Weekend in Seattle

I've stuck pretty close to home so far in my life - I went to undergrad at my state school, University of Maryland, and now live in neighboring Virginia a little less than an hour from the house I grew up in. Although I love the area, and still have tons yet to explore, I'd like to move to another part of the country once I finish grad school. CJ shares the same goal, and we've spent so much time talking about moving to somewhere like Seattle that we thought we better visit to see if we actually like the place :) Bonus was the two National Parks in driving distance.

This trip came only a few days after our final exams and projects of the spring semester, so we didn't have much time for planning. Other than our hotel and car rental reservations, we ended up winging it, which surprisingly didn't turn out too bad. There was one extremely questionable airport motel, but we made it out alive. All's well that ends well, right?

Mount Rainier National Park
After a delayed, re-routed flight and barely sleeping at an extremely questionable, horror-movie set hotel (not trying to be dramatic - it was awful), we set off for Mount Rainier. We didn't know what trails we wanted to hike, and half of the park was closed due to snow on the roads, but it didn't matter. This was one place I didn't mind driving around aimlessly in - the scenery was so beautiful. We lucked out with a sunny day and got to see amazing views of Mt. Rainier and the neighboring mountains.

Our first stop out of the car was the Grove of Patriarchs, where we walked amongst some 1000-year old trees.

And spent some time climbing on rocks and jumping over logs...

We were driving around looking for more short trailheads and happened upon the entrance to Shriner Peak trail. The sign said it was 6 (or maybe 8?) miles round trip, so we figured it couldn't be that bad, right? Turns out that the hike to the peak was steep and we were pretty ill equipped when the narrow switchbacks with huge drop offs began to be snow covered. There was also some questionable animal noises (dying elk?) that piqued my nerves and blister issues, so we decided to stop for lunch about 3/4 of the way up on a rock with a great view of Rainier. Although we didn't make it all the way up, we still enjoyed a well-deserved meal with great views.

On the way out, we grabbed some smoothies and ice cream at a nearby general store and headed to Seattle. We checked in to the awesome hotel CJ's grandmother hooked us up with - a historic building in the heart of downtown. We grabbed some sushi, lychee martinis, and beer at an amazing sushi happy hour (the prices, not so much the food) and called it a night.

Seattle!
Day 2 of the trip was another day with almost no planning ahead, but it turned out great! To start, we grabbed some coffee at Stumptown Coffee.

Seattle has a pretty robust bike share program (almost identical to DC), so we invested in two $7 24-hour memberships to explore the city. The only problem is, Seattle is much hillier than DC. So we flew down the streets down to the pier, but didn't even attempt to bike back up.

We biked on the bike paths along Olympic Sculpture Park;

visited the Space Needle (but didn't take a ride to the top);

meandered through Pike's Place Market and grabbed salmon sandwiches and clam chowder for lunch;

stopped by the infamous gum wall;

and took a round trip ferry ride to Bainbridge Island to relax and take in some skyline views.

Dinner was pretty late at a mediocre pizza place near the hotel, but it got the job done.

Olympic National Park
After a two day sunny streak, we got a taste of Seattle's infamous dreary weather on Day 3. When we arrived at Olympic National Park, we were told that we wouldn't be able to see the mountains from the famous Hurricane Ridge. No worries though - the park casually has two other ecosystems to explore.

Stop one was a short walk through the Hoh Rainforest. It takes a few hours to drive across the park, but is well worth it in my opinion. The best way to describe the rainforest is simply green. So lush, and beautiful.

Then we headed to Rialto Beach - the highlight of the whole trip for me. It was unlike any beach I've been to before, with driftwood as far as we could see, crazy rock formations, and tons of sea life in the tide pools.

We spent a long time walking around,

 

climbing,

posing for pictures,

 

looking at marine life,

 

 

and ringing in CJs 25th birthday with a fancy picnic of gas station cheese, sausage and crackers <3

 

We attempted to go to a fancy dinner to celebrate too, but were starving after spending way to much money on a bowl of roasted chickpeas, glass of white wine and a few mint leaves...literally. So, naturally, we ended the night with burgers, fries, and milkshakes at Dick's Drive In.

Not too shabby for a long weekend, and I had an amazing time traveling with my best friend. We fell in love with Seattle too - maybe well be back there soon!