hot. Starting the Airbnb.com com. Tantri Wija is a Seattlefire and stoking This rustic cabin getaway gets is in the based freelance the fire is really rainforest near Crescent Lake. It’s yours for writer. the first step in $50 per night.

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A houseboat Airbnb like the Knot Home is the quintessential “Sleepless in Seattle” experience.

4 • LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, January 3, 2019

The Tokeland Hotel What Happens When an Excellent Seattle Chef Takes Over Washington State’s Oldest Lodgings?

By Bethany Jean Clement

SEATTLE TIMES FOOD WRITER

The Wandering Goose is about the size of a shoe box. Open on Seattle’s Capitol Hill since 2012, it’s often crammed with a line of patrons waiting for chef Heather Earnhardt’s superlative savory dishes built around big, fluffy, buttery biscuits, or pieces of her best-ever, foot-high layer cake.

Earnhardt’s from North Carolina, and her Southern cooking gives Edouardo Jordan’s a run for its money, while her old-fashioned hospitality and style shine through even in the Goose’s confines. It’s difficult to be cranky waiting for her excellent food in a space that always feels sunny — regardless of the weather — and one of the squeezed-in tables always seems to become available just in time.

The Tokeland Hotel opened in 1885 on a little peninsula poking into Willapa Bay. It’s Washington state’s oldest hotel, a creaky beauty with 18 rooms and a restaurant that seats 60. In April, Earnhardt and her husband, Zac Young, took over. The Wandering Goose is still wandering (Earnhardt checks in on it regularly), but she and Young and their kids now reside on the third floor of the hotel. Their new life is ready-made for a kids’ book — complete with three little pet pigs, bunnies, kittens, a white dog named Gus and, supposedly, a ghost or two.

On the second floor, the guest rooms flank a long, dim hallway paneled with rough-hewn wood. Each one is all charm, with high-up beadboard ceilings, antique dressers topped with vases of lavender from Willapa Valley Lavender Farm, white matelassé quilts and rag rugs. One has a wall of blossoming branches

hand-painted faintly by Seattle artist Michaele Miller; our room had broad cream-and-butter-colored stripes above blond wainscoting. It might sound overdone, doily-riddledbed-and-breakfast-style, but it’s not.

Earnhardt’s taste was made for this place, and each room is gracefully outfitted in a way that feels inevitable.

There are earplugs in your room for a reason — the soundproofing here is circa 1885, meaning nonexistent.

(We awoke to the distant, homey clatter of dishes, and our end of the hall had a vague smell of good stuff frying.) The bathrooms are shared.

Do you mind if two orange-striped kittens run into your room, looking to be petted? Be warned — this could Bethany Jean Clement / The Seattle Times befall you at the Tokeland Hotel. The dark-wood-stained, scuffed-wood-floored Tokeland Hotel’s restaurant is now home to a full Rooms cost $89 to $125 a night. menu from chef Heather Earnhardt, Wednesdays through Sundays.

The place feels like an old-fashioned boardinghouse — like when floored Tokeland Hotel’s restaurant them cascade onto your burnishedyou’re here, you are, actually, fam- is now home, Wednesdays through brown rosemary home fries (perfect ily. In the spacious lobby, people Sundays, to a full Earnhardt menu. one day, especially the deepestlounge on overstuffed couches It’s “Big Food Big Love,” as the title of colored ones, maybe a little too salty made cozy with fuzzy draped sheep- her 2016 cookbook puts it — includ- the next).

But the Tokeland’s Hangtown fry, skins, while the soundtrack runs to ing her famous fried chicken at Hank Williams or Billie Holiday. An breakfast, lunch and dinner. As befits a fluffy frittata crowned with four historical Pacific oysters, also makes a very strong adjoining room Northwest coast- case for itself. And then there’s crab has a roaring fire, The Tokeland Hotel al lodging — and Benedict, classic and lovely with watchful taxi& Restaurant: as Earnhardt and lighter-side hollandaise mingling with dermy, arrangeThe Tokeland Hotel & Restaurant: Young befriend extra-bright egg yolk, running over ments of pheasAddress: 2964 Kindred Ave., Tokeland, local, indepen- generous troves of crab. Overheard: ant feathers on Washington Phone/email: 360-267-7006, d e n t s o u r c e s a server (all wonderful, even when the wall and two info@tokelandhotel.com — there are oys- busy) asking a customer, “How’s your live parakeets Website: tokelandhotel.com ters, Dungeness grandpa?” The occupants at anothin a little woodHotel: $89 to $125 a night, pet fee $25 crab and more, er table asked if the Larry & Mary, Restaurant: Wednesday through Sunday en palace of a 8 a.m. – 8 p.m.; breakfast and lunch fresh from right a plate of fried-chicken-and-biscuit cage. Work on $8.95 to $16.95; dinner starters $5 to $15, around the bay. greatness, was named after real the jigsaw puzzle entrees $13 to $16 Dual mottoes are people. “Some of our favorite ones!” here, and a local may have a seat and regale you carved across shelves at either end came the reply.

