I feel like I’ve been playing catch-up and battling off a cold for the better part of the past week, but I finally had a second today to throw some words and photos together and share a little recap of my and Ryan’s recent trip up to Washington!
Ryan’s old wildfire crew — the Wenatchee Valley Rappellers — recently hosted a 50th anniversary celebration up in Wenatchee, Wash. Ryan wanted to go, and we took it as an opportunity to spend a little less than a week up in Washington, visiting some good friends in Seattle, finding some great hikes in the Cascades and stuffing our faces with seafood.
I’m splitting this up into two posts to cover the first part of our trip (Seattle) and the second part of our trip (some exploring outside of Seattle, on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie, in and around Wenatchee, Chelan and Leavenworth.)
We left Flagstaff at about 3 a.m. (YIKES) on Wednesday. We drove down to Sky Harbor and sleepily boarded our 7 a.m. flight.
I bullied Ryan into giving me the window seat, and since I’m not much of an airplane sleeper, my flight insomnia was rewarded with some pretty incredible airplane views.
We flew over three national parks. I mean, why even bother with an America the Beautiful Pass, right?!
We landed at Sea-Tac, and my good friend Vandy — who you may remember from my first weekend trip to Seattle like seven years ago, or my more-recent ski weekend at Mount Hood — picked the two of us up.
He drove us to their apartment in West Seattle where we dropped our shit off before heading to Bakery Nouveau for a sandwich and pastry lunch.
Then, Ryan and I spent the afternoon napping before I had to squeeze in a work presentation that afternoon.
Afterward, we took advantage of what Vandy and Bre said was the first sunny Seattle day in months. We drove down to Alki Beach, walked around for a bit, and then sat outside at Harry’s Beach House for oysters and rosé.
YESSS, spring!
Afterward, we went back to West Seattle for dinner and beers at Elliott Bay Brewery & Pub. Ryan and I split ahi tacos and a Mahi Mahi sandwich. Both were SO good.
We went back to Vandy and Bre’s place after that and quickly fell asleep. We were both still SUPER tired from our 2 a.m. wakeup call.
Ryan and I woke up the next morning and had incredible egg sandwiches from Sunny Up — a food truck — for breakfast (thanks Vandy!)
Then, we hopped on a bus to head to downtown Seattle for ALL the touristy stuff. We wandered around the Seattle Antiques Market before killing a few hours at Pike Place Market, of course.
We grabbed some coffee at Pike Street Coffee, watched the fish throwing, gagged at the gum wall and laughed at the line outside the original Starbucks.
Then, because we are who we are, we walked through town to get to the flagship REI… which was, really cool.
It’s two stories! There’s an entire climbing wall inside? And, a whole room for paddling sports. And ANOTHER whole room for bikes!
We wandered for a few more hours, then started walking back to Pike Place. We stopped for doughnuts at Mighty-O donuts a quick snack before spending way too much money on touristy crab rolls and chowder at Pike Place Chowder.
Ryan and I went to Old Stove Brewing for some beer, where Ryan enjoyed watching the cranes a little too much.
Then, we wandered around a bit more before taking the ferry back to West Seattle.
Vandy scooped us up again, and then we headed out to drinks at Easy Street Records & Cafe — a favorite of Bre and Vandy’s — for beer before going to dinner at Mashiko, which Ryan proclaimed as the best sushi he’s ever had in the U.S.
I didn’t take any photos. We ate it too quickly.
Then, we grabbed drinks at Three 9 Lounge — another favorite of Vandy and Bre’s — which is a tiki bar inside a bowling alley near their apartment.
After another round of drinks, we went back to Bre and Vandy’s for some more wine and games with one of their good friends.
Then, we were asleep at about midnight to get ready for our trip out of Seattle the next day…
…which you can read about here in part two!
