It was Jeff’s tip that aimed us towards Willapa Bay. He mentioned an oyster place he liked, located right on the bay in Bay Center. We found Bay Center, but we never found the restaurant. We drove every road in town, some of them twice, a couple three times, and couldn’t find it. But we found a whole lot more. An Afternoon Snack at Oyster Shack We needed a snack as [...]
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We’re fans of Champagne and potato chips. They’re great together. Champagne and popcorn is good too, but we really like the chips (“crisps” for our British readers). This duo is just as good. Got a bottle of sweet wine but don’t want to wait until dessert to drink it? Grab some chips and salsa. Here’s why it works: the sweetness of the wine takes the edge off both the saltiness [...]
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The Trail of Terror starts with the flat and easy 1.4 mile stroll to Third Beach near La Push, WA along Olympic Park’s Pacific shore area. Walk south down the beach towards the waterfall. Look for the trail sign near where the beach narrows. It’s right above the freshly eroded cliff, near the dangling rope. The Trail of Terror connects Third Beach with the beaches to the south. It’s the [...]
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Twilight, that novel about sexy vampires or something, was set in Forks, Washington, the rainiest town in the US. It averages 211 days of rain per year here. Our friend, Jane, tipped us of to the Twilight thing saying: Twilight was set there, which they thought was a pretty big deal a few years ago. It’s been a while though, so maybe they don’t care about that anymore. Oh, they [...]
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Olympic National Park is made up of many separate, unique areas. If you don’t pay attention, you’ll miss them. The park covers a large part of the Olympic Peninsula, across the Puget Sound from Seattle, plus a narrow strip of land along the Pacific Ocean. Roads enter into the main section of park, but none go through, so there’s quite a bit of driving involved. 95% of the park has [...]
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Eric, a former Seattle resident, gave us this tip: The thing I would recommend more than anything else is taking a ferry. They’re just awesome. There is a ferry terminal downtown (a couple blocks from Pike Place). The ferries are huge and you can walk on for much cheaper than taking the van. Going across to Bainbridge [Island] is what I’d vote for … You can wander the small town [...]
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It’s true. As of July 1st, 2012, the plastic bag is dead…murdered by the city of Seattle, complete with full (and hilarious) obituary in the Seattle Weekly (which reminded us of our dear old Chicago Reader, except with even more advertising). Quote: ”In lieu of flowers, please throw something into the ocean capable of choking a small marine animal.” Seattle isn’t the first city to ban the plastic bag. It seems like [...]
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I was excited to be in Seattle, close to the ocean, and nearer to oysters again. I’d just read about Olympia Oysters in a book … publushed in the ’70s. Turns out they were nearly extinct for a bit. They’re not at a store near you. Hopefully we can find some near Netarts Bay, Oregon. I last had oysters in Florida, basically a decade ago. Fortunately / unfortunately, the Florida Apalachicola [...]
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Cheeseburgers are everywhere. Good ones are rare (cooked medium). We’ve found a bunch of good burgers on the trip so far — they just might be the ultimate road food. We were on our way to Rainier and we already knew where we’d be getting lunch as we drove out of the park: Scaleburger. Thinking about burgers made us want burgers, so we stopped at Sonic. Then after arriving in [...]
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I’m pretty sure Seattle has the highest per-capita concentration of VW vans outside of Stuttgart, Germany. They’re everywhere, so I took some pictures of them. Just a few of them. I want one.
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The Syndicate Wine Shop