Hurricane Ridge & Forks/La Push

One of the first Olympic National Park 'nature trails' we did was the Hurricane Ridge, It was about a half an hour drive from where we were staying in the lake cabin. The road leading to the park was incredibly long, with a lot of turns and stop off points for taking in the views. There was a couple of doe walking around the road so be careful! 

As soon as we got to the top we were met with amazing views of the Hurricane Ridge, it felt like I was walking around the set of The Sound Of Music! The views from just the car park were breathtaking.

As soon as with parked up we headed up the nature trail. The trail is pretty easy. It's two miles tops and I saw a girl walking around wearing flip flops just to give you an idea. There was a few places where the snow had not yet melted so some routes were blocked off. I would visit this spot late June onwards to avoid this.

It felt really weird standing on snow on such a warm and sunny day!

There's so many great opportunities to take amazing photos and admire the views. I really recommend taking a couple of hours and visiting this place.

Theres a little gift shop and restrooms at the top, as well as a cafe. We stopped for lunch then headed out.

We realised we had some times to spare so we thought we would visit Forks for shits and giggles. Forks is featured in the Twilight books and films. I'm not a fangirl or anything like that, I was just really curious to see what it was actually like. SO the town is tiny! We literally drove through it in 2 mins. Nothing looked familiar, but there was quite a few Twilight gimmicks the town had come up with due to the volume of tourists ("Come get your Twilight firewood here!"' Taste a Twilight burger!""Have you been to the Twilight gift shop yet?") As we drove away I noticed a sign saying 'La Push'. I heard this area had a nice beach so we drove in that direction. On the way we came across this -

There was a white wooden wall someone had put up by this diner, saying 'Stephanie Meyer's Day' and hundreds of twilight themed graffiti on it. Someone had also painted a Edward and a Jacob next to it. Naturally I posed for a photo, while feeling incredibly dirty. 

Quickly moving on, we turned down a very rocky, narrow road and arrived at a beach! It was Rialto Beach. This is a great beach for surfing. It was incredibly windy and the sea looked pretty rough, but still a really interesting and pretty area. There was a ton of driftwood, great for testing your jumping abilities.

I drew an illustration below inspired by our Hurricane Ridge walk. 

Next blog post I talk about my favourite place on the trip - Astoria!

Airbnb Lake Cabin

This was one of the highlights of our trip. If you looking for somewhere quiet and scenic to stay with a clear blue lake this is the cabin for you! This cozy one bed cabin was sat on Lake Sunderland, in the scenic area of Port Angeles (link to the Airbnb at the end of blog post). After staying in the city this was a perfect break for us. 

The water was so clear, it was perfect for a swim. We arrived on a really hot, Sunday afternoon so we spotted a few of the neighbours water-skiing, swimming and kayaking. 

The views were amazing, it was just perfect. There was a bbq area to the side of the cabin with a fire pit, chairs and tables on the deck and even a two person kayak! The hosts even provided fishing rods (I think you can find salmon in the lake). 

We woke up early on Monday and the waters were just a perfect stillness, it was so bizarre. It really was the perfect place to unwind and get some rest. There are some great places to visit close by too (Forks, Olympic National Park, natural hot springs). 

We took the kayak out a few times. The waters are so clear, you can clearly see driftwood and fishing swimming around. If I lived in Washington I would have definitely hired this place out at least 5 times a year, I really miss it.

Here's a lil illustration I made inspired by my stay.

If you do hire out this place, make sure you take a small bag with you. The path to the cabin from the car space is a little rough so carrying our heavy luggage kind of felt like we were taking part in a Gladiator obstacle course!

You can find a link to the Airbnb cabin HERE.

Seattle Day 2

We decided to head to Fremont Street, the 'hipster' part of Seattle. On the way we walked through the Gasworks Park which had an amazing view of Seattle from onto of 'Kite Hill'. 

We sat and watched the sea planes flying over our heads while speed boats zagged in and out of kayaks, it was lovely. There was so many people having picnics, I even spotted a guy had actually brought his massive BBQ, flipping steaks and drinking beer. I definitely recommend this place as a nice relaxing stop off.

From here we headed onwards to see the 'Fremont Troll'. It's a public sculpture made by local artists. It seems to be a popular destination here, there was loads of people fighting for a photo opportunity with it so I would recommend going early on a weekday. We walked from the park (along a nice bike/walking pathway), it took about 20 mins. I heard its quite hard to find a car space so keep this in mind if planning on taking the car. 

I was inspired by the house boats we went past while walking to Fremont so I created this illustration below.

It's a short walk downhill to get to the centre of Fremont Street. The area is lovely, full of independent businesses. I'm a sucker for vintage clothes and trinkets, so when I found Fremont Vintage Mall I was in heaven.

This place is awesome. Its a big space with lots of independent vintage sellers. Each area is cornered off for each seller, and its brimming full with unique items and clothes.

There was SO MUCH to look at, it was really hard to concentrate after a while. I look back at these photos and I spot new things I wanted to take home but was too distracted to see. I did take a few things home though, as you can see in my souvenir blog post HERE.

I had to make my partner suffer some more as I spotted another vintage shop around the corner. 

Atlas was great, it was really affordable and had a great men's section.

Portage Bag Goods was one of my favourite shops. It had so many cute, contemporary gifts and a huge card section

We stopped off for lunch at Roxy's Diner. This place was so colourful and full of some great characters. 

Ordered a very tasty tuna melt and experimented with a 'Chocolate Egg Cream' beverage (milk, carbonated water and chocolate syrup). It was interesting. 

