Taking It All In

One thing that Andy always says to me when we travel is to make sure to commit the magical moments to memory - like consciously commit them to memory. It's amazing, really, how the mind works... all you have to do is tell your brain to remember a moment in time, and it will. Using this technique, I remember a random bench in Amsterdam by a fountain on a sunny afternoon, I remember what the beach in Puerto Vallarta sounds and smells like at dusk, and I remember how small I felt when hiking Hurricane Ridge.

I asked myself the other day why I bother to write this blog. My travels and adventures are not any more interesting than other people's... in fact, from the traveling I've seen other people do recently on Facebook, mine are rather UNinteresting! Ha. If any of them are reading this... will you please blog??!! I want to hear all the details about how you visited nearly every national park in the US, or spent 6 weeks in Europe, or camped in 30 degree weather in Alaska near a glacier, or hiked Machu Picchu.... but anyway... I write mostly for myself (and my mom) so I don't forget the small details; plus, now that I'm back at home, painting the story of my trip is kind of like reliving it from my couch... and I like that. I cherish every trip I'm lucky enough to take even more now that vacation days are actually a real thing that I have to pay attention to (not to mention the budgeting).

This particular post chronicles the second half of the Washington trip. On the third day, we checked out of our hostel and had a lovely brunch at Vittles Bistro, were I got excited and ordered way too much food...

Brunch of champions! 

After Vittles, we picked up our rental cars and started out trek to the Olympic Peninsula... here's a pro tip, never drive to the Olympic Peninsula during midday on a Saturday. This drive involves a ferry ride (where you drive your car onto the ferry and then drive off on the other side) and even though we got there around 1, we did not make the 1:20 ferry... there were too many cars ahead of us. So we had to sit around on the ferry docks for over an hour waiting for the next ferry :( and would you know, the lady in front of us had her battery die and people starting cutting ahead of us! Rude. We nosed our way back in just in time though. It's a pretty short ferry ride from Seattle to Bainbridge Island - just about 30 minutes. Once on the other side, it's a long, but gorgeous drive to Port Angeles. Port Angeles is pretty good location for your home base when staying in Olympic. It has every amenity, including nice restaurants and grocery stores, while being in pretty short proximity to a lot of what Olympic has to offer. 

We used Airbnb to find a place to stay out in the park. The way Airbnb works is that just normal people can post their home and other people can stay in it. No, it's not crazy - CouchSurfing is crazy - Airbnb is legit and safe. There are plenty of options to rent an entire home to yourself, but we were trying to be cost effective, so we rented a room in a home on a goat and sheep farm :D The hosts sounded like really nice people so we just went for it. When we arrived - Adrienne and Jim (our hosts) had fresh baked cookies waiting for us! I knew I picked a good place. Haha. They were very busy because it was the week of the county fair and Jim was bringing the goats and sheep back and forth for the contests (you should have seen their piles of ribbons!). 

On recommendation from Adrienne and Jim, we set out for Lake Crescent to meet Alec and Amanda for dinner at the Lake Crescent Lodge. You can choose to stay at this lodge... but you'll pay a lot of money for minimal amenities. It is location on beautiful Lake Crescent though... which is priceless. Before dinner, we did a really quick hike up to Marymere Falls. This hike is super short and can be done in about an hour. 

Super cool footbridge on the way to the falls

Marymere Falls :)

So dinner at Lake Crescent Lodge was tasty but SO expensive. Adrienne told us it would be cheaper if we ordered food from the bar area because they had a different menu - this is not actually true. I guess they changed it since the last time they had done it. Better off just going into the actual restaurant, getting good service and trying to get a table with a lake view. This was a relatively simple dinner that ended up costing around $70 for two people. Kind of steep... typical tourist spot scams... but at least the food was good and the beer was cold :)

We slept like rocks the first night at the farm. The plan was to get up early to go to Hoh National Rainforest and Sol Duc Falls. We woke up to freshly baked scones which we ended up taking to go (along with leftover cookies) to eat in the car on the way. So delicious. 

In hindsight, these two hikes should not have been done on the same day. They look like they're really close together... until you realize that you have to drive around a mountain to get from Sol Duc to Hoh Rainforest. The Sol Duc hike is really pretty and quite short. The falls were so gorgeous that I had to wonder... if this is what they look like during a drought, this whole place must be magnificent when it actually rains as much as it's supposed to. 