At suppertime, hot crab-andwith the Tokeland Hotel’s ghost sto- of the room: “He lives long who lives ries: a little boy lost in the nearby well” and “He that argues with a fool cheddar dip defies any Dungeness bog, a man from China fleeing slave is surely a fool” (with the F’s in the lat- purist’s complaint that such treatment is overkill — rich and spicy, labor who died hiding next to the ter easy to mistake for T’s).

For brunch, it’s hard to beat the it’s spooned in bigger-the-betfireplace in this very room, a creepy caretaker (aren’t they all?), a haunt- B.O.L.T., a ridiculously tall bacon, ter globs onto buttery little toasts. ed cat (ditto). More lore: Stephen lettuce, tomato and breaded-and- The Tokeland’s wild-caught prawn King once stayed here. (So, less fried oyster sandwich on Texas toast, cocktail is just gorgeous, the cockspookily, did Robert Plant; photos at with remoulade for creaminess and tail sauce head-clearingly horseradpepper jelly for a sweet-and-spicy ished. Thick chowder is made with the front desk prove it.)

On the other side of the lobby, the hel-LO. Oyster and tomato juices run dark-wood-stained, scuffed-wood- out the bottom while you eat — let SEE PAGE 5.....................................

LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, January 3, 2019 • 5

FROM PAGE 4............................

list offers smart greatest hits — like sparkling from Treveri, Albariño from Benton’s bacon and delicate razor Maryhill, L’Ecole No. 41 syrah — while clams harvested by the Quinault beers include something for everyone, from Deschutes Black Butte Indian Nation.

If you’re only here for two dinners Porter to Coors Light. And in one of (or, worse, one), choosing entrees his many roles, Zac Young makes presents a quandary: Earnhardt’s cocktails.

If you keep an eye out for the next incredible buttermilk fried chicken?

Or fried seafood outfitted in crisp, razor-clam-dig dates, the Tokeland thin cornmeal coating, served with Hotel makes a fine headquarters, light, tender hush puppies and toma- and Young will happily help orient toey red coleslaw? (They’ll make you. On a sunny November day, we you a combo of oysters, shrimp rode the hotel’s two beach cruisand catfish if you ask.) Shrimp and ers around the coastal hamlet of Booneville grits tastes luxurious and Tokeland and to the gas station at smoky, laced with shallots, bacon the crossroads to get our clamming and mushrooms. Earnhardt had to licenses. That mercifully not-raining night, we drove keep the house to a moonlit specialty, pot Upcoming Events beach and got roast with cranHINT: Oysterfest Next Weekend: our limits, which berry sauce, and Oysterfest, Jan. 12-14; Pies & Pipes the hotel kept in longtime fans (Scottish meat pies, bagpipes and the walk-in for us. say they like hers, scotch), Jan. 26; I [heart] CRAB, Feb. We took a very made with local 14-16; Tokeland Irish Festival, March 17; Tokefest, April 20: Tokeland Art squishy, galoshberries, even betStudio Tour & Auction, May 4; Tokeland es-required walk ter. (The previous Crawfish Festival, May 25; Tokeland through the owner bought Barbecue Cook-Off, June 1; A Salute marsh that used precooked pot to Women, June 14-16; 38th Annual to be a golf roast, someOld-Fashioned Fourth of July Parade & course, scaring a thing Earnhardt Picnic, July 6. heron, sighting a says she never knew existed in all her 35 years in the deer and finding some old golf balls. restaurant industry, looking a little Summer pursuits, given the evidence in a crate in a hallway, include badaghast.)

