Vashon Island - 9/23/2025 and 9/24/2025
- sridgway38
- Sep 25
- 3 min read
This morning we leave Olympic National Park and head back towards Seattle. Wedrove in the other direction than how we entered the park, and towards Tacoma. We took the Point Defiance to Tahlequah ferry to get to Vashon, this was about a 3 hour drive and mostly not scenic. We arrived at the ferry shortly before they loaded so we didn't have a long wait. Once on Vashon Island we decided to drive to the Lodges on Vashon where we were staying even though it was before check in time. We wanted to get our bearings and see what options we had for food. We had been told that the bakery in town was good but we didn't know much else about it. We parked in the lot near the Lodges on Vashon and walked into town. We found a restaurant called The Hardware Store, a converted hardware store where we had a good lunch. We then headed out to find the Point Robinson Lighthouse, located at Point Robinson on the easternmost point of Maury Island, which is connected to Vashon Island. The lighthouse is a historic landmark and an active aid to navigation on Puget Sound.
While we were at lunch a woman next to us also told us to find the troll in point robinson park, near the lighthouse. We were able to access them both from the same parking area.
The Vashon Island troll is a giant wooden sculpture named Oscar, the Bird King, created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo. Oscar is part of the Northwest Trolls: Way of the Bird King exhibition, which features six large trolls built from recycled materials in locations throughout the Pacific Northwest. No matter where you stood, Oscar's eyes seemed to be looking right at you.
We then headed back to the Lodges on Vashon where we were staying. The lodges were a collection of pods kind of like tiny houses, that had their own kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and living areas. There were also some nice common areas for lounging by a fire pit or cooking grills and things. We checked in via a code that opened our door and shortly after we arrived they delivered a basket with some wine, candies and a coupon to a local ice cream place. We did a tiny bit of unpacking just the things we'd need until we got to Seattle and then went into town to get some dinner. The options in Vashon were quite limited and not much really looked good but we sat at a brewery and had some pizza and hand pies. We then stopped at the glass bottle creamery for some very interesting and tasty ice cream flavors before we called it a night. In the morning we did a bit of sightseeing before we headed back to Seattle. We wanted to see a place called Quartermaster Harbor, which is talked about on a sleep story that Shawn listens to on occasion. We found the harbor but it wasn't really accessible except for a few photos from the side of the road. We then tried to see views of Mt Rainier but it was too hazy due to wildfires in the area. Finally we headed to our ferry to get us back to Seattle.
We took the ferry from Vashon to Fauntleroy which is fairly close to Seatac, where we fly out in the morning. We dropped our luggage at our hotel, the Hilton Seatac, and then took the rental car back to the airport so that we could just take a shuttle to our early flight in the morning. We had lunch and dinner at the Hilton, and both were good. We enjoyed the trip very much!