Seattle, WA and more!
Since our Spring Break trip two years ago to the Oregon Coast, we have haven’t to return to the Pacific Northwest. Duane had a friend who lived on Whidbey Island he wanted to see, so we booked an AirBnB on Bainbridge Island as the initial start of the trip. After that, I learned my girlfriends, Jamaica and Michelle, wanted to get their families together over Memorial Day weekend so we booked the Richland, WA segment of the trip. I then added the Olympic National Park leg of the trip to wrap up the 10 day trip away from Topo, which is as many days as we can take away from our girl.
The Bainbridge Island Crew
While Michelle lives in nearby Paso, Jamaica and the fam rented an AirBnB in Richland, WA. This tri-city area (with Kennewick) in rich in agriculture including nearby vineyards. We spent the days visiting nearby wineries, including the adorable town of Walla Walla and the evenings in Michelle and Justin’s backyard while the kids played and the adults caught up. It was such a heart fulfilling visit with lifelong friends.
From Richland, we traveled back West to Bainbridge Island to stay with Beth and Duane. We had the most unique AirBnB right on the sound where we watched the tide roll in and out and the sea life (crabs, sea birds, and even otters) that comes with it.
We spent our first full day there exploring Pike Place Market and the Seattle Aquarium. Ella tried clam chowder for the first time and liked! We got to take the ferry there and back and while it was new and entertaining, we also learned that the population leaving Seattle to Bainbridge Island in the evening was a lot. It took us an hour waiting in the ferry line to catch the next one. We learned our lesson for the next time, however, and made sure we left our adventures to get in line sooner.
The next day, to give ourselves a break from the long ferry line and busy schedule, we stayed on Bainbridge Island, walking along the beaches and the downtown area.
I had purchased a City Pass from the Seattle Tourism site and while it was a huge savings, we needed to go back to Seattle to get our money’s worth. We loved the next day at the Space Needle! Although, not nearly has high as our local Las Vegas Stratosphere, the Space Needle has much better views and a rotating glass floor. We spent way more time a top than we thought we would, but it was worth it. We spent some time asking the lead glass technician, Paul, some questions about the newly added (since 2018) glass floor. I think he appreciated our interest in the new addition, so he offered to let the kids stop the rotating floor and then change its direction! Miles stopped the floor and Ella hit the switch to change the direction…it was a very unique experience that we are grateful for.
After that, we said our goodbyes to Duane and Beth while they were heading back to LV, we drove around the Olympic Peninsula to start our rainforest leg of the trip.
We spent two nights at Lake Quinault Lodge. The drive along the coast was wonderfully scenic with Ruby Beach being the highlight. Unfortunately, Miles was sleeping once we got to Ruby Beach so we didn’t spend as much time there as we would have wanted.
Once we settled in, we enjoyed the large grassy area the lodge provided. The next day hiked to nearby waterfalls and the largest Sitka Spruce tree in the world as the clouds stayed low and a constant mist was in the air. We were originally supposed to stay at the lodge nights, however our final day there was going to be very cold (50 degrees) and pouring rain, so we used that as a travel day back to Seattle. There is so much more to Olympic National Park that we didn’t get to see, however, I am grateful we were able to see what we did.
Although it was cold and rainy in Seattle, we were able to explore the Pacific Science Center and the Chihuly Glass Museum (both of which were essentially free as I had already paid for the Seattle City Pass and was set on getting our money’s worth, haha!) We could have spent so much more time at the Science Center; they had a incredible butterfly exhibit and so many fun exploratory areas for the kids. I know the kids appreciated the time for what they wanted to do. The Chihuly Glass Museum was absolutely amazing and we were so impressed that the kids too such interested in the informational videos on how the glass pieces were created.
Washington State has so many beautiful areas and we just scratched the surface. As disappointing as it is to leave areas unexplored and sites left unseen when we leave, it is also motivation to return to pick up where we left off.