Even the green salad is gorgeous, minton and croquet. And someglossily dressed with apple-butter time in the not-too-distant future, vinaigrette, strewn with candied Earnhardt and Young will transform pecans and pickled red onions, a the old golf-course clubhouse a medallion of goat cheese on top. stone’s throw from the Tokeland into Portions are so big, we never made a tavern. For now, nightlife at the it to dessert, something to kick one- Tokeland Hotel might involve readself for given Earnhardt’s prodigious ing, staring into the fire and going to baking skills. A short Washington wine bed early.

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6 • LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, January 3, 2019

Tantri Wija / Special to The Seattle Times

Pete Nelson, America’s foremost tree-house builder, at TreeHouse Point.

Treehouse Hunters America’s Foremost Treehouse Builder Lives Right Here in Washington

(2013-18), in which he and a team of carpenters created bespoke arboreal playhouses all over the country (and even the world).

But the Nelson family home base is here in the Pacific Northwest, where

By Tantri Wija SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLE TIMES the trees are at their most magnificent. TreeHouse Point, as the Nelson Pete Nelson is a tree hugger. property is called, is like something I mean this literally — within out of Tolkien — all towering Douglas 10 minutes of joining Nelson at his fir, Sitka spruce and maples with property in Fall City (less than two their twisted, tentacle-like branches hours north from Centralia), I saw covered in a thick coat of emeraldhim actually hug a tree, a massive green moss, otherworldly and divineDouglas fir he embraced like a fam- ly fecund. ily member.

The Raging It seemed River (yes, approprithat’s its real ate for a name) winds guy somea r o u n d times called TreeHouse “The Tree P o i n t ’ s W h i s p e r e r. ” 4-acre lot, Nelson is and while America’s you know foremost the road is treehouse only a few b u i l d e r, feet away, owner of you still feel N e l s o n like you’ve Treehouse stepped into and host of a wonderthe Animal l and, the Tantri Wija / Special to The Seattle Times Planet show TreeHouse Point, as the Nelson property is called, is like stuff of fairy “ T r e e h o u s e something out of Tolkien — all towering Douglas fir, tales that M a s t e r s ” Sitka spruce and maples. make you

If You Want to Book a Treehouse Vacation:

treehousepoint.com

Pete Nelson

Upper pond at TreeHouse Point

cuddle up a little closer after dark.

Which is, really, what you’re supposed to do at TreeHouse Point, where guests stay in tiny structures built for romance. Most have one queen bed and a hygge factor of 11 out of 10 and a no-children policy, adding to the peace and quiet. (One treehouse has a pair of twin beds on either side of the main queen bed, perhaps for a passel of bridesmaids; Treehouse Point is a popular spot for weddings.) Nelson’s buildings are set up like tiny houses — some even include private composting toilets. The rest of the facilities, including showers, are located in a spa-like bathhouse at the base of the trees.

What does Nelson look for in a tree (or set of trees)? “The best scenario is four trees in the corners, so you

can put your beams across, connecting trees,” he says. “You need two beams typically. If you have that going for you, you put the joists on top of that, and then the floor, and then you’re off to the races.”

Nelson built his first treehouse as a kid, and never quite got over it. He attempted to grow out of it, first by studying economics, then becoming a builder, crafting single-family homes in Seattle. But ultimately (and with support from his wife, Judy, and their three kids) he followed his bliss.

With a team of carpenters and some forgiving initial bank loans (it was the early ’00s, after all), Nelson turned a hobby into a (minimalist) empire.

“I loved the scale of treehouses,” said Nelson. “I loved the feeling I

SEE PAGE 7.....................................

LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, January 3, 2019 • 7

FROM PAGE 6. . ........................... got when I was thinking about and drawing treehouses, and I said to myself, ‘If I can figure out a way to make a living doing that, all is good.’”

On TreeHouse Point’s website (treehousepoint.com), you can inquire about staying at the property or even ordering yourself a treehouse.

Because after you stay in one, you might want one. After all, most of Nelson’s treehouses are essentially playhouses for grown-ups. He’s built a “secret lair” complete with stairs hidden behind a bookcase and a “dungeon” squirreled away into an elevated platfor m. He’s currently at work on a 1,000-plus squarefoot treehouse version of Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon, cockpit included.

Some owners do live in their treehouses full time, though, and if you want a kitchen, bathroom and even laundry in the trees, Nelson can accommodate you.

But it won’t come cheap.

