A PNW Roadtrip Vacation!
April 12, 2009
My first trip to the Pacific Northwest & people weren’t kidding . . .
That area of the earth is just gorgeous!!
Sacre, Trick (his dog) & I left last Friday @ 6am, drove over the snowy Teton pass & into Idaho over another (more snowy) pass & into Oregon. We drove all day, stopping only for food, fuel and doggie spots. Once we were inside of Oregon for a bit, we traveled alongside the Columbia River and saw a good amount of sweet waterfalls. Reaching Portland at about 9pm, we stayed overnight with a couchsurfing family & shared a wonderful salmon dinner meal with them. Unfortunately, our accommodations were the floor of their spare bedroom, but at least we had a place to crash. We left early in the morning & didn’t see a thing in Portland, due mainly to the fog that vieled the entire city 
We headed north to see Mount St. Helens & took some beautiful pictures. What an amazing volcanic mountain! We then took some backroads over to Mount Rainier, entered the National Park site & drove up the twisty roads as far as we could go & got some more awesome pics. From there, we hit Seattle at sunset and saw all of the gorgeous waterways and boats in the harbors. It was great — no rain! We met up with my friend Andrea & her man for dinner in Bellevue (part of Seattle, Washington) and enjoyed a savory dinner at P.F. Changs & then stayed with them (unfortunately, our accomodations were the floor in a spare bedroom again)! We left Seattle and went to visit Sacre’s grandfather that morning in the nursing home and then started going north again to Whidbey Island to see Deception Pass. We did a short hike over there with the dog and then went over to Anacortes to catch a ferry to San Juan Island. It was beautiful traveling over to Friday Harbor during sunset hours. We then found a delicious seafood place on the water & bedded down for the night at a hotel.
A morning ferry took us over to Vancouver Island in Canada and we landed in Sidney and drove down to the city of Victoria. It was such a nice, sunny day, but we only had a few hours to explore and take pictures because we needed to get on our next ferry! In Victoria we saw some neat architchure, spent some Canada money on postcards and marveled at the seaplanes and boats in the harbor. Taking the ferry over the Straight of Juan De Fuca and over to Port Angeles (back in Washington), we had an insanely gorgeous view of the Olympic mountains. We were behind in schedule and got to the Hoh Rainforest inside of Olympic National Park when it was dark – but I wasn’t about to miss the Hall of Mosses! We took the dog with us (illegally) and went a few miles into the rainforest with nothing but a flashlight. Later, we kept driving in the dark until we hit the coastline and set up our sleeping quarters in a campground in the back of the SUV (complete with Trick puppy in the middle)!
Upon waking, we walked down the beach trail and experienced the big, beautiful Pacific Ocean. The sea air smelled good, until I happened upon a dead seal (yuck)! We continued driving down the coast of Washington and over to the west side of Puget sound. We then took a ferry over to Seattle and spent some time at Pike Place Market – where I got a Starbucks coffee from the original shop that started the trend and bought some yummy salmon jerky. Heading out of Seattle, we again headed North to see Sacre’s aunt and uncle that live on a farm in Bryant. It was fun chatting with the minature donkeys they raise on the land there. We visited with them a bit (checking out the tools we would be loading up in the Uhaul the next day) & drove south again to stay with a couchsurfer in Everett (back to great floor accomodations)!
The next day, we had planned to go to the famous Big 4 Ice Caves, but the weather had turned so chilly and windy – that we decided to go shopping instead! I was in my glory, shopping at Victoria Secret, the Clinique counter at Macy*s and some cool outlet shops. We then got the Uhaul and went back up to Bryant to load it up. After a few hours of painstakingly placing all of Sacre’s grandfather’s old and very expensive woodshop tools into the truck, we drove into Everett and stayed at a very nice La Quinta Inn (ahhh a bed, ahh a bath, ahhh KFC)!
In the morning, we enjoyed a complimentary breakfast, followed by 45 minutes of cleaning the rental SUV and ridding it of dog hair. Then it was a quick drop of the SUV rental at the airport and continuing on our way back to Jackson. We weren’t going to make it all the way to Jackson in 1 day, so we decided previously that we would stay with a couchsurfing couple in Boise, Idaho. As we went over the famous Snoqualmee pass, Sacre & I reminiced of our days of satellite radio, reclining seats and great suspension with our rental SUV.
After Boise, we again went shopping – this time at Home Depot and Bed, Bath & Beyond! We got some great stuff to pack into the Uhaul & made the final trek to Jackson, with a stop for mexican food in between 
Too bad I came back with the flu!! I’ll be spending Easter in bed, sleeping!!
All pics are located here (always!):
http://picasaweb.google.com/rocaiazzo
