Well, it’s been ages since we’ve returned from our travels to the Pacific Northwest, but I’m finally sitting down to write about it. I hope I can remember enough to do it justice! Neither Nate nor I had visited the PNW in the past, so visiting a new part of the country intrigued us. The pictures we had seen were incredible, and we both were chomping at the bit to see it in all its glory. And for those of you who don’t know French, the significance behind the title of this adventure involves the fact that we went from Washington (the land of apples, or “pommes”) to Idaho (the land of potatoes, or “pommes de terre,” apples of the earth).
We headed out on Friday June 6th and had an uneventful flight. I noticed as we were descending upon Seattle around 10:30 that there was still a glow in the northwestern sky. Being so far north, complete darkness falls quite a bit later than we were accustomed. Once we landed, we got our luggage and took the shuttle to get our rental car. That was quite the fiasco! Not only were they arguing with us over not taking their insurance, apparently it’s Washington law that spouses are not allowed to drive without an extra fee. That’s unheard of anywhere else. Nathan was sure it was a sneaky false policy imposed by Advantage Rent a Car, but who knows. We managed to get away without using their insurance, but we had to get detailed documentation faxed from our insurance company right away. And I did wind up driving quite a bit, so it was lucky we weren’t pulled over.
That night, checked into the Extended Stay hotel near the airport. It was quite the experience. The bathroom door would not fit the frame – it was probably misaligned on its hinges – so you couldn’t secure the door while you were in there. The mini fridge was iced over, there were strange stains on the carpet, and an odd smell in the room (probably from prior smokers, despite this being a non-smoking room). Despite this, the employees were very cordial and helped tremendously with the insurance fax situation. We wound up staying two nights despite the rather uncomfortable accommodations.
On Saturday, I took care of the insurance fiasco in the morning, and then we headed off to Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. It was in a confusing part of town, and it took us a while to find the place, driving through neighborhoods in which no stop signs exist at any intersections. It was a bit worrisome, especially in the hillier parts of town where you couldn’t see around the bend. Eventually we found our way there and wound up having a great time. Nate and I particularly enjoyed playing around in the kiddie area where they have people-sized replicas of various animal homes like spider webs, mole tunnels, and tree stumps. It was really muddy, and if we didn’t have places to go, I would have gone all out. The zoo was very nice, but it was a typical zoo. There were a lot of cute squirrels, which you don’t often see in Albuquerque, so that was interesting. We did lunch at an indoor food court and people-watched.
After the zoo, we headed downtown to do some exploring. Downtown Seattle is so neat! It’s definitely geared toward pedestrians, which is good because we must have traversed the main street at least 5 or 6 times. We parked on the Chicago level of the parking garage and headed about 10 blocks south to the location of the underground tours. It would be about an hour and a half until our tour, so we bought our tickets and headed back north to the Pike Place Market, one of the famous tourist spots in Seattle. We pushed our way through the horrific crowds to watch the fish market employees toss fish around. That’s actually what they get paid for – to toss fish back and fourth! Oh so it would seem. That was entertaining, but the crowds were beginning to wear on us, so we pushed our way to the exit and wound up outside on the street. We noticed another crowd gathering around an odd-looking Starbucks, which had a band playing out front. We realized that this was the original Starbucks, but there was no way we were going to push our way inside. So instead we found a less crowded shopping arcade and enjoyed a Pepsi across from a German marketplace. Eventually it was time to get back to the underground tour. On the way, we marveled at a kilt shop and wondered how they stay in business…we got our answer when we saw several people (including one of the underground tour guides) donning them. Seattle is definitely an odd city with even odder people, but who knows? Maybe they’re setting a trend!
The underground tour was pretty interesting. We wandered around under three city blocks, learning the history of how the city was originally planned to be built with the first floor beneath the street. Basically the city would have looked like a waffle. It must have been pretty inconvenient to people, so that’s why it’s not that way now. It was interesting to see the remains of the underground dwellings, but not outstanding. One cool thing was how they created skylights that the pedestrians above actually walk over on the sidewalks. It was an interesting look at Seattle history and I’m glad we did it once.
After the underground tour, we walked several miles across town to the Space Needle. We both thought it seemed a lot shorter than they make it out to be. Most of the skyscrapers in town tower above it, but it’s still an icon. Our main attraction was Fun Forest, the amusement park that flanks the Needle. We got some ride tickets and both enjoyed the Windstorm – a large portable coaster with a few decent head chopper effects. Then I rode my kiddie coaster for another credit. Nate’s too dignified for such endeavors, but I’ll take any credit I can get! We walked around the rest of the park and perused many flat rides, but opted not to do anything else. Sadly, the park’s lease is running out, and it probably won’t be around much longer. I’m glad we experienced it, though!
