Mt. Rainier National Park & Seattle

Cameron and I took a trip to Washington! We started with a couple of days in Mt. Rainier National Park hiking then headed to Seattle. Neither of us had ever been to Seattle, and we'd always wanted to visit. Also, one of Cameron's best friends Brendan Blake lives there ad we wanted to spend time with them.

We started with an early morning flight and went straight to Mt. Rainier National Park. I don't know what I was thinking, but when I planned this trip I wasn't aware that there would be snow at all. About a week before the trip while I was doing final research, I realized the first hike we were planning to do was still about 90% snow. And the second day I had planned in the Sunset area had to completely be canceled because the roads are still closed. We decided to still go for it and bought poles and crampons so we could do the Skyline Loop the first day like we planned.

It was incredible! We're so glad we did it. The snow made it feel extra adventurous and we loved it.

Saw a fair amount of marmots!

Ironically, we never actually saw Mt. Rainier itself the whole time we were in the park--it was covered by fog. But we were really close to it here!

Going down the glaciers/snow was tricky. We eventually decided to slide down on our bums on a few sketchy parts. It was so fun and soooo cold.

We were so cold and hungry and wet by the end. We had so much fun! But we sure enjoyed that warm dinner at the Paradise Inn after.

This doesn't really capture it, but the Paradise Inn was so cool. This was the main hangout area. Very cozy with huge fireplaces, people playing cards, reading books, etc.

Such a pretty Inn

Day 2 began with an easy hike to Bench and Snow Lakes.

The views were incredible!

Narada Falls

The second hike we did on day 2 was the Rampart Ridge Loop. We were pretty tired at this point and this hike was more of a climb than we anticipated, but it was gorgeous. It was in the Longmire area (lower elevation) so we got the break we needed from snow.

We drove into Seattle late night of day 2, and explored Seattle starting day 3. We went to the Chihuly Museum and actually loved it.

Walked up to Kerry Park for gorgeous views of the city.

Did a food tour at Pike Place. The chowder was our favorite! The tour leader and a little too much razzle for Cameron, but it was otherwise great.

We walked through the Capitol Hill area on our way to dinner and--wow--some really interesting characters made for some great people watching. We met up at a yummy Vietnamese Restaurant with Brendan and Briana and had a great dinner that night.

We met up with Briana and Brendan for a morning at the beach the next morning.We went to Golden Gardens Park and loved getting to know their girls Nell and Laurel.

Brendan took us on a great bike ride through Ballard, Fremont, Gas Works Park (pictured here, such a cool spot!), and University of Washington campus.

View of Seattle from Gas Works Park

Brendan took us to see the Ballard Locks and Fish Ladder

We chilled in Ballard and explored. It ended up being our favorite area. Lots of fun shops. Also--no shortage of far left signs all over the city. :)

We hung out near Pike Place by the water that night. It was the most beautiful night. I know everyone says it rains a lot in Seattle, but we had basically perfect weather our whole time there! 

Our last morning we had a fun breakfast with Brendan and Laurel. I there realized I'd left my phone in our uber that morning and frantically spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to get it back. (It all worked out and our driver brought it back to our hotel.) We still made it to the farmers market in Ballard and absolutely loved it. Coolest farmers market we've ever been too. We got berries, jam, and delicious Indian and Mediterranean for lunch. We visited Brendan and Briana for a bit at their house then Brendan took us to the airport. Overall it was a wonderful trip! We loved getting to explore a new city and part of the world.