A tasty trip to Vashon Island, Wash.

A quick getaway from Seattle is how city slickers often look at this place. Maybe a loop around the island on a bike. Now people come for the bounty of heirloom tomatoes, French beans, and loganberries, fresh and ripe, plucked right off the farm.

Direct trade growing among coffee bean buyers

A growing group of coffee roasters have become disenchanted with the Fair Trade model and think they can do better. Known as direct trade, their movement is small and does not have uniform definitions or guidelines. Customers often have to take the roaster's word for it that growers were paid fairly.

More home shoppers include bike access on their list

Bicycle commuter Paulo Nunes-Ueno, right, glides along a stretch of the Burke-Gilman Trail on his morning ride to Seattle Children's hospital, where he works as director of transportation. He and his family moved to a house near Children's so he could commute by bike.

Chihuly exhibit in Tennessee has been a big draw — would a similar Seattle Center exhibit do as well?

Seattle Center is considering a permanent Chihuly exhibit at the base of the Space Needle. As in Nashville, money — more than art — may be a deciding factor in whether Seattle officials select Chihuly for the site.

Netting customers by logging them in

More than half of Wisconsin's Wi-Fi hotspots are now free as consumers increasingly turn to coffee shops, restaurants and other businesses for an Internet connection. Wisconsin has about 1,300 hotspots where the general public can get online with a wireless connection, according to Wired Wisconsin.