Impressed by the Northwest

Washington state may be the best in the west, and perhaps even in the US! The diverse landscape offers mountains, forests, rain forests, the Pacific, lakes, rivers, quaint small towns, as well as the urban epicenter Seattle.

Our first stop coming into Washington state was Spokane. What was meant to be a quick stop at the famous Frank's diner, turned into a day in which I consumed more calories than Michael Phelps training for the Olympics. After an amazing meal at Franks, we stopped by the visitor center to get a map where we were informed that the annual "Pig Out Festival" was in taking place. So naturally, we booked the only hotel room of the entire trip and went to the festival, not once, but twice! It was a Mecca of local food vendors serving up amazing bites, in addition to live music. 

24 hours and 5,000 calories later, we were off, to burn it all off, in Washington's harshest terrain at Northern Cascades National Park. There, we took a four-day backpacking trip into the tiny town of Stehekan, only accessible by boat, plane or 18-mile hike. And despite being sick, getting stung multiple times by bees, developing crazy blisters, experiencing temperature extremities (ranging from high 80's to low 30's), rigid terrain and high elevation gains--the experience was amazing.

Next up on the agenda was Vancouver; a city full of pronounced glass high-rises, situated on the water amidst mountains. We enjoyed great sushi, the sunset from "Top of Vancouver" and even won some prizes at trivia night! But the most memorable experience had to be the Grouse Grind or "nature's stair stepper." This entailed climbing steep boulders for an hour and 20 minutes to the top of Grouse Mountain. Buns of Steel had nothing on this workout!

Then we were off to Seattle aka my new favorite city. Of course we checked out the iconic Seattle public market, the space needle, all of the neighborhoods, Volunteer Park, an ultra-fun Ty Segal concert with lots of crowd surfing and even performed a show as a newly formed band at the  Experience Music Project Museum.

We also had some of the trip's best food in Seattle: fried oysters at the Walrus and Carpenter, tea and crumpets at the Crumpet Shop, seafood at Ray's, cupcakes at Cupcake Royale and one of the "20 Burgers Before You Die" at Red Mills. Yummmmmmmm.

And what better way to finish off Tour de Washington than taking a ferry to Olympic National Park--home to Mt. Olympus, the Hoh Rainforest, Sol Duc Hot Springs, and the most beautiful rocky beaches. We definitely ended things off with a bang by hiking out 13 miles along the Seven Lakes Basin loop, where we saw breathtaking views of Mt. Olympus and a bear hanging out on the trail eating berries. As if that wasn't exciting enough for one day, we hightailed it to the coast line, set up camp on the beach and enjoyed our first spectacular Pacific sunset. We finally made it across country!

Next up on the map? Portlandia!