Your childhood treehouse was probably a bunch of precariously suspended two-by-fours that gave your mother the vapors, but the ones Nelson builds can be full-time homes. They’re solid structures, jewellike and joined together with oldworld carpentry in a style that looks like it’s been there forever and might be there forever more — but with glass windows, heaters and foam insulation in the roof and under the floor.

Out-of-state costs average around $300,000 for a structure; it’s slightly less for locals.

“I love being able to go to the wood part of things instead of getting an excavator, ripping up the earth, pouring concrete and putting in rebar. It’s painful,” said Nelson.

“This is what it’s all about, getting back into the woods and recognizing what a beautiful place we live in, if I can do it with little simple respectful structures supported by these trees.”

The houses at TreeHouse Point are even being fitted with fire alarms

and railings to confor m to King County code — a building code, by the way, that had to be amended just for Nelson, since “tree houses” were not formerly part of the state’s regular routine. All the houses are also equipped with stairs and railings or suspension bridges instead of ladders. There are currently six treehouses on the property, and Nelson is about to begin construction of a seventh, which will be wheelchairaccessible.

“Trying to make money building treehouses is the hard part,” Nelson says of his business. “Like any builder, you build treehouses, and hope you make your margin and pay your bills.

Treehouses in this model continue to give over time. The hospitality side of things is really fun for us because we get to hold on to them.”

Or as Nelson did — literally wrap your arms around them and give them an affectionate squeeze.

Tantri Wija: the.twija@gmail. com. Tantri Wija is a Seattle-based freelance writer.

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8 • LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, January 3, 2019

M.V. Coho

The car ferry M.V. Coho crosses the Straits of Juan de Fuca between Port Angeles and Victoria daily.

Need a Getaway After the Hectic Holidays?

Travel Like a Queen and Hop a Boat to Victoria for High Tea, Cozy Reading Spots, Chocolate and Festive Booze

By Crystal Paul

SEATTLE TIMES TRAVEL AND OUTDOORS REPORTER

When I made the trip to Victoria, I landed at the Chocolat Chocolatiere, where customers and chocolatiers whispered conspiratorially about cozy winter days curled up with a mug of hot chocolate.

Before I knew it, I too was lulled into this non-holiday vibe. I embraced it with gusto and soon found myself on a quest for coziness. Comfy sweater clad, I hunted down every cushy chair, fireplace, hot beverage and peaceful shop.

I am now a firm believer in the kind of seasonal trip that gets you away from the holidays. Victoria is a great place for this kind of journey — you’ll enjoy seasonal warm fuzzies without turning into a grinch. Here’s how.

Pack for ultimate coziness — but leave the rest of the planning to someone else Armed with several oversize sweat-

Seattle Times archives

The Fairmont Empress has been serving afternoon tea for over 100 years.

named for Queen Victoria (there’s even a bronze statue of her standing tall and no-nonsense outside the imposing British Columbia Parliament Buildings), I really had no choice but to have afternoon tea at the famed Fairmont Empress.

Tea at the Empress is enchanting, especially if you have the privilege — as I did — of sitting across from a little girl in a tiara and puffy pink dress who was celebrating her birthday with a tea party. The tiny sandwiches and pastries are little works of art, and the grand tearoom architecture gives you plenty to feast your eyes upon as you enjoy your miniature feast.

I enjoyed my tea in a tall, regal chair right next to a pianist, which might’ve felt more Victorian if the piano player hadn’t been playing Elton John covers (although it did take the edge off being in such a stately room in such a historical building, which might otherwise leave you feeling like a barbarian should you drop your teaspoon too loudly).

The Empress’ afternoon tea service will set you back $60 per person. But never fear: Afternoon tea is (Tea) Party Like a Queen at the hardly an anomaly in Victoria and Fairmont Empress there are plenty of cheaper options.

Because it’s Victoria, a city literally For a spot with less regal pricing that ers and the stack of books from my nightstand, I set out on a smooth, vista-filled journey across the Strait of Juan de Fuca aboard the Victoria Clipper.

It’s only about a three-hour journey from Seattle aboard the Clipper, and Clipper Vacations lets you book a ferry ticket, a hotel and any number of activities in Victoria in just a few clicks.

My Clipper Vacation would take me to the Inn at Laurel Point, usually just a four-minute harborside walk from where the Clipper docks. But the Inn is undergoing renovations until spring 2019, which means the scenic path to the hotel is blocked — and the rates are cheaper.

