They had me at Ketel One

On this year's first really warm day, we made our way to the Back Door Kitchen (Friday Harbor).

The Back Door is tucked behind a landscaping business on San Juan Island. Look off the back corner of the gravel parking lot on A Street for the boulder with Enter chiseled into it; this is the gate to food paradise.

Choose between sitting in the intimate dining room, cozy bar or outdoor piazza. The sandstone and granite area doubles, I suspect, as the daytime showroom for the landscapers, so it looks like something out of Sunset.

Food & Wine writers, feel free to crib: Back Door's menu is heavy on organic and local ingredients --

• Westcott Bay oysters with bread crumbs and Parm
• Caesar salad
• Chipotle Mushroom Soup
• Herb-crusted Mediterranean lamb sirloin, with mashed potatoes and fresh veg.
• Scallops tasting fresh like the ocean, not fishy
• An excellent house red
  

Best of all, the cocktail list is anchored by a terrific vodka concoction that uses Ketel One, muddled mint leaves, lime juice, and Reed's Ginger Brew.

Back Door Kitchen is another one of those places that are managing to put quality, organic dishes on the table, at prices that are not bad at all -- entrees are $27-28, appetizers $7-11.

The next day I took Clipper Vacation's Victoria Clipper III catamaran ferry back to Seattle. The good news: only 3 hours to downtown. The bad news: it was like taking the bus. Specifically, the Metro Route 358. If the 358 had filthy carpets, smaller seats, germy handprints everywhere, and children running constantly up and down the aisle.