Brian needed to drive to Langley, British Columbia to meet a guy about a motorcycle part and asked if I wanted to tag along for the ride. It was a nice day and he was heading out of state the following week for work, so I took advantage of having a few extra hours with him while he was home!

While I didn’t really have time to look up Langley or things to do in that area, I did note we could easily swing through the Dutch settlement of Lynden for lunch, which has been on my list for a while.

I think I originally read about Lynden in a magazine but was recently reminded of it when a work colleague went there for her horse-back shooting competition. She travels all over competing—we are hoping to cheer her on at one of her meets this summer!—and I like to follow along on Instagram. Lynden was on my mind so I asked if we could go early and swing through for lunch.

While the list of things to do in Lynden isn’t extensive, there were a few things like the downtown Pioneer Museum and nearby Bellewood Farms that we didn’t have time to experience this time that I will have to remember for a future trip.

Lynden was incorporated in 1891 and is home to Washington’s largest Dutch settlement. The downtown shops all have interesting architecture from the early 1900s and there are windmills of every shape and size in front of buildings or in several cases as part of the buildings, including a 72-foot tall working windmill as you enter Front Street.

We stopped to take a few pictures but didn’t linger long—our destination was Dutch Mother’s Family Restaurant, and we were ready for lunch!

We decided to each order a cup of soup—I got the famous split pea and Brian tried the Dutch meatball. Both were delicious, and we each enjoyed the one we picked the best! For our main course, we shared the pierogies and European sausage with spiced red cabbage plate—also delicious.

Everything on the menu looked good, including the breakfast options. I would definitely go back!

We had purposefully shared lunch so we could try the homemade pies for dessert—the caramel apple pie was to die for, and Brian loved his bumbleberry. We were more than ready to take one more lap around town when we finished!

Before we left town we also ducked into the Lynden Dutch Bakery to grab a snack for later. The bakery has hot food as well as baked goods and both indoor and outdoor seating if you want to eat a meal. We wanted our treats for later so we lined up to take our items to go.

Everything in the display cases looked amazing, but we opted for two of the almond cookies and a small bag of stroopies, which are little, flat syrup waffles. YUM! I can’t wait to enjoy those with coffee later this week.

If you find yourself near Lynden, I recommend taking a few hours to grab breakfast or lunch at one of the Dutch restaurants and walking around downtown. There were some neat stores, fun coffee shops, a visitor center, and interesting storefronts to explore.

I’m looking forward to checking out the museum and surrounding farms and dairy shops next time we visit!