If you like nature, then living in the Pacific Northwest has a lot of places that fulfill your need for getting in touch with nature.  Such is the case when you head to Whidbey Island.  A short drive from Seattle, this island in the Puget Sound has a great State Park to hike in, some beautiful scenery at Deception Pass, and some quaint small towns and villages in which to stop and explore.

Lena and I spent our anniversary checking out Whidbey Island.  Driving up and coming down on the bridge that connects Whidbey Island with the mainland, we stopped at Deception Pass and took in the beautiful views that it offered.  And we also went for a nice hike through the trails that the Park had to offer.

Definitely a beautiful spot to check out.

After packing our own picnic lunch, we decided that dinner would be on the island.  We drove down to Coupeville and because it was a weekday, not many things were open later in the evening.  Thus, we went to the Front Street Grill, which looked like a good spot to get a decent meal.

While the streets were feeling pretty deserted, the restaurant itself was packed!

As soon as Lena saw there were oysters on the menu, she went for them.  They had a nice selection of local Washington oysters, which came out to be plump and juicy!

But, what Whidbey Island is known for is Penn Cove.  Coupeville sits right on Penn Cove, which is famous for Mussels.  In fact, the restaurant overlooks the Cove.  So that had to be on our menu.

Front Street Grill makes mussels in a variety of ways, but what intrigued us the most was the Coconut Green Curry preparation.

With some nice toast to dunk into the curry, it looked so good!

The curry was spicy, but not too spicy.  The Mussels were fresh and juicy also.  While the bread was nice to sop up the curry, I wish I had some nice Jasmine Rice to mix with the curry.

We decided to have some chicken as well to go with our Oysters and Mussels.  This was less of a hit for us.  The chicken was a little dry and the Bean Soup that came with it was not close to anything appetizing. In retrospect, we shouldn’t have gotten the chicken, but more Mussels and Oysters!

It’s definitely a nice spot to get a meal that is pretty good.  Stick with the seafood!