Sol Duc Falls :)

I love to do this to Andy :P Remaking our Neuschwanstein bridge photo

More falls

Hanging out in the middle of the creek

One of my favorite things to do is sit in on rocks with water rushing on both sides of me 

Andy's balance act :P

After Sol Duc, it's a long drive to Hoh National Rainforest. We stopped at the Hungry Bear Cafe that is right off the highway, just before you get to Forks, WA (whose claim to fame is being the setting for the Twilight movies/books). This cafe... was interesting.... haha. It was mostly filled with (I'm guessing) loggers on their lunch break. It is run by an older couple who run their business at their own pace... which is pretty slow :P Food was fine, though. No complaints, basic American fare. Actually, I take that back, my one complaint was the lodge across the street that was flying a confederate flag with the word REDNECK across it. Embarrassing... what state am I in again?!

Hungry Bear! 

These forests were probably the biggest indication of the drought that we've seen since we've been here. I remember looking at the pictures on google images and thinking that they were just so lush with all the mosses covering the trees... this is true in reality, but reality was a lot less lush and a little more dry than the pictures showed. The river along the river trail had a huge dry island in the middle of it, where I assume there should be water flowing. Regardless of these factors, Hoh National Rainforest is simply breath taking. The Hall of Mosses is the first hike that anyone should do when visiting here. It is a more of a stroll, really, and it's so popular that there are people and tour groups everywhere. 

Hall of Mosses - I loved this tree

The sunlight shined through the forest in perfect beams that were impossible to capture on camera

To get away from all the hustle and bustle, we set out on the 17 mile loop along the river. Obviously we had no intention of doing all 17 miles. You need a permit to do the whole thing/set up camp, etc. Every step you take on this trail is gorgeous and if you pause, you can hear the sound of the river rushing next to you. A couple spots on the section that we took of this trail let you go down to the water.... SO COLD. so cold. Haha. 

The trail head for the River Trail

Love this tree! 

Love this river and those mountains... I just love everything

You can really see how dry the river is in these two pictures

I'm guessing the water would normally fill all the way to the greenery on the other side. 

Gorgeous Rainforest

It was a long drive back to Port Angeles after this hike. Olympic has a highway that runs along the edge and the main attractions bring off far off the highway and into the dense forests. It takes a while to get from place to place... we got used to saying "oh that's about an hour away" for nearly everything we wanted to do :P Overall, it's so hard to believe that all this natural beauty exists in the world when I'm stuck working in Illinois. Then when I go back to my job, all these places keep on existing and keep on being beautiful without me being there :-/ I guess my only real solution to that is to keep traveling and keep finding more beautiful places. Last year, I thought Norway was the most beautiful place I've ever been.... maybe it still is, but damn is it a close call!

Back in town, we found a fantastic sounding gastro pub in Port Angeles that we decided to try. Dinner was delicious and definitely beat the Hungry Bear Cafe. Ha :) Perfect way to end the first night. 

One Pair of Pants

In 2015 we decided to make an attempt at being responsible adults and save money/pay off debts... blah blah blah... we didn't go to Europe. Taking a full year off travel isn't, and will never be, in the cards for us as there will always be that insatiable desire to discover uncharted territory and whatever adventure (and misadventures, as always) that come along with it. After going back and forth for weeks between Colorado and Seattle/Olympic National Park, we ended up selecting the latter.... I can't even remember why except that I've always wanted to go to Seattle. In total, we spent two full days in the city and then about 2.5 days on the Olympic Peninsula. Our good friends from college, Alec and Amanda, also came along for the ride :)

When we landed in Seattle on Thursday, it was 9am and it was gray and misting outside. I remember hoping that we weren't in for some bad weather... fortunately by the time we were out of baggage claim, it was already clearing up. Andy was exhausted because we both slept pretty poorly and had to be up at 3:15am to make this crazy early flight... on the plane, we got stuck behind this family with two tiny dogs. One of them, named Snowball, did not shut up the entire flight. Horrible, high pitched dog whines and the smell of urine filled the already stuffy air. Longest 4 hours ever.

