Captain Whidbey Inn Has A Dickens Of A Dinner

It won’t be difficult to get into the spirit of Christmas at a Dickens Dinner. It’s an annual event at the Captain Whidbey Inn, located in Coupeville on Whidbey Island west of Seattle. The Dickens Dinner is on Dec. 5.

The Inn is seasonally decorated with evergreen swags, poinsettias, wreaths and a Christmas tree. The seven-course dinner will include game pie, roast goose and flaming plum pudding. For reservations: (800) 366-4097. Overnight guests attending the dinner get a 10 percent discount on their accommodations.

Music in the mountains

Another in a series of concerts at the Sleeping Lady and Icicle Creek Music Center near Leavenworth, Wash., will be staged Nov. 16 at 8 p.m.

Violinist Ann Christensen and pianist Lisa Bergman will perform music from their recent CD “American Music From Broadway, Jazz & the Movies.”

Tickets are $16 to the concert, however Sleeping Lady chef Damian Browne will prepare a buffet dinner that is $32 (including the concert). Overnight accommodations for two at the center are $205 which includes the concert, dinner and a continental breakfast Sunday. For reservations: (800) 574-2123. Sleeping Lady is at 7375 Icicle Road.

Traveling for your health?

The focus of a weekend retreat in Bellevue, Wash., is health and the session will include 40 speakers and 60 sessions devoted to topics ranging from natural healing to alternative medicine to spiritual renewal.

The Nov. 15-17 weekend retreat is sponsored by Natural Health Magazine. All activities will be at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. For registration information: (800) 547-6276.

Like Capistrano, sort of

The birds return to the Skagit Valley in Northwest Washington each winter but these aren’t darting and diving swallows. No, the birds that flock by the hundreds to the tulip and daffodil fields near La Conner are trumpeter swans.

They spend the winter in the area before returning north in March and April.

Because the Skagit River forms a broad delta near La Conner, the region is rich habitat for a variety of birds. A free copy of “Winter Birds of the Skagit Flats” is available from the La Conner Chamber of Commerce, (360) 466-4778.

Figure it out

A Dinner Murder Mystery Theatre will be staged Nov. 9 at the Mazama Country Inn at Mazama, Wash. There’s still room at the dinner table, and at the Inn. For information: (509) 996-2681.

Travel with a purpose

The fifth edition of the “Air Courier’s Handbook” is now available but you’ll have to order it from the publisher; it’s not available in bookstores.

The booklet offers tips for traveling for free or at least at reduced rates in exchange for acting as a courier.

The booklet’s $10 from Big City Books, 7047 Hidden Lane, Loomis, CA 95650.

, DataTimes