OK, I’m back with the second part of my and Ryan’s recent trip up to Washington!
You can read the first part — our first few days bopping around Seattle — here.
Ryan and I woke up Friday a little later than we wanted to. Vandy, once again, brought us breakfast — this time it was vegan doughnuts from Dough Joy.
We all piled into Vandy’s car, and he took Ryan and I back to the airport. Ryan and I hopped in line to pick up our rental car.
Ryan picked the mystery option because, obviously, it was the cheapest.
Let me tell you how this conversation went…
Car rental associate: “I see you picked the mystery option.”
Me: “Yes, the surprise is what makes it fun.”
Car rental associate, without missing a beat: “Not today, no. The system wants to assign you two a 16-passenger cargo van.”
…so, we paid the extra $30 to upgrade to an SUV.
We ended up with a 4Runner, with California plates.
We pulled out of the garage, checked in with Vandy, and the three of us drove separately out to the Rattlesnake Ledge trailhead.
We parked and hiked on up the hill!
The trail was really popular. We were dodging and passing people left and right, and the summit was super crowded, but it was so easy to see why. The views were INCREDIBLE.
Then, we hopped back in our cars and started the drive to our second hike.
We stopped at a random roadside restaurant in Fall City called Small Fryes, which had THE BEST fries I’ve had in a long time.
We got to our second destination: The Bridal Veil Falls trailhead on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.
We rolled out of our cars and, once again, hiked ourselves on out to the turnaround point…
…which was this giant waterfall.
We hiked back to the trailhead and went our separate ways. Vandy headed back to Seattle and Ryan and I continued on to Wenatchee.
We drove straight to Saddle Rock Pub & Brewery, which was Ryan’s favorite place for pizza and beer back when he was living and working in Wenatchee.
I was super surprised to find they had Founders Rubaeus on tap!
We drove the mile to our hotel, checked in, and passed out for the night.
Then, we woke up Saturday morning ready for some fun before Ryan’s event.
We hopped in the 4Runner and went downtown for coffee and pastries at Mela Coffee Roasting Co. We wandered around downtown for a bit, checking out (of course) Arlberg Sports, which is Wenatchee’s downtown rec store.
We hopped back in the 4Runner and drove out to the Castle Rock trailhead. We parked and spent a quick hour-ish hiking on up to the top and back down.
After trekking back to our rental SUV, we went back to our hotel to shower and eat our leftover pizza from the night before, and then drove out to Chelan for wine tasting.
Then, it was time to head on over to the whole reason we were up in Washington: Ryan’s event. We drove back to our hotel, parked, and walked over to Pybus Market, which is Wenatchee’s own little public market space.
We popped over at about 5 p.m., and handed over admission money. Ryan grabbed a beer and I grabbed a veggie burger from a food truck, and then we spent the next few hours socializing. Ryan got to catch up with a lot of his friends from his time on the crew, and I got to meet them all as well.
There was a video presentation and some awards. The event was, obviously, entirely for Ryan, but I will say it was really cool to see the entire venue give a standing ovation to one of the men in attendance who was on crew during its inaugural year, 50 years ago.
The only bummer was that the market itself was mostly shuttered by the time we got there. A lot of the vendor stalls had closed for the evening.
When the event ended at 10 p.m., I went back to our hotel while Ryan went out to the bar to continue drinking with his crew buddies.
We woke up Sunday morning — Ryan a little later and a little more hungover than me — and packed up to check out of our hotel.
We drove to the Wild Huckleberry, which was Ryan’s favorite breakfast restaurant, to eat. We had coffee, mimosas, eggs Benedict and giant Belgian waffles topped with huckleberry jam, mascarpone and whipped cream.
Then, we headed over to Leavenworth, a little Bavarian-themed village on our way back to Seattle.
We spent two hours getting super touristy. We braved the rain and spent the afternoon wandering through the shops (mostly the outdoors stores), taking photos, chatting, and stuffing our faces with vegan bratwurst and pretzels from München Haus.
We got back into the 4Runner (are you picking up on a theme here) and Ryan drove me out along Icicle Creek to take in some of the rainy, snowy Cascade views.
I’d really wanted to hike around the Enchantments, but we picked the wrong time of year for that. The roads were closed, and we didn’t pack snowshoes or microspikes (ugh, TSA).
Also, Ryan was super hungover.
So, I had to settle for a scenic drive with a few stops for photos.
It was such a bummer to be SO close to the Enchantments and not be able to venture through the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area to get there!
Hopefully I can come back to do it when the weather is nicer?
After our scenic drive, we drove back to Seattle. We dropped off our 4Runner, met Vandy at the airport, popped over to Seattle Fish Company for dinner (I had fish and chips, Ryan had a salmon sandwich), and called it a night!
We were up early on Monday to head straight to the airport.
And, that was it!
It was a really, really great trip. I just wish it could have been longer… and during a season a little more favorable to Cascades hikes.
But, once again — hopefully Ryan and I will be back to Washington sooner rather than later!