Fremont is such a creative environment, full of breweries and whisky bars and street art. It looks like a great place to stick around at night but we had to head home. On the way out of Fremont we stopped off at a large brewery called Fremont Brewing. It was a big place with a spacious beer garden and plenty of seats to plonk your butt down with your beer. I can't remember which ones I tried (maybe I had too much). It's an excellent place to drag your friends on a cold or hot day.

After a few we dragged our blistered feet in the baking hot sun the next couple of miles home. Arrived back to the apartment just in time to find a disco had popped up in the living room!

We rested for a while and then headed to our local brewery, Mammoth, on Eastlake Avenue East. I ate one of the best sanwhiches in this place. Good god it was tasty! It was called 'The Stonehenge' and it had cranberry sauce, raisins, turkey, cream cheese and a slight cinnamon taste. Ooof I'm drooling just thinking about it. I also accidentally picked out one of the most expensive bottles of beer in there, much to the dismay of my partners wallet.

It was really sour. I only picked it out because of the illustration on the label.

Sadly we had to leave Seattle the next day (in our new rented car!) but had just enough time to grab breakfast at the local cafe called Louisa's Bakery & Bar. The coffee was excellent and the breakfast was so warm and light, just what I needed!

On our way out of Seattle I spotted this old Car Wash neon sign, rotating by the road. 

I loved the colours and the typography so much, it inspired me to draw my own.

Seattle, Day 1

The Journey continues..

We took the Amtrak down to Seattle at 6am (ouch!) If your a tourist heading down, you need to fill in a form at the train station. There's usually some nice officers with flower pens in a flower pot (don't ask) that are able to help you out. It is a tad confusing. From there you are processed through customs and your bags are checked. We cross the Canada border into the US hence the checks, the entire journey took around 3 hours. The train also stops at the border while police and sniffer dogs get on to check your passport and that paper you filled in. There was some lovely views out of the window. I ate my first Cinnamon Roll, it was pure heaven in a bun. The hours flew by.

Once we hit Seattle we got a taxi to our first Airbnb. The cab was terrifying. The car itself was on its last legs, I really wouldn't have been surprised if the brakes suddenly stopped working. I stupidly listened to a lot of serial killer podcasts before we left (the majority of which had taken place in Seattle) so as I fixated my stare at the taxi's ceiling I nearly had a heart attack. There was a beautiful red stain splattered just above my head, with what looked like biscuit crumbs around it. It looked like someone had been shot and their face had ended up on the carpeted roof. I was sure the guy was going to stop off in the middle of no where and shoot us both. It was a lovely 'Welcome To Seattle' moment that I will treasure forever. I wish I got a photo of this stain but of course I was frozen in that seat of death so the thought never occurred to me.

LUCKILY our driver wasn't in the killing mood and we arrived at out destination intact.

Our Airbnb was amazing. It was a cozy loft apartment sat above the owners home. Out the window you could clearly see Lake Union. It was so well equipped, it even had a yoga room!  The owner was so lovely too, I highly recommend staying here. Here's a lil illustration I created:

You can check out the place HERE.

Peeking through the telescope you can spot the boat house from the film Sleepless In Seattle! 

This was taken further down from the apartment on the way to the grocery shop. I would have loved to stay in one of these!

On the second day we walked into the city. The walk from the apartment to the Space Needle was about 3.5 miles. We got tickets for the EMP Museum which was just around the corner. I definitely recommend going here! Theres so many exhibition to see. 

We bought tickets for the Star Trek Exhibition that was on for a couple more days. They had so many bizzare costumes and props, and an interactive bit at the end where you could video yourself teleporting!

The Museum itself was divided into sections. There was a Fantasy section (a big collection of The Princess Bride props) and a Science Fiction section next door (spot the Back To The Future hoverboard). There was also a Horror section which had a cool interactive screen to make yourself into a monster. 

There was also a Indie Game section near the Hello Kitty sculpture. You can try out some great looking games that had just come on the market. My favourite was the sex education game. The screen panned to a little girl and you had to click on her Barbie and Ken dolls and make them have sex. I watched a bunch of kids go crazy for this game, it was so funny! You can watch someone playing the game HERE.

There was also The Nirvana exhibition which was my partner's favourite. I don't want to post too many photos just incase theres someone planning on visiting and not wanting any spoilers, but you could easily spend a whole day in this place. It so interactive! 

Here's a handy tip - don't go up the Space Needle. The ques are CRAZY! We arrived on an early but the que was coming out the door. Its also quite expensive.

What you should do is this -

Get on the tram that sits outside the EMP museum and head towards the Columbia Centre building. Buy a ticket from the 4th floor (only $15 each, nearly $10 cheaper than Space Needle) and head up the lift to the Sky View Observatory .

The views are breath taking. You can see a clear view of all the landmarks, with no ques what so ever, it was so quiet. There's a cafe up there and some comfy couches to sit and unwind. I even saw a guy use this place as a temporary office!

After a few hours gazing at the views and having a bite to eat, we headed to Seattle's Pike Place Saturday Market. We arrive just as the market was setting up, but it was still pretty busy with tourists.  

There were so many gorgeous flowers all over the place.

I overheard that the non-food market only allows items to be sold that are produced in Seattle. I don't know if this is true but its a smart idea, this is a great place to buy souvenirs. Some of the sellers even ship back home. 

I loved all the neon signs hung up around the food and flower market, there was so much to look at and many different  things to try.

We stopped by a Cafe in the heart of the market. Adam ordered his brew, it came in this really bizarre light bulb tea pot. I ordered a cinnamon bun that was bigger than my head. I ate it all. After stuffing ourselves silly, our feet begged us to head back to the apartment so we did. 

I actually had a reservation to eat at The Pink Door  but could only get 9pm. We sacked it off, but I do recommend you to check it out. It's a nice seafood type restaurant that has some interesting entertainment each night. One of the nights they have a trapeze artist on a swing, flying above your head. 

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