To get downtown from Sea/Tac airport, you can just hop on the Link Light Rail for $3.00 per person (although no one ever checked our tickets... honor system maybe?). It's about a 45 minute ride to get to Westlake station in the heart of the city. From there, we walked 15 minutes to Belltown, where our hostel was. We stayed at Seattle City Hostel, which I think was a really nice choice for us. We did the 4-bed room - two sets of bunk beds and an en-suite bathroom... which is luxury when you're in a hostel. The room wasn't ready for us yet, so we dropped off our bags in their storage and set out for Pike Place Market, of course. I can't think of a better place for breakfast. We went straight to Le Panier and ordered as many pastries as they had behind the counter and lots of coffee. Now that we had full bellies and were covered in powered sugar and croissant flakes, we were ready to take on the already insanely crowded Pike Place Market. Wandering through the labyrinth that is this market, we can see that it's mostly trinkets and artsy stuff... a shopper's paradise. In some locations, the beautiful smell of fresh flowers combats the overwhelming smell from the fish market... talk about over stimulating.

 Famous Public Market

Le Panier is a MUST. I barely had time for this selfie in between bites of this almond chocolate pastry

Original Starbucks. I actually didn't even bother with this one... Ironically, there is just no need to drink Starbucks in Seattle :P there were THAT many other fantastic places for coffee. 

Having been up since 3am Chicago time (so 1am Seattle time), we were basically ready for beer and lunch by 10. We managed to put it off until 11:30, which is when we headed to Pike Place Brewery. So if you've never read my blog before, I should note that I put a huge emphasis on food and drink... because, really, what is more important? In Europe, we spend a large amount of time strolling and reading menus posted in the windows to pick a place to eat. Since we're in the states, we have google and yelp at the ready! Pike Place Brewery only has a 3.5 rating which is pretty weak... I kind of get it, after eating there, but it was still really good. I think Seattle just has higher standards in general :P This place is HUGE and has above average food and beer. In a city with so many places to eat and drink, I'm not sure I would go back... but we weren't sorry we went, that's for sure. 

Back to the market to the explore the downstairs labyrinth. There isn't much down there except tiny boutiques selling niche items. To be fair, though, we didn't stick around to see everything. Our carry-on backpacks that we always pack in don't allow for many souvenirs anyway. I don't mind that so much... There is always the option to ship something home if we wanted to. We got back upstairs just in time to see Pike Place Fish Co throwing whole fish around with a crowd watching. It was kind of absurd, really, this company is, I guess, famous for yelling and throwing whole fish whenever a customer orders something. It reminds me of that episode from Planet Earth when the Killer Whales are tossing around the seal corpse just for fun. Except that the other whales weren't gathered around clapping with their iphones out snapping pictures... but anyway. Moving on. 

We walked down to the waterfront to buy our city passes and take the Argosy Harbor Cruise. The Seattle City pass is actually a really solid deal. I was surprised that it was actually worth our money even though we were only in the city for two days. Basically, it's $69 for entrance into five different attractions... three of which we were already planning on seeing and the harbor cruise is an added bonus for us. We intended on going to the EMP Museum, Chihuly Garden and Glass and up the Space Needle to the observation deck. Buying all those attractions a la carte is actually wildly expensive. I was surprised to see museum entries at about $20/adult. I guess with ticket prices like that, the City Pass is a really good deal. 

The cruise was fun. I highly recommend it! We actually learned a lot about the city, it wasn't too long, wasn't too short. Also the bar on the boat makes an excellent Tanqueray and tonic. 

Here's the skyline from the boat. I wish I had taken a few more pictures... we got to see cranes loading up shipping containers on massive ships to go all over the world. I wonder if anyone else actually finds that interesting though? Apparently only a handful of those shipping containers ever fall off the ships, but one time, one full of rubber duckies fell off and opened in the ocean. Instead of cleaning them up, researchers studied the wave patterns by seeing where the rubber duckies ended up. 

Unsure of what to do next in our semi jet lagged state of mind, we grabbed an Uber to take us the to EMP Museum. In case you're not familiar... Uber is a company that takes taxi driving and makes it SO EASY that you wonder how traditional taxi companies haven't already filed for bankruptcy. Basically, you install the Uber app and add a payment method (credit card or paypal). Then it tracks your location and you can see all the Uber cars around you in real time, on a map. Don't ask me about the credibility of the Uber drivers... they get paid based on how much they drive and I think go through some sort of training... not sure. Most importantly, they own the cars they drive. Now, I've been in like, I dunno, 5 or 6 Uber cars now (Seattle and DC combined) and they're always spotless... I mean, pristine. Also the drivers are actually friendly! My last plug for Uber is that there is no transaction with the driver. You just hop in, chit chat, hop out, say thanks and that's it. Then the app emails you your receipt. We took a ~15-20 min ride during rush hour across the city and it cost us $7. A cab would have been $20...easy. Public transportation for four people would have been $8.25. 

