Hello Seattle

After Portland we took a mini road trip to Seattle for a few days. It was fun to be able to be in a big city, the mountains/country, and the beach all in one day. We stayed with my mom's best friend and her family. They live in an amazing house on Mercer Island about 10 minutes outside of the city, with a view of Mt. Ranier. They have a doc and paddle boards and a boat and jet ski - it was pretty much like staying at a resort!

Once again we headed straight for the food and spent the next 4 days eating our way through the city. We ate at Italian Family Pizza, Bainbridge Crepes, Serious Biscuit (amazing biscuits and gravy), Mora (ice cream), Molly Moon's (more ice cream), Dick's Drive-In, Paseo (famous caribbean sandwiches), Specialty's (cookies), and Pepperdock (fish n' chips and burgers). 

Way good ice cream, but still not as good as Salt & Straw in Portland

Macklemore had filmed his newest music video on the roof of this Dick's the weekend before

Alki Beach

The next day we took our car on the ferry to Bainbridge Island. We shopped, ate, walked around, and hiked. It was a charmer!

Oscar the Optima loved his first boat ride

Future vacation home?

Life motto?

Oversized novelty strawberry?

There were awesome views of the city from the ferry.

Wind-blown

The next day we went shopping, to the Space Needle, and then to Capital Hill for more shopping and eating. 

At the tippy top

We finished the night wakeboarding and paddle boarding on Lake Washington

On our last day we tried to pack everything else in that we wanted to do. We started the morning at Pike Place with the fishes and farmer's market goods. 

The gum wall - classic!

I lick it? I lick it.

Flying fish

Amazing bouquets of flowers for $5

Theeee best peaches

Then we took a scenic drive to Snoqualmie Falls

Then we spent the rest of the night at Alki Beach, across the water from the city. We rented a little surrey bike, shopped, watched the sunset, and ate more ice cream! 

  

I wish the trip could have ended on this moment. Unfortunately the next part was a 13 hour drive home - still worth it! 

Pine State

We always love an excuse to get out of town and travel. The second Gentry and Scott told us they were engaged we started planning our trip to Portland for the wedding. She came all the way to Hawaii for ours, plus she's a bestie, so we always knew that we would go to hers. Since Tanya had never been to Seattle and I only went when I was about 12, we decided we would do both!

Our trip started on July 24th. Dan even joined us for our pioneer journey across the plains! Sharla (another bestie) had gotten married the night before, so he flew in for her reception at Millcreek Inn and then we all headed northwest!

We also stopped at Multomah Falls on the way in

First stop: food. Always food. Portland has amazing restaurants and in addition to all the wedding festivities, we also ate Thai, Salt and Straw Ice Cream (best waffle cones and ice cream we've ever had), Little Big Burger, and Voodoo Donuts.

We also hung out in the city, shopped, and went to the Portland Rose Garden.

Yes, this is a public restroom. In case you were wondering.

Tanya was a bridesmaid, so she went with the ladies for pedicures 

The wedding was perfect. We're so happy that Gentry was able to find such a standup guy! Hopefully many couple's trips lie in our future. The night before they had a dinner and games like corn hole. They were married in the Portland temple and had their reception on a golf course. 

Then we hit the road and headed to Seattle!