Our Travel Blog: 10th to 16th October - Snohomish/Whistler/Seattle

We made it to Seattle from New Orleans (via Dallas), picked up our hire car and then drove straight up to Snohomish to meet Jayne. First stop was Fred’s Rivertown Alehouse where we had a couple of drinks and some appetisers. We then took a walk along the Snohomish River before heading to Todo’s for a Mexican dinner (or slop as it is now known!). Our final stop was The Repp for Raspberry drops (yum!) and then back to Jaynes to settle in for the night (well after another few drinks that is)!

Saturday morning Larry joined us and we headed up to Snoqualmie Falls and for brunch at the restaurant at the Salish Lodge that overlooks the falls. Our breakfast was amazing (Eggs Benedict with crab) and after we had finished we took a walk outside to have a closer look at the falls. We then drove around the area for a bit before heading to Newcastle to visit the Golf Club.

It had been raining on and off so far today, but we got really lucky when we got here and the sun decided to come out. The grounds were beautiful and the view out across the lake was amazing. We had a drink here before heading across to Redhook Brewery. It was really busy here, everyone was here watching the college football, but we managed to find a few seats and settled in for another drink and a snack.

After this, we headed across to Amanda & Jon’s place where we met Ruby, Kitsu and Jon for the first time and then Amanda and Jon took us out in Ballard where we had a great dinner and drinks - it was really good to catch up after all these years!

On Sunday Jayne, Larry, Wade and I headed up to Whistler for a few days. We arrived in the afternoon and checked in at our hotel which was right at the base of the mountain. Wade and I were lucky enough to get upgraded to a one bedroom suite (sorry Jayne) and our room and view was amazing! I fell in love with the fireplace in our room too (and would love to put one in at home - is there a need for one in Qld?!?!?!).

It was actually Thanksgiving weekend in Canada as well and we had all intentions of having Thanksgiving dinner in the restaurant in our hotel. After happy hour in our room we headed down to the restaurant where we were told that they had sold out of Thanksgiving dinner (it was only just after 7pm too and we were all very disappointed). After getting over our disappointment, we found another restaurant where we had a really nice dinner. Johnny, our waiter, then gave us a tip for a bar to go to afterwards, but after walking for ages in the rain we realised we were in completely the wrong place (we all blamed Johnny at the time but I do wonder now if it could possibly have been the alcohol)! We finally found the bar, which was just across from the restaurant we had been at and had one last drink before heading back to bed.

Monday we had a bit of a slower start. Wade and I walked around the village for a bit in the morning and then after a lot of consideration, Jayne, Wade and I all decided to head up the Whistler Gondola to check out the view. It was a pretty crappy day, raining and low clouds, so were weren’t really sure what we were going to see when we got up there. Thankfully though, it was nicer than it looked, and although it was freezing, the view was really good and we were all really glad we made the trip! After heading back down, Wade and I met up with Larry and we went zip-lining! There were five zip lines in total, and we had a really good group and guides and we all had a lot of fun (despite the rain that decided to bucket down from the third zip line onwards). After we got back, and warmed up in front of the fireplace for a while, it was time for happy hour in Jayne & Larry’s room, before heading out to dinner (a really good Indian meal tonight).

Tuesday, after a late breakfast, we took a drive around Whistler before hitting the road back to Snohomish. We had a quick stop at the US/Canadian border (where we had the best and cheapest ice-creams from the local dairy shop) and then grabbed pizza’s from Papa Murphy’s for dinner.

Wednesday, Wade and I headed to the Boeing Factory in Everett to take the tour. We got to see where they assemble the 747’s, 777’s & the new 787’s (Dreamliner) which was pretty cool! After this we had a quick lunch and then headed to the Glassybaby factory (where I couldn’t help but buy some)! From here (after an unfortunate detour over the only toll road in Seattle) we headed into downtown Seattle where we wandered around the Pike Place Market, caught the monorail up to the Space Needle and wandered around the area and then had a quick look at the shops at Pacific Place and then at the Northgate Mall. We were lucky enough that Nick was in town at the same time as us, so dinner tonight was at Daniel’s Broiler at Lake Union with Jayne, Larry, Nick and Amanda, where we had a really great meal and night.

Thursday we had a really slow start before saying goodbye to Jayne. On our way out of town we stopped in quickly at First St in Snohomish to check out some of the antique stores and then hit the highway to head in the direction of the airport. There was an accident on the highway and we got held up, so after a quick stop at the Westfield near the airport it was time to head to the airport. Once we got through security we had a quick lunch at Anthony’s before boarding out plane to Las Vegas.

This section of the country is just so beautiful and we are both completely fascinated by the trees here - how many there are and how great they look, especially with all the fall colours showing! Thank you so much to everyone in the Pacific Northwest for showing us around and making our time here so fun (Jayne, Larry, Amanda, Jon, Ruby and Nick)! There was definitely a lot of food, booze and laughs had over our almost week here! Also, a special thanks to Jayne for putting us up for so many days - we really appreciated it!

Here are some pictures from our time here:

Snoqualmie Falls/Salish Lodge