6000 Mile EV Road Trip - Stay 20
Olympia, Washington | July 25 – 26, 2024
Written by John Martinson
The drive from Edmonds to Olympia took an hour longer than it should have due to traffic, but when we arrived at The Marie Bed & Breakfast, we were delighted to find a restored Victorian Queen Anne style home with a nice garden and many amenities. The innkeeper, Emily Dunn, a self-taught chef from an Italian family with a husband and three daughters, greeted us and checked us into the Oak Suite.
The Inn’s history is compelling. It was built in 1892 by J.R. McIntyre, and remained in his family until the mid-1980s, when it was acquired and restored by Gary Engbrecht, and then sold to LeAnne Marie Kirkwood, who started a re-model with the goal of turning it into a bed and breakfast by the late 1980’s. However, she was unable to complete it. Then, in 2014, Alicia Elliott bought the property and completed the remodel, turning it into an award-winning vegan/vegetarian bed & breakfast, and taking LeAnne’s middle name of Marie for the name.
Alicia went on to buy the entire block, including more homes, a multi-unit property, and a park, and developed the area as an affordable housing neighborhood. At the park, Alicia also opened the West Central Park Neighborhood Center, the Parkside Café, the Rolling Pin, and two vegan food trucks.
We bought lunch at one of the trucks and ate it on our porch and later had dinner al fresco at a nearby tavern. The next morning, we enjoyed Emily’s fabulous breakfast—a vegetable omelet, fresh local yogurt and berries, fresh-made sourdough from a 15-year-old starter— all ingredients were locally sourced.
The Marie Bed & Breakfast could not have been a better choice.