The EMP Museum is super cool. It's a collection of artifacts that follow a pop culture theme. They  have an extensive exhibit on Nirvana and another slightly smaller exhibit on Jimi Hendrix. On another floor, we wandered through a Fantasy exhibit (costumes from Princess Bride and Game of Thrones! Original art from Magic the Gathering and World of Warcraft!), a Sci-Fi exhibit and a Horror exhibit. All were really cool.. the Horror was scary :P Just what I needed to see was the scariest creature to ever exist in a movie (Pan's Labyrinth... that thing with the hand eyes, omg, google it) and Jason's mask! 

This is the EMP Museum!! So cool.

The EMP Museum is a short walk back to our hostel where we could finally check in and think about dinner. Since it all felt like midnight to us, this was kind of a struggle. We made late enough reservations at a place called Local 360 so that we all had time for a shower and a nap. Dinner was fantastic... we saw this place when we were walking earlier and saw that it had pretty stellar reviews. Local 360 means that every ingredient that they use comes from within a 360 mile radius. I would describe this place as comfort foods taken up a notch. I got fried chicken roulade stuffed with "bacon mousse" over cheesy grits, collard greens and topped with a sunny side up egg. Yum. What is bacon mousse, you ask? I still have no idea. 

I got an awesome night's sleep and woke up feeling great the next day. There is something super special about the first morning of vacation when you wake up realizing you don't have to go to work and you can do whatever the heck you want that day. And the next day. And the next. After moseying downstairs for some mediocre hostel coffee, we got dressed and made our way back to Le Panier for some real coffee and to Piroshky Piroshky - a Russian bakery for amazing sweet and savory pastries. They're also huge.... two pastries is too much for one person. Oh man. We literally had to roll ourselves out of there to walk to the Space Needle. (This is the same distance we Uber'd the day before... it's actually a pretty nice walk of about 25-30 min. We needed it after that hearty Russian breakfast). 

Going up the Space Needle is exactly as you'd expect... kind of crowded and touristy. The city passes don't get you past the line here because you still have to wait at the ticket booth to get your elevator time. We had about 20 minutes to kill and Andy was already eyeing a food truck (how can you even still be hungry?!). The line for elevator takes a little bit because they have to take everyone's picture first... I guess it's kind of cool because you can pick the background for the photo and have it emailed to you for free :) Here's ours!

Are we the cutest tourists or what? 

Views from the top :)

There's a bar at the top of the Needle... hurray!! We enjoyed some local beer while people watching on the observation deck. It was really nice that we went early... by the time we got down, the line for tickets was already significantly longer. I could not be more excited to get into the Chihuly Garden and Glass. Ever since I did a lengthy paper and presentation on Dale Chihuly, I've wanted to come to Seattle to see this museum. 

All glass!

Blending in with the garden :D

Love this shot because Andy looks like he has a massive yellow and red afro :)

Two and a half weeks prior to this trip, I had made us reservations at Altura, which is the number one restaurant in Seattle according to Trip Adviser. The restaurant features a daily rotating menu where you can choose to pay a flat fee for three courses or choose to pay a much larger flat fees for their "tasting menu". If you choose the latter, you're presented with a list of ingredients that you can ask the chef to omit based on allergies, preferences, fad diet restrictions, etc. The chefs then creates for you a five course meal with several tasters on the side. I wish we could have done that...lol. It wasn't in the budget though... however, depending on what you're comparing to, it's a pretty damn good deal for that quality of food. You'll find restaurants in Chicago for double the price, easy. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself! After Chihuly, we went back to Belltown for happy hour at Wakefield - this tiny little place across the street from the hostel. Since dinner was so late, we got a couple small plates to tie us over. They were so tasty that I would have definitely tried this place for dinner... why must every place be so delicious!? There aren't even enough meals in the day to taste all Seattle has to offer! After happy hour, Alec and Amanda went to Safeco Field to see a White Sox v Mariners game. They packed their dinner clothes with them so they could meet us at the restaurant! 

