Northwest Trip (Part 2: Washington)

After our fun time in Oregon, we continued up the coast of Washington to the Olympic National Park area. It amazed me how non-populated it was; I almost felt like I was in a different country because of the rarity of commercialization. Here's a recap in pictures (because, let's be honest, I am wanting to blog about other things than travel, but I am so far behind I'm going to make these travel-logs short and sweet--hopefully.)

We drove through blankets of trees on the way to Port Angeles until we arrived at our next stop: the one I was the most anxious to see in person. Our romantic cottage outside of Olympic National Park near Lake Crescent. 

Can I just say, adorable!? There are about eight cottages owned by a cute old couple--all are meticulously maintained and offered everything you could ever dream of needing. Even though the decorations were a bit old ladyish, the scenery was exquisite. It really was a cottage in the middle of a forest. 

One of my favorite things was looking up at the trees in the skylight from our bed!

That vivid green through the window was seriously that green in real life: no joke!

I had found this place by chance and even though it took us off the path we had originally decided on, it was so worth it. 

To make it even better, the grounds of this Hidden Haven (its name) had a pond and beautifully landscaped flowers, and you could feed the fish. 

Okay, it gets even better. You could feed reindeer and deer that the cottage owner has!! Dream come true. 

This is my friend--Sven. 

I seriously loved that you could meet a reindeer and stay in a cottage. 

At Hidden Haven, there are trails that take you through Olympic National Park-like trails. 

And the owners' kids' tree-house....which looks like it's out of a fairy tale! 

You can also feed the turtles! 

Ben and I spent a relaxing night in our little cottage, perusing the grounds, and watching movies from the owners' video library. Then it was rise and shine to explore Olympic National Park!

We started our exploration by going to Lake Crescent--absolutely stunning. The water was a clear turquoise, and it felt like we were the only ones there. In fact, the only hard part about this part of the trip was finding somewhere to eat! It felt like we were a million miles away from all food!

Another beautiful view of Lake Crescent

Did you know there's a Rain Forest in Washington? Well, it's true! The Hoh Rain Forest is a part of Olympic National Park and looks like scenery from a movie. 

The trees' trunks are mammoth and the leaves touch the sky. You can tell how big the trees are by looking at how small Ben is in comparison!

A natural tree arch :) 

Then it was onto Ruby Beach, which looks like it's out of The Swiss Family Robinson! 

Olympic National Park was breathtaking; we only wish we had planned on spending more time there, two days at least, to not feel like we were rushing! 

Next stop--Seattle! 

We hit Pike's market place, the Underground Tour, a little shopping, the Space Needle, and the wharf. So much to do, so little time! Ben and I both agreed that Seattle has a fun vibe, and we enjoyed walking around the streets and taking it all in. 

Ben and I ended our trip with a yummy, scenic lunch at Ray's Boathouse. A great way to end the trip. And it finally rained! Just for me :) 

Overall, it was an amazing trip. And like I said in Part 1, it was a TON to do in one week, and I would recommend only doing half of what we did in one week next time since it felt like we were always on the go, but it was so fun to scout out areas we loved for future trips! 

We then headed home, knowing we were about to go on a cross-country road trip exactly four weeks  later. 

Northwest Trip (Part 1: Oregon!)

There's nothing like moving and then three weeks later going on vacation and leaving your house in total chaos, but it was so worth it! 

We planned a Northwest road trip a few months ago, working our way from Utah, along the Oregon coast, to Seattle, and then back on down. In retrospect, we planned too much in a one week trip: we tried to hit SO much in the little time we had. So when I look back on this trip, I think of it more as a "scout out for future trips trip" than a "relaxing vacation trip." BUT it was so fun! I had always wanted to see this area because when my parents were mission presidents in the Washington Kennewick Mission (which covers parts of WA and OR), they didn't have the permission or the time to go to Seattle or the coast, so, other than Portland, I had never been to the areas I heard so much about while living in WA. 

On our drive into Oregon, we saw this gorgeous sight in the middle of rural Oregon.

How can you see a rainbow and not believe in God? This rainbow was so stunning in person that it left me contemplating God's never forgotten promises during our drive. 

I loved the trees throughout the Northwest--tall and grand!

I never knew a salmon hatchery could be so exciting...I am not kidding! It was beautiful!

The salmon hatchery looked like a glimpse of Heaven, minus the fishy smells...fishy smells don't belong in Heaven.

We drove through the waterfall area near Portland. There were dozens of falls you could visit. Horsetail Falls was one of my favorites because of its simplicity (pictured above). 

We also hiked to the VERY TOP of Multnomah Falls, the most famous of the waterfall bunch. For a pathetic, non-hiker, non-athletic person like myself, this was a huge accomplishment.  That hike really challenged me, but when it all was said and done, I was glad when we did it, even though the view from above was a little anti-climactic...

Pittock Mansion was a fun stop in Portland! It was built in 1909 and had stunning architecture. I love stops like this! 

The view of Downtown Portland from the mansion.

I had to stop at Salt and Straw! I got a snickerdoodle icecream cone. Yum! (Katie secret: I love vanilla based icecreams and desserts much more than chocolate, and my favorite toppings are: caramely, cookie doughy, or cinnamony. There you have it! I know I'm a girl and it should be chocolate, but it's not!) 

We then went to the Portland Rose Garden as part of our Sunday morning, a completely free, peaceful stroll! 

On our way to church with a dear old friend and roommate, we stopped at the Portland Temple and took pictures. What a gorgeous temple! I had no idea it was so big! My pictures didn't do it justice. 

After a wonderful visit  and dinner with my gracious friend and her sweet family, we we were off to the coast! It amazes me that you can see beaches a thousand times, but every beach is so absolutely unique. To me, what characterized the Northwest beaches was a misty fog. It was hauntingly lovely. When we got to our hotel on the beach, we arrived at this sight: 

Absolutely gorgeous, right? The other thing I learned about Northwest beaches is the cold. It was a supposedly "warm week" for Seaside, Oregon; when in reality, the water was still too cold for me to brave! However, its beauty made up for the lack of me not being able to wear my brand new swimsuit :) 

The next morning we were off to drive down the coast (and take our sweet time doing so) to arrive to the Tillamook Cheese factory; It was deemed a "must see" on our itinerary made by...me....shocker, right? 

There are a few things that have to be in Heaven for it to be Heaven to me: 1) my family 2) ice-cream 3) cheese 4) bread. Tillamook possessed three out of the four, so I'd say they're pretty close to being celestialized. 

We came back from our morning adventure to explore Cannon Beach, which was a little overcrowded but still fun to look at. We spent the evening meandering shops, eating pizza, and exploring the Seaside Nike Outlet. It was peaceful and fun! 

The next morning we started our drive up the coast to Port Angeles and saw some of the prettiest scenery. We drove through Astoria and stopped at the famous Astoria Column, built in 1926, that chronicles the Lewis and Clark expedition along with other famous events in Astoria on the front. My fear of heights got to me climbing up, but I did it! (Yes, you can actually climb up this pillar). The view was SO worth all my fears of obituaries that read "Katie Browning died from falling through the very open stairwell in Astoria. The only consolation is she had Tillamook cheese and ice-cream the previous day. She almost tasted Heaven."

The view! 

And from Astoria, we headed into Washington, which I will post in a later post to make this not seem as long as it really is. Boy! Am I behind on blogging or what!?