We opted not to go up in the Space Needle because it was awfully pricey. If we are in town again, we’ll probably eat up there, though, to get around the entry fee. This time, however, we headed back toward the car for dinner at Pike’s Brewery. One interesting thing that I’ve noticed out west is that there is almost a type of beer culture that goes on out here. Brewpubs are quite common, and beer connoisseurs are everywhere. In fact, many people brew their own beers, including Nate himself! But the whole brewpub scene is something that was completely new to me. These days, it seems odd to find a western town without one such pub, and it’s our goal to try as many of them as we can. Nate indulged in his beers, having the first of many samplers. I had their crab chowder and we shared Dungeness crab and artichoke dip. I think Nate had a burger. I also tried a beer float – ice cream in a dark beer. I hoped that the sweetness of the ice cream would make the beer taste better, but it was just awful! I wound up letting Nate have the rest. Nate also noticed that the dark beers in the NW taste so coffee-like to the point of being unpalatable. Still, this brewpub was one of Nate’s favorite things about this trip.
After the brewpub, we walked all the way back down to where the underground tours meet up in search of a highly rated tiki bar. Unfortunately, despite being set up in a grid pattern, the street numbers don’t do what you’d expect. Block 500N gives way to block 1400S or something strange, so our tiki bar was missing in action. Instead we gave in and went to a less-spectacularly rated tiki place, The Islander. It’s more of a Hawaiian restaurant than a tiki bar, so that was disappointing. We sat at the bar and noticed that the rear room had some thatched trees, but that’s about all the tiki-ness we saw. Nate had an awful beer, and I had a very unpleasant tiki drink that was most unmemorable. Still, it was good to check off yet another tiki bar.
On Sunday, we headed out to Wild Waves, a prior Six Flags property. The park was set in a coniferous forest and was quite pretty. The temperatures, however, were most unpleasant. It was extremely cold (in my opinion) and I was shivering for most of the day. The cool thing was that there were no lines, and we practically had the park to ourselves. We rode three new coasters and a number of the other rides. Eventually, Nate was drawn to the water park, since there weren’t THAT many rides to occupy our time. It was about 40 degrees out, and I was amazed that the water park was even open, and while I didn’t really want to miss out on a major portion of the park, I declined getting pneumonia and agreed to meet Nate a little later. So while he proceeded to make himself into a Natecicle, I went back to Timberhawk, the wooden coaster, and rode it 12 more times, once in each seat, for a total ride count of 16. The coaster was extremely smooth for a wooden coaster, and lots of fun the first few times, but after about 5 in a row, it got almost boring. In fact, I was so bored by the end of it all, I didn’t even want to think about riding that coaster again! What a shame. So I met up with Nate, who had a blast at the water park, and after a few more flat rides, we headed out to the car.
That afternoon, we headed out to Leavenworth, an intriguing German-themed town in the middle of WA. All the buildings and businesses looked German, including the Chinese and Mexican restaurants, and it was set in the midst of these enormous mountains. I’ve never been to the Alps, but I imagine that’s what they were going for. We walked around, admiring the town, and stopped in the Australian (NOT Austrian!) shop. I talked with the owner a bit about Yowies, the hollow chocolate candies with animal puzzles inside which I collect, which he sadly no longer carries. Then we headed down to Andreas Keller restaurant, which is, as the name suggests, nestled in a “keller” or cellar. We indulged in some German food, listening to the music being played by a guy in lederhosen. It was a fun place to stop, and I’d have liked some more time to explore it. Sadly, it was getting dark and we had to be on our way. We headed east and spent the night at a nice Budget Inn in Wenatchee, the heart of apple country. On our way there, the landscape changed from alpine to desert, yet there were scads of apple orchards in this dry land. I’d never have guessed. And we got our first glimpse of the incredible Columbia River, too!
Monday morning, we were treated to some of the juiciest apples for breakfast. Then we headed out and drove east through the barren desert and flat farmland. We wound up stopping at a dud of a state park, which was supposed to be known for its wildflowers. The flowers had passed their peak, and our trek up to the top of a mesa was abandoned because Nate wasn’t feeling well, and the trail had turned quite treacherous. Going up was ok, but coming back down would have been unpleasant. Still, we were able to enjoy some desert lakes and unexpected Washington state mesaland.
From there, we headed up to the Grand Coulee Dam. We marveled at its vastness, and spent a little time in the visitor center. Then we took the free tour, riding on a diagonally traveling elevator that descends 400 feet. We learned all about the dam, and were able to peruse the inner workings. It was pretty interesting, though hard to hear the docent over the roar of the water.
From there, we headed toward Spokane, WA. Our first stop was Lakeside Park, a large city park that is home to one of the rare brass ring carousels. We took a ride on the challenging carousel – we both had a hard time catching the rings (which actually wound up being rubber, but oh well) due to the speed of the ride and the length of the reach. It was a lot of fun, though, and it’s always a treat to ride a historic carousel. Then we walked around the park, checking out the makeshift amusement park, which was closed. It consists of a number of carnival rides set up on the city ice rink. Then we headed over to the waterfall zone and took a lot of pictures of the incredible water features. It started to rain, and we got absolutely drenched on the way back to the car. From there, we decided to eat dinner at Anthony’s – a seafood restaurant overlooking the falls. Were it not for the rain, I’d love to have eaten on the porch, but no such luck today. The cool thing was that we were able to partake in their 4 – 6pm-dinner deal. For a reasonable price, you can choose an entrée and get it with a shrimp cocktail, soup or salad, and dessert. I had the salmon, and Nate had the rockfish, and we really enjoyed our dinners. The best parts were the shrimp cocktail, chowder, and chocolate mousse, in my opinion. It was a nice way to top off the evening.
