One of our favorite local spots for lunch or dinner on the water is Mukilteo Lighthouse Park where you can eat decent seafood at Ivar’s Mukilteo Landing by the ferry dock.

When the weather’s nice, you can watch people crabbing and fishing on the docks while enjoying your meal on the patio or grab some fish n’ chips to go and find a picnic table on the beach.

We’ve done both and plan to check out the Diamond Knot Craft Brewery across the street as well. The brewery has a walk-up window where we’ve sampled the morning coffee options and afternoon ice cream selections, but the few times we’ve taken people to the park, we’ve ended up at Ivar’s.

That was the case following our morning Boeing Factory Tour with my in-laws– the weather was perfect for sitting on the patio so we headed to the park for lunch. Our meals were great, our waitress was funny and we were able to walk over to the docks afterward to chat with a few of the people who were fishing off the docks.

I was impressed with the size of some of the Dungeness crabs they were pulling in. A lot were tossed back because they’re only allowed to keep the males right now, but that didn’t seem to deter anyone.

We walked from the docks down to the park and finally caught the lighthouse on a date and time it was open! Only a handful of people can go up at a time because it’s a relatively small landing, but we had some great views of the Sound and Whidbey Island and walked around the other buildings to learn a little more about the area and the lighthouse’s history.

The beach was packed with people enjoying the weekend weather, having picnics along the shore and burning small fires in the pits on the beach.

I’m sure we’ll be back soon with other friends and family who are in town!