I managed to get a harbor view, and the room came with robes and leather chairs (and, as if to stoke conflict, only one foot rest). The ice bucket and glasses on the coffee table basically begged for a quiet bathrobed night in reading, sipping whiskey and taking in the view. But it was still early.

You can also take the ferry out of Port Angeles (see info box).

still ranks high on comfort and beauty, try the Pendray Inn or the Teahouse at Abkhazi Garden.

Explore All Three Floors of Used Books at Russell Books

Russell Books is a booklover’s paradise. With three stories of floor-toceiling books — including a basement level dedicated to antiquarian books and fancy old hardcovers — it’s a place where you can get happily lost. (And wandering the three floors is a decent way to burn some energy after all those mini tarts and tiny cucumber sandwiches.)

Sip Hot Chocolate at Chocolat Chocolatiere

Once you’ve got a bunch of new (to you) books, head across the street to a place that has chocolate in its name twice. It’s not a difficult equation. You + books + cup of spicy chilisteeped hot chocolate = joy.

It’s Time for a Cocktail

Victoria may conjure up images from a Jane Austen novel, but that

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LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, January 3, 2019 • 9

FROM PAGE 8. . ...........................

ed spot — Jam, Blue Fox Cafe, Floyd’s Diner — I found lines longer than doesn’t mean your getaway has to my hunger would abide, so I took a be all tea and crumpets. Coziness can chance on the more austere, sparsely also come in the form of a cocktail. populated digs at Zambri’s.

At Bard & Banker, warm lights feel It was the right call. I was rewarded festive. Throw in an oversize wool with breakfast spaghetti! Technically, sweater and a hot cocktail and uovo fritto con spaghetti aglio olio escape from the recent Christmas and peperoncino, but I mean … spaghetti New Year’s Eve social gatherings (you for breakfast is a win no matter what don’t have to make awkward social language. conversation with tipsy colleagues).

I continued the trend of genius Six drinks make up the hot cocktail decisions with a stop at Roger’s menu at Bard & Banker. The Blueberry Chocolates. Munching on chocolateTea pairs amaretto and Grand Marnier covered almonds, I made my way to with hot tea and Nourish Kitchen two cinnamon & Cafe to laze sticks for a cockaway the day tail that tastes in the heritage delightfully (if house-turnedunexpectedly) restaurant/cafe. more like a cinNourish realnamon candied ly does make orange than you feel at anything to do home the minute you walk with blueberries. in. Breakfast, When I spotted a glass of brunch and dinsomething bright Crystal Paul / The Seattle Times ner are served purple pass by Spaghetti for breakfast: uovo fritto con spaghetti in the main-floor dining room, on a tray, I put in aglio olio peperoncino at Zambri’s. and there’s my order for the Poetic Justice, a citrusy mix of Empress counter service for lighter fare like gin, elderflower liqueur, lemon juice pastries, coffee and bone broth.

The rooms on the second floor and sugar. It was so pretty! And it was particularly refreshing after the house serve as a cafe space where you special — fish and chips — turned out could stay all day, which is essentially what I did. I tried my first-ever cup to be a little too heavy on the salt.

As the cocktails did their job and of bone broth (it tasted like liquid the atmosphere grew even warm- breakfast!) and moved from cafe er, I found myself trying to decide between returning to the hotel for IF YOU WANT TO GO: a glass of wine in one of those cozy Take the ferry. The Victoria Clipper takes you from Seattle to Victoria’s leather chairs, or enjoying another Inner Harbour at Belleville Terminal in cocktail — hopefully as colorful — just under three hours, and along the while waiting for the nightly live music way you’ll have beautiful views of Puget to start.

Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. ($112 per person round-trip from Nov. The wool socks awaiting me in my 1-Dec. 31). hotel room won out this time, but the You can also take the Black Ball Ferry long line that formed as I left indicated Line aboard the M.V. Coho from Port Angeles to Victoria. Starting Jan. 12, the I would’ve had a good time either ferry departs Port Angeles at 8:20 a.m. way.

Eat Pasta for Breakfast and Bone Broth for Lunch

table to couches until closing time at 3 p.m., just in time to take a circuitous route back to the docks.