Altura is in the neighborhood called Capital Hill, which is a solid four miles from our hostel. Andy and I got another Uber to take us up there. I had seen something about coffee roasters on google maps, so we went to check it out... it was called Espresso Vivace Roasteria. These guys were known for roasting and perfecting their espresso so we both ordered one. The fabulous gentlemen at the counter served us our teeny tiny espresso shots. I'm not kidding... they were in a normal espresso glass, but the shot only came up to maybe 1/3 of the way up. Andy isn't even finished paying yet and the guy serving us tells me that the best time to enjoy my espresso was within 10 seconds of him pulling the shot!! Feeling pressured, I drank my espresso in two sips and immediately did that shake that you do after doing a shot of hard liquor. But good hard liquor.. the kind that doesn't recoil (if you've ever done a shot of well liquor, you know what recoil is). What was that?? The fabulous gentleman hands me a soda water and tells me that they only brew double ristretto there. Ristretto is the same amount of coffee as an espresso shot but with half the water. Double ristretto should be the amount of coffee for a double shot of espresso but with the water for one shot. Since I let my shot sit for more than 10 seconds (I'm such a rookie!!), my crema had gone down a bit which I think is why it appeared so small. That was the first time ever that I had stopped in a coffee shop, not even sat down, slammed a shot of espresso and left. Ha. It was delicious though! 

We wander up the street to Herb and Bitter Public House where we proceed to sip on fancy cocktails and drool over everyone's tapas. We're so hungry by this point, but Altura is supposed to be amazing, so I forbid Andy from ordering a tapa here :P So we get to drinking and chatting with the bartender who was super friendly and patient with us asking her about all the different ingredients in the cocktails. We make a lot of different drinks at home and there was literally one or two ingredients in every single one of these cocktails that we had never heard of. She even let us sample Zucca... which, by the way, is just like Campari, but actually palatable on its own. Ha. 

It's finally dinner time! We met back up with Alec and Amanda and got our table inside. It's so cozy in there! They only have about six or so tables plus bar seating. We ordered wine, Alec and Andy get reds, Amanda gets white and I got the rose (this will be important later). Appetizers come out - Andy was actually the only one who ordered an appetizer, but the chef was kind of enough to make sure we all had something to eat! Andy had Kampachi (like Tuna, I think) crudo (raw) and the rest of us had a dish with tomatoes, ricotta, and guanciale (cured italian meat). I apologize that I don't really have pictures of any of this dinner.... It just didn't feel right. We all got a pasta as our second course. Andy got the spicy ragu (it was actually way too spicy for me, good thing I didn't order it) with tripe and oxtail and I got the tortellini stuffed with short ribs and marrow. Sounds a little weird, but it was so delicious. 

 For the main course, Andy had ordered the Wagyu beef... which was $11 per ounce (he got four ounces). Go big or go home, right? Ha. Anyway, between the appetizer and the main course, a server comes to fill our water glass and just lightly taps Andy's wine glass and dumps the entire thing into his lap and shatters the glass.

I should note that he's wearing khakis... lol. I'm laughing writing this. His whole arm was just sopping with red wine and there is so much on his pants that it's just laughable. Poor guy. So what feels like the entire staff swarms our table apologizing saying "we'll take care of everything". They knocked $40 off our tab (because that's what Andy told them the pants cost... haha. they were just from khol's, so $40 is totally accurate). Continuing on as though nothing happened, they pour Andy a new glass of wine and our entrees come out. Alec and I had the beef, Amanda had the Iberico pork and Andy had the, now only $4, Wagyu beef. All the steaks were rare (we weren't allowed to specify the doneness, much to Alec's well-done-liking dismay), and they were all divine. Andy's really was something special though. It was just so rich and tender, you barely even needed a knife. For dessert, we all opted for the chocolate hazelnut cake which was the perfect cap on a nearly perfect night. I've worked up an appetite just from writing this post! The plans for the next day were to get brunch, pick up the rental cars and drive to the Olympic Peninsula... a 3 hour journey that includes a ferry ride! I'll write about all that later though. In the meantime, here is a poem Andy wrote....

One Pair of Pant Eulogy

One Pair of Pants

I do Require

To Take a trip

Around and admire

The sites of this world

So that my heart doth not become cold

Before I turn

Frail and old

Onward to Seattle

Where food is not cheap

An expensive meal

One whose tastes I must reap

But alas this time

A glass of red wine

Put an end to my one pair of pants