I don’t know if the place was called Salish when Tom told me
about the gourmet breakfast buffet laden with scrumptious fare and honey poured
from six feet high. We were still in debt from student loans at the time of our
marriage and even went back to school after marriage, so it was understandable
that he did not take me to the buffet before we moved out of Washington State,
but it didn’t occur to me that he still had not taken me to the buffet ever
since.
During a daytrip to Orcas Island with my father-in-law Bill,
while we were enjoying a nice breakfast at the Rosario resort, the idea of breakfast
at Salish was materialized. We were having so much fun in Orcas Island that we
began to plan another daytrip together. I suggested Snoqualmie Falls – not because
of Salish, I didn’t even know about Salish – mainly because I wanted to learn
how to take good pictures of waterfalls with my new camera. I started a new hobby of
photography a few months back. I suppose I can call it a hobby, since I did
spend a few hundred dollars on a new and bigger camera - even if I refused to
spend north of ten hundreds, would not travel with more than a fixed lens, and
had not participated in all of the photography class field trips. Snoqualmie
Falls triggered Tom’s memory of the breakfast he had there for his confirmation.
That’s when I realized that Tom had never treated me to the iconic breakfast he
told me about. I felt it was time I have the simple pleasure of experiencing
something I’d only known about for so long. But neither Bill nor Tom had been back
to the lodge at the Snoqualmie Falls in a long time, and they could not be sure
if the lodge still serves the same kind of breakfast. Bill decided that they no
longer do. But going to Snoqualmie Falls for breakfast and to enjoy the view is
something we all agreed would be a fun thing to do together.
Unlike the Orcas Island trip when we had to get up so early
to catch the ferry, we took it easy the next morning. We had the routine of
putting the wheelchair and accessories into the half-open car trunk down pretty
well. Away we went with Tom at the driver’s seat and Bill, serving as the
navigating consultant, next to him.
Snoqualmie greeted us in soft rain and light fog and colorful
flowers of every kind. We parked at the lot a wooden bridge away from the lodge.
After traversing the bridge, we could either veer to the left to enter the
lodge or to the right to take the pathway bordered with spring flowers to the
viewing deck of the upper falls. We came with breakfast as our main mission,
and took the left turn.
While waiting to be seated, I had a narrow and straight-ahead
view of the dining room, which leads to a large glass window looking to the
outside. It looked so romantic, more so with the diffused sunlight in the fog
and rain. The table at the window was empty and inviting. I thought of taking a
picture of it. And when we happened to be seated at that very table, I took a
picture of it, no longer empty, but with my favorite people in it. The window
gave us a clear view of the falls, which was full and alluring. How sumptuous. The
menu offers a “classic country breakfast” that may be similar to the buffet Tom
described to me, with fresh pastries, pancakes, oats, eggs, bacon, ham,
sausage, hashed potatoes, coffee, tea, and juice. But none of us was into
consuming that much food. Since I don’t get Dungeness crab where I live, I went
for the Dungeness crab eggs benedict. Bill did the same. Tom went for the honey
and buttermilk pancakes. Did he secretly want the “honey from heaven” service,
which was not advertised on the breakfast menu? It turned out they still have
the service, which is advertised on their website and which we didn’t know we’d
have until it was delivered, where “honey from our hives is poured from high
above your plate onto buttery house-made biscuits.” And we didn’t have to order
biscuits for it. The biscuits and honey were complimentary. When I mentioned to
the waitress that I had to wait for forty years to experience honey from heaven,
she told us that her grandmother used to perform the task of pouring honey
forty years ago and she had to climb a ladder to do it! Now that was fun.
The food was certainly delicious, but the coffee was out of
this world. I’d never had coffee so good that I finished the first cup and refills
in quick succession. Tom was impressed with the array of condiments for coffee
that includes things like sugar, whipped cream, half-and-half, and shaved
chocolate. I was a bit greedy with the shaved chocolate and whipped cream for
my first cup, but decided to keep my coffee black when my cup got refilled
afterwards. Aah – next time when we go to Snoqualmie Falls, I’ll have to stop
in for a cup of coffee.
What a sweet and romantic man my father-in-law is. He shared
that although Salish is more impressive than Rosario, he has a soft spot for
Rosario and prefers it because he and his wife had spent a night there. But
that didn’t mean we didn’t relish our breakfast at Salish. I was so glad I
suggested Snoqualmie Falls and without planning it, got to have breakfast with
the iconic honey from heaven with Bill and Tom. Bill and I kept having our
coffee refilled until we couldn’t drink anymore. I was satisfied. Although I did
not have the classic country breakfast, I felt that “Tom has taken me to
breakfast at Snoqualmie Falls” is something I can put a check mark next to.
After breakfast we perused the gift shop and walked to the
viewing deck. I returned to the lodge to retrieve my cell phone which was accidently
left in the women’s room. No need to panic. I claimed it at the lost-and-found.
Since I was back at the lodge anyway, I went back into the gift shop and got
myself a souvenir scarf I was eyeing earlier.
Before we returned home, we took the lower falls trail, but couldn’t
get the wheelchair up and down the many wooden stairs; so Bill sat at the viewing
platform of the pipeline to the power station below and let us run to the lower
falls viewing deck to snap pictures.
It was another “successful” daytrip, meaning we were happy
and content to be in each other’s company, to have had a fabulous breakfast, to
be in the luxurious outdoors, and to see the beauty that the Pacific Northwest
has to offer. Rosario may be more special to my father-in-law, but the place
from which I have a tangible thing to hold on to is Salish of Snoqualmie Falls.