As the ferry pulled swiftly away from the city, I joined others on the

deck and toasted the sunset with a plastic cup of prosecco. This cozy little visit is just the tonic for too many playings of the Mariah Carey Christmas album.

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On Sunday, a 4 p.m. boarding time for the Clipper left me with ample time to wander the streets in search of a decent brunch. At every recommend-

and Victoria at 4 p.m. Crossing time is 90 minutes. A vehicle and driver costs $65.50 each way; one adult passenger costs $18.50 each way. Make reservations and get more info at cohoferry. com.

Stay downtown. There’s a lot to do right in the downtown Victoria, and plenty of hotels including the Inn at Laurel Point.

Crystal Paul / The Seattle Times

Russell Books in Victoria, B.C., features three floors of books.

10 • LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, January 3, 2019

MOVIE REVIEW

‘Holmes & Watson’

Editor’s Note: If you don’t have the cash or the time to getaway to an Airbnb, Tokeland, Treehouse Heaven or Victoria, you can always escape to a local movie house.

By Ben Kenigsberg

THE NEW YORK TIMES

In Arthur Conan Doyle’s original telling, Sherlock Holmes indulged in morphine and cocaine because the drugs offered him a break from “the dull routine of existence.” His mind, Dr. Watson recalls him saying in “The Sign of Four” (1890), rebelled at “stagnation.” Problems, work and cryptograms: Their inspiration would permit him to dispense with “artificial stimulants.”

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“HOLMES & WATSON,” with Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Rebecca Hall, Lauren Lapkus, Pam Ferris, Ralph Fiennes.

Directed by Etan Cohen from a screenplay by Cohen. 89 minutes.

Rated PG-13. Multiple theaters.

More laughs are all that would have been necessary to prevent the stagnation of “Holmes & Watson”; as the movie stands, smuggling in booze to dispel the sense of dull routine could only help. Sony sneaked this parody into theaters on Christmas without screenings for critics, normally evidence that the film in question is less than the work of a mastermind.

Still, a viewing of the movie doesn’t quite solve the mystery of why the distributor deep-sixed the latest chapter in an enduring partnership — not of Holmes and Watson, but of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly.

True, the almost Dadaist, apparently improvisational banter they brought to “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” and “Step Brothers” has been tempered this time by familiarity, the constraints of the period setting and the need for the movie to follow the contours of a lackluster whodunit.

But there is still intermittent joy to be found in their autumnal bromance, which reaches apotheosis here in a late-breaking musical duet from the show-tune veterans Alan

Giles Keyte

Rebecca Hall, left, Lauren Lapkus, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in “Holmes & Watson.”

Menken and Glenn Slater.

In this version of the story, written and directed by Etan Cohen (who directed the much-worse “Get Hard”), Holmes (Ferrell) and Watson (Reilly) are said to have met as schoolboys after a young Holmes used his powers of deduction to get their bullying classmates expelled.

The relationship has grown so close that Holmes can predict Watson’s moves at rock, paper, scissors and Battleship without a game being played. They bond over the dubious wisdom of sending drunk-telegrams and the difficulty of finding Holmes the proper hat. A “Make England Great Again” fez is among the rejects.

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The Case of the Ho-Hum Whodunit

Anachronisms give the movie its most obvious yet most effective targets — targets hit more palpably by the Brit playing an American than the Americans playing Brits. Rebecca Hall turns up as Grace Hart, a doctor visiting from Boston who throughout the movie rattles off signs of progress in the United States, from the gender pay gap (not terrible for the time!) to the right to a trial by a “jury of white property-owning men.”

One of the better bits brings her and a smitten Watson together to perform an autopsy, which turns into a re-enactment of a famous scene from “Ghost” with a cake-covered corpse instead of pottery. Lauren Lapkus, as Grace’s mute assistant, who is said to have been reared by cats, raises a few smiles as well, mostly without saying a word.

Comparably, the men’s sparring, to say nothing of the “Weekend at Bernie’s” routine they pull with the queen (Pam Ferris), looks more tired than usual, and the filmmakers haven’t remotely figured out how to use Ralph Fiennes — as either Holmes’ nemesis Moriarty or a lookalike patsy — who appears so infrequently that he could just as well have been left on the cutting-room floor. In this context, it’s not really a case worth cracking.

LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, January 3, 2019 • 11

Tap into th e scene FOOD • DRINKS • CANNABIS • Bars • RestaurantS • Concerts • Shows • Events

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