May 2013 – Portland/Seattle Trip

At the end of May Daniel and I went on our annual couple trip, this time to Seattle, with a small stop in Portland on the way.  My mom came to watch the kids while we were gone.  The kids love being able to spend time with her – I don’t even think they missed us.

We flew into Portland late at night and went straight to our hotel.  The next morning we got up early and headed out on a drive along the Columbia River Gorge.   It is such a pretty area, with so many waterfalls right along the road. 

Multnomah Falls – one of the tallest waterfalls in the U.S.                                                                                                

After seeing all the waterfalls we drove to Hood River for lunch, and then drove along the Mt. Hood highway for awhile before heading back to Portland.  We never even saw Mt. Hood, because the sky was too misty and foggy.

In Portland we went to a little Chinese flower garden, which made us wish we had something more in our backyard besides grass, weeds, and fire ants:                                                 

We also went to Powell’s City of Books, which I’m pretty sure is the biggest bookstore in the world – it takes up a whole city block. It was amazing.  I could have stayed for a whole day.  Or week.  Daniel was lucky to get me out of there.

Before we left Portland we also stopped by Voodoo Doughnut, a crazy doughnut place we’ve seen on Man vs. Food.

We got a box of seven that lasted us pretty much the rest of our trip:                                                                              

After we left Portland we drove across Oregon to the coast, where we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese factory.  Hooray for squeaky cheese.  That stuff is the best.                                                                                   

Then we drove along the Oregon coast and stopped at the famous Haystack rock on Cannon Beach. 

Next stop – Astoria, Oregon.  We got lunch from this funny little fish and chips boat, and it was so good.  Later we both were wishing we had gotten more.                                                                                                         

Then we climbed 164 stairs to the top of the Astoria Column:

Looking down at Astoria and the bridge that crosses over from Oregon into Washington:                                               

Also in Astoria, the Goonies house:                                                             

Our next stop was in Aberdeen, Washington, birthplace of Kurt Cobain.  Daniel has always been a big Nirvana fan.

We went to the Kurt Cobain memorial and saw the bridge where Kurt used to hang out.  There was a guy under the bridge picking up garbage, and he started talking to us.  Turns out he was Aaron Burckhard, the very first drummer for Nirvana.  He talked to us for awhile, and told us stories about Kurt.  It was pretty cool.

After Aberdeen, we continued driving along the coast of Washington.  It was so pretty.  From the road all you can see is rainforest, but if you get out and walk for a little bit, there are lots of little clearings that open up right on the ocean. 

Crazy tree:                                                                           

Then we went through the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park and did a short hike:                               

And drove right through Forks, Washington (no signs of vampires, although it was easy to see how people can imagine creepy things living around here):                                                       

We continued on until we reached Port Angeles, where we stayed for the night.  We ate dinner at a little Thai place called Sabai Thai.  If you live anywhere near Port Angeles, go there – it was probably the best meal of the trip. 

But first we saw this gorgeous lake and rainbow:                      

The next morning we drove to Bainbridge Island and took the ferry over to Seattle.  You can see the city out in the distance:                                           

After we got checked into our hotel, we headed down to Pike Place Market.  We walked around for awhile, and then got some lunch at Pike Place Chowder.  We tried a couple different kinds of chowder and loved both.  I must be hungry, because all these pictures of food are looking really good to me, and now all of a sudden I am craving donuts, squeaky cheese, and chowder.  And fish and chips.                                                                               

After lunch we went to the Seattle Aquarium, where we got to touch starfish and sea urchins:

And see these cute sea otters.  I love otters.

Then it was time for a little baseball.  Daniel has been a huge Mariners fan his whole life, so we were really excited to go to a game at Safeco Field.  But best of all, we (Daniel) had planned it so we’d get to see King Felix on the mound (Felix Hernandez, the Mariners’ best pitcher).  And it turned out to be a Felix Hernandez bobblehead game, and they handed out bobbleheads to the first 5,000 fans in the gates.  Daniel had gotten us seats in the area they call “King’s Court” – they give everyone in that area t-shirts and posters, and then whenever Felix has 2 strikes on someone, everyone holds up their posters and yells “K! K! K!” over and over again (K= strikeout in baseball). 

Here we are with our awesome shirts and poster:                     

King Felix pitching:                                                               

What King’s Court looks like after 2 strikes:

We love Safeco Field.                                                          

The next day we went to the EMP Museum.  It had really cool exhibits there (“Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses” and “Can’t Look Away:  The Lure of Horror Films” were two of our favorites). 

Then we walked around near the Seattle Center for awhile.  There was a Northwest Folklife Festival going on the weekend we were there, so there were tons of tents and food booths and music and dancing going on.  Plus all of the people attending the festival.  They were a strange bunch, but very entertaining to watch.  We saw all sorts of looks, ranging from goth and hippy to viking to hobbit.  Also, there was this fun fountain.  It wasn’t much warmer than 65 degrees outside, which to us Texans seemed way too chilly for playing in the water, but that didn’t stop everyone else. 

Then we went back down to Pike Place Market.  I just like walking around there.  When I was 16 I stayed with my aunt and uncle near Seattle for a summer, and I remember them taking me to Pike Place a few times. Someday I plan to live near a market. 

Next we went on a harbor tour.

And ate dinner at the Crab Pot:                                               

And went up to the top of the Space Needle.  I have always wanted to do that.

Our hotel was in the Queen Anne neighborhood.  This was the view out our window:

We had planned to take one day to drive down to Mount Rainier, but the weather was pretty foggy/rainy, and we didn’t want to spend all day driving there and back if we wouldn’t even be able to see the mountain or hike around, so we decided to stay in Seattle. 

We went to the Pacific Science Center, which was fun.  We watched a cool I-max movie about monarch butterflies, and then walked around and looked at all the cool exhibits.                       

We didn’t really have any plans for that afternoon, but there was another Mariners game about to start, and we realized that of course the best thing to do would be to go to another game.  And really, Daniel would have been watching it on his phone anyway, so it would have been silly to be right in Seattle and not be at the game. 

This time it was a little chillier, so I kept my gloves on to do the scorecard. 

Then something happened that made us so happy we had come to another game – Daniel got a homerun ball, which is one of his lifelong goals.  Michael Morse, who plays for the Mariners, hit one out and it came right towards us.  It landed in a section near us, there was a mad scramble to find the ball, and Daniel got to it first.  It even showed him on ESPN, which was fun.  Here he is holding the ball, with Michael Morse in the outfield there in the background:

Happy day:                

After the game we went to the Seattle Zoo (we had free tickets from our City Pass, and we also like zoos).  It rained on us a lot.  That was actually the only time during the trip where the rain interfered with what we were trying to do.  The rest of the time we were pretty lucky, and even though it rained on and off throughout the whole trip, it really wasn’t an issue for most of it.  Wearing our black raincoats the whole time helped. 

After the zoo we were pretty soaked.  Before heading back to the hotel we drove to Kerry Park.  We had heard that was a good place to go for great views of the city, and it was true. 

That night we drove downtown to meet my sister and her husband for dinner.  They lived near Seattle, but were about to move to Malaysia for a couple of years, so it was great to be able to hang out with them before they left.

On our last morning we had a few hours to spare before we had to be to the airport, so we decided to pack up early and make a quick drive down to Olympia, just to see the city.  We saw the capitol building and ate breakfast there, and then headed back up to Seattle to go straight to the airport.

As we were flying out, we got our first clear view of Mount Rainier:

Goodbye, Seattle.  We kind of wish we lived there now, partly because it’s so pretty and green, but mostly because it would be so much fun to get season tickets and go to all the Mariners games.