Home of the Snarkmaiden

Screw the cut tag, nobody seems to be clicking through anyway.

Know thyself, and all that. So it wasn't a great surprise to me when Day 1 of our road trip dawned with me trying to do a week's worth of laundry and chores in a day. And it was no surprise at all that with all that 11th hour catch up, we hit the road a lot later than I hoped. Luckily, I had planned for it. So our first leg was just a quick jaunt up to Bellingham, with a (late) dinner stop in Seattle.

In the morning, we ventured out to seek breakfast and a little American touristry in Fairhaven. Bellingham, you see, is really the confluence of about three smaller towns that merged. Our favorite bit of Bellingham is the former Victorian port town of Fairhaven. It's kept a lot of its old original buildings, and turned into a funky arts and dining district, with galleries, bead stores, book stores, gelaterias, pubs, and the like. A fun place to browse through, as long as you don't mind a bit of hill climbing. We usually stop for tea in The Abbey Garden and browse the blond-wood shelves of Village Books, between stints in woodwork, pottery, and glass galleries. What we don't usually do is get to Fairhaven early enough to eat breakfast. And a lot of the eateries in the area tend to be pubby, lunchy, dinnery sorts of joints.

Luckily we spotted the Harris Ave. Cafe, whose posted menu did indeed include normal breakfasty things like eggs and toast. And pretty swell breakfasty things, as it turns out. My orange-infused blueberry french toast was, alas, too dry to skip the syrup, but it was a revelation once the syrup was added. And it came with possibly the prettiest side of fruit I've ever had. The real winner was Hal's omelette, where the blend of smoked Keta salmon, feta, roasted garlic, and pesto was so marvelously balanced that all the flavors came through in concert. Close to perfect fried spuds with chive, too. Lovely.

The cafe itself is brightly painted, sunlit, and popular, with the kind of happy buzz that you find in a local favorite. As an added bonus, across the street you can see the second story windows of an office that sports the legend Spade and Archer -- which lends just the right frisson of Through the Looking Glass to the proceedings. (The office is apparently the former digs of local author Steve Martini, and the new occupant decided to keep the signage. Yay, new occupant.)

Overall, lovely place for a meal, especially if you can get in between the breakfast and lunch rushes.