My husband and I decided to go to Seattle in Sept., heading to the Olympic Peninsula first thing, spending a couple of days on one of the San Juans, and finishing up in Seattle for a couple of days at the end. Made an itinerary, booked some hotels, and booked our flight. But as often happens, as I did further research, plans changed. Now we're going straight to Friday Harbor, from there to Vancouver Island for 5 days, and then back to the mainland on Sat. 9/19 on the 6PM ferry. The original plan was to spend one day at the zoo and another day in Seattle with a friend before flying home, but now we have three extra days. Having spent a fair amount of time in Seattle on a couple of previous trips, we'd like to do something different before driving back to Seattle Sun. night. (And since we'll be 8:30 getting to Anacortes, we thought it would be preferable to stay on Whidbey or in Burlington Sat. night anyway.)

Have been reading guide books and some posts here but am not finding too much info on Whidbey Island and Snohomish - at least not enough that anything jumps out as a "must do". I thought maybe some Fodorites might have some ideas of what to do on a Sunday between Anacortes and Seattle.

I don't understand. Are you arriving in Anacortes on Saturday at 6 PM and due back in Seattle on Sunday night? You also say you are arriving at 8:30 in Anacortes and that you have three extra days. When do you have three extra days? Could you clarify please?

Why not take a different ferry, the Coho from Victoria to Port Angeles, rather than retracing your route, stay out there on Sat night, and see a bit of Olympic National Park before heading back to Seattle?

I agree with NWWanderer. Whidbey is nice, but most people wouldn't want to stay there for 3 nights, and Snohomish is good for part of a day. But the ONP has so much to see, and you could do a night or two in Port Townsend as well.

I believe the Puyallup Fair will be running during your time here. It is one of the largest fairs in the US and has been a tradition in the area for more than 100 years.
I have personally never been, but I know of people who come from across the state to spend a week at the fair every single year.
If you haven't done it before, and you've seen a lot of Seattle it might be a fun excursion for the day.

I gather the "three extra days" comes from skipping the Olympic Peninsula at the outset and going straight to San Juans instead.

In which case, I agree with NWW - swap the return ferry to Anacortes with the Coho - http://cohoferry.com - to Port Angeles, and use your extra days to visit the Olympic Peninsula, in essence reversing your original itinerary.

However there are a couple of alternate itineraries too.

First is to get off the boat in Anacortes and drive (20 min.) to La Conner, a very cute town on the Swinomish Channel for the night. http://www.laconnerchamber.com/. Next day, drive back over to Fidalgo Island (on which Anacortes is located) and then head south over Deception Pass (stop for must-see photo ops) onto Whidbey Island. Stop at the very cute villages of Coupeville and Langley as you drive down the island, then take the ferry to Mukilteo on the mainland. If you want to spend the night, the Silver Cloud Inn in Mukilteo is very comfortable and scenic - built over the water. www.scinns.com.

From Mukilteo it's 10 min. to the Future of Flight/Boeing Tour center - http://www.futureofflight.org/ - if you'd like to tour the biggest building in the world; otherwise 30 min. and you're back in Seattle.

Alternatively if you've had enough of ferries and waterfront, you could get off the boat in Anacortes and go to La Conner as previously mentioned, then the next day head east on SR 20 over the North Cascades Highway (through the National Park) to the junction of US 97, then past Lake Chelan to US 2. You could spend the night in Cashmere or faux Bavarian village Leavenworth - http://www.leavenworth.org, then return to Seattle via Stevens Pass the next day. This loop could also be done in one day, but it's a pretty long day of driving.

Thanks, these are some good ideas for north of Seattle. And thanks for the reminder of the Puyallup fair, which I had actually made a note on (now in a big stack of papers on my desk) but forgotten about.

We have already been to the Olympic Peninsula on previous trips, so I think we'll skip it this time. I misspoke about the "3 extra days", it's really "3 at the end" and since we want Mon. & Tues. in Seattle before flying out Wed., we really only have 1 "extra" after we get back from Vancouver Is. if we take the ferry back Sat. night. Could, for that matter, spend it on Vancouver Is. and return to the mainland on Sun. instead of doing something north of Seattle. That extra day came about because I added two more on Vancouver and dropped the Olympic Peninsula altogether after the Seattle flight was booked. Had a hard time giving up the ferry to Port Angeles idea because the trip was originally predicated on three Olympic days and Vancouver Is. was the afterthought (which ultimately changed everything). But I took a long day trip to the Peninsula in '99 on a 15 da. WA trip and my husband and I spent 2 days there in '03. As we enjoyed our 36 hrs. in Victoria in '99 and always said we'd like to go back (with a car), I decided since there was a ferry to Sidney from Friday Harbor, we might as well cram that in, too. But when I started reading some Vancouver Is. threads, I "discovered" the Pacific Rim National Park and decided maybe we'd rather spend a couple of days there and skip Olympic.

We now have 3 days on San Juan, 5 on Vancouver Is. (arrival night in Victoria, 2 nights on the west coast, and return to Victoria for 2 more nights). So maybe another question is whether we want to spend one more night in Victoria or use the day Sun. checking out photo ops on Whidbey and taking a side road or two off I-5 on the drive back to Seattle. (We've become "slow travelers" in the past few years - don't rush to get out in the morning and take lots of photos - so we might not do as much on an extra day as we used to.) Or we could do Sun. in Seattle, Mon. at the zoo, and Tues. at the fair if it's still running. So many choices, so little time.

If you're going all the way to Tofino, you should definitely spend more than 2 nights there--so if you have time to add, I'd add at least one night there for sure. The drive from Victoria is long (5 hours) plus there's so much to do there...you won't want to leave!

Are you talking about the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle? It's very nice but you don't need to allow an entire day there. You'll have extra time that day.

Dates of the Puyallup fair are September 11-27, 2009. I think it's fun, but again a half-day would be plenty for me.

Actually, we do need nearly a full day at Woodland Park - we're serious zoo-goers, spend lots of time, these days also take lots of photos. Have spent the better part of a day there on two previous visits and that was before getting into zoo photography more seriously. (In Oct., we're actually doing an almost 3 week road trip I'm calling "Zoo Parade" [if you're old enough to remember that TV program] that will cover 7 zoos, among other things. And we spent a week in San Diego in April, with 3 days at the zoo or the wild animal park.)

I checked on the fair dates and some of the things to do there but it's been a long, long time since we went to any kind of fair and I don't know how much we'll enjoy it now. (I can't even remember how much we enjoyed it last time we went.) Looks like a lot more stuff to do than at most fairs but how interested we'll be in most of it, I can't guess. I'm thinking we will probably spend the first part of the day doing something in Seattle and will head to Puyallup in the early afternoon. We're not big on midway rides anymore - Disney, Universal Studios, etc. upped the bar there years ago; even my kids don't bother with those rides. Probably mostly interested in animal, craft, art exhibits, giant pumpkins and such.

OK, sorry I didn't realize your special interest in animal photography.

I really enjoy the Puyallup fair. I think you might like all the various animal exhibits, 4-H club, etc. It's much more than just midway rides.

I don't think the rides are even half the draw for most people. Though I've never been, I live in the vacinity. Most people seem to go for other attractions and the food.
The food has been featured on countless food network and travel channel shows.
I keep meaning to go, but never make it.

You should try it. I thought I wouldn't like it (not being a "go to the fair" kind of person myself) but it's big fun. I don't go every single year, but now & then. I can't imagine anyone who couldn't find a few things of interest to them. World-class people-watching if nothing else!