Exhausted and soaked, we continued east along I-90, stopping briefly at Cabela’s to take in the spectacle, and we continued on to Coeur d’Alene, ID, a town I’d wanted to visit for many years. We checked into the Motel 6, checked our email at the library, hiked Tubb’s Hill, a forested trail that overlooks Lake Coeur d’Alene, and got ice cream at Zip’s, the local burger joint.
Tuesday, we planned to head to Silverwood Amusement Park in Coeur d’Alene, but it wasn’t opening until later in the day, so we decided to try to mine for garnets at Emerald Creek. We didn’t realize how far the drive would be, however, and by the time we got there, it was already late morning. We trudged our way down to the forest service-run mud piles and were briefed on what to expect. Basically you take a shovel and a bucket, fill your bucket with mud from the giant mud pile, bring it over to the water chutes, dump it out in a sifter, and look for garnets, particularly the rare starlight garnet which can only be found here and somewhere in Europe. It was rainy, and occasionally snowy, and generally miserable out, but I had the most fantastic time!! I was covered in mud, and had we not planned on going to Silverwood later, I would have dived right in with abandon. This was the highlight of my trip! Poor Nathan was cold and miserable, but I actually fought off the cold with my pure enjoyment of this event. We wound up with several ounces of garnets, including a few we believe are stars. By the time we got back to town, it was about 3pm, and we decided to save Silverwood for the next day. Instead, we treated ourselves to a nice evening. We checked into the Holiday Inn Express when we found out it was attached to an indoor waterpark. We got a really good deal, getting a room with a fireplace and a hot tub and full breakfast, as well as unlimited access to the waterpark. We went straight to the waterpark, which was a challenge for me because I was frozen from our day outdoors, but it was 80 degrees inside and so nice! They had three waterslides, and we rode each one multiple times, and we played in the wave pool, also. There was also a spa tub that was supposedly open until 11pm for hotel guests, but they wound up kicking us out before 10. Oh well.
After our first stint at the water park, we went back upstairs to do laundry since we were both covered in mud. Then we ate at the Coeur d’Alene Brewing Company where Nate indulged in some more craft beer. After that, we went back to the water park for some more water sliding until they kicked us out for the night. It was a wonderful evening!! I’m so glad we decided to splurge and do that.
On Wednesday, we had breakfast downstairs. It was quite the spectacle – packed to the gills, and full of children coughing on everything and everyone. Despite this, the spread was impressive – warm breakfast was served, and there was a lot to choose from. After we ate, we headed off to Silverwood, just north of our hotel in Athol, ID. I had heard about their amazing wooden coasters for years now, and I was so thrilled to finally have a chance to experience them myself. The park was very cute and had some rare rides like a Sky Diver – a ferries wheel which flips laterally – one of the most painful rides out there, but a must-do, due to its rarity. It also has the first modern-era coaster that goes upside-down, the Corkscrew. It was painful, but I was happy to be riding such a historic ride. The wooden coasters were incredible! Timber Terror is an exciting out and back, and Tremors is a wild twister that dives underground four times, including once through a gift shop. The park also had some of the best park pizza I’ve ever had!
Midway through our day, Nate suggested we try the attached waterpark. I was a bit skeptical, since it was still rather chilly (maybe in the 50s), but I agreed. We did the slides and the wave pool and the lazy river, and had an absolute blast. Sure, my hair looked like one gigantic dreadlock after it was all done, but it was worth it. After the waterpark, we did a few more rides including bumper boats and the wooden coasters again. We also did a long train ride, which brought us around to the new monstrosity they’re constructing: Déjà vu. Yes, they bought Six Flags Great America’s very own lawn ornament (which replaced my beloved Sky Whirl, by the way) and are attempting to reconstruct it. Hopefully they’ll have more success at keeping it running, but in all honesty, the ride isn’t that good anyway. Oh, and they’re changing the name to Aftershock. I really think they could have done better, but oh well. We had a fantastic day at the park, overall. The crowds were light due to early snowy weather, but the day turned out comfortable and enjoyable. We left around 5pm and drove back through Washington, sadly never having gotten to sample any of Idaho’s famous potatoes (well, do the fries at Burger King count?). We stopped for dinner at the Atomic Brew Pub in Hanford, location of the old plutonium site. This was Nate’s least favorite brewpub of the trip. I guess all the beers were rather “meh,” and I recall the IPA tasting like soap, complete with the lathering on the back of my tongue. Bleh. Then we continued down to Bordman, OR and stayed at the sketchy Riverview Motel. The beds were makeshift – they stacked two mattresses on a rectangle of lumber. They also had a weird ham radio in the rooms, and it smelled funny. We found out in the morning that the showers don’t work either – no water pressure or heat. Still, we were glad to stop for the night. It was a long day, and we’d have another long one tomorrow...and due to problems loading, I'll stop here and save the remainder for my next post...
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