Washington: Seattle, Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens

Capital: Olympia

Largest City: Seattle

Population: 7.07 million

Admitted: 1889

Washington is a state in the Pacific Northwest. With abundant forests and the Cascade Mountains, it is a beautiful state with national parks and nature to explore. Besides being a nature lover's paradise, the metropolitan area of Seattle is home to several of the world's largest American companies including Amazon, Microsoft and Starbucks. I have visited Washington twice and enjoy wandering around the state.

Seattle: Food and Pike Place Market

In February of 2020, I went to Seattle for an extended Presidents' Day weekend. My mother was worried as early Covid-19 cases were beginning to appear in Seattle. My hotel was close to the Space Needle. Looking up from the hotel entrance, I could see the 605 foot observation tower staring back at me.

Upon arriving late at night in Seattle, I expected it to be similar to New York City -- a busy, lively city. However, it was mostly empty. The light link rail from the airport did not go all the way to the hotel, so I had a long walk. Along the way, two guys gave me bad vibes, but a woman nearby walking must have thought the same and she said, "safety in numbers" to me. I proceeded to follow her and the man walking with her closely until I got to my hotel.

A little about me is I watch a few food vloggers on Youtube. Some of them eat a lot of food and perhaps it is just for the internet, but they make the food sound amazing. Expecting to try every food recommended in Seattle, I started with a mini food tour first thing in the morning.

My first food spot was a quirky restaurant called Biscuit Bitch where the severs call you a bitch with a straight face, and each menu item has the word bitch included with it. Next, I went to a restaurant restaurant dedicated to cheese. They claim to have the world's best macaroni n' cheese, but I found it to be some of the worst macaroni n' cheese. For meal number three of the morning, I went to Pike Place Chowder to line-up for the world's best clam chowder. They even won awards for their chowder. It was a good chowder, though, I did prefer the Dungeness crab sandwich I had. Being next to the water, Seattle is a must place to go to eat seafood.

Another stop on my 'why did I decide to do this again' food tour

All these food stops were near the Pike Place Market which I enjoyed walking around during the two-days I spent in Seattle. I saw the famous fish throw. Whenever someone orders a big fish, one worker throws it to another worker. People line-up around to watch it. It was a very lively market and definitely the place to be in Seattle.

Nearby Pike Place Market is the gum wall, which is a large brick wall with chewed gum all over it. It was a little disgusting, but I of course, had to add a piece to it. A gum ball machine is nearby to buy a 25 cent gum ball to add a piece of your own chewed up gum to the art display.

Feeling the love at Seattle's gum wall

Once finishing at the market, I went to the Museum of Pop Culture. I enjoy pop culture. Seattle is also home to grunge music -- Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains all originate from the city, and the museum consisted of information about them. Unfortunately and despite being a fan of grunge, I was not a huge fan of the museum.

For my last food stop of the day, I tried a Seattle dog from a food cart. The hot dog came with cream cheese and fried peppers. It sounds disgusting, but I loved it, which you can see from my favorites page.

Next morning, I, of course, started with another food tour because I guess I was still hungry from the day before. Heading back to the neighborhood around Pike Place Market, I began by trying a crumpet, which is a flour pastry that is similar to an English muffin with breakfast or sweet toppings. My next stop was a piroshky, which is a Russian pastry. Since I thought my taste buds were off, I decided to give the world's best macaroni n' cheese again, but nope they were correct.

Being beyond stuffed, I decided to check-out the earliest Starbucks location. The original was located across the street, but it is no longer there. I then went to the aquarium. I do not remember much about it, but according to my review on TripAdvisor, I spent only an hour there.

Trying a drink at the original Starbucks location

Evidentially I was still hungry after the aquarium, I then headed to try clam chowder at another restaurant. I also had the Alaskan cod and french fries. The nearby seagulls loved the french fries (I'm sure they were hungrier than I was)!

Stuffed in Seattle and feeding my fries to the seagulls as a fellow seagull lover

After the aquarium and my fourth meal of the day, I went to Olympic National Park to stroll around, see the sculptures lining the park and burn off the thousands of calories I had eaten in two days.

I still had time left, so I headed over to the Space Needle. I circled the souvenir shop at the bottom of the Space Needle about ten times as I contemplated whether I should go up or not, but ultimately, I decided to pass. Instead, I went to the Chihuly Garden and Glass. I almost did not go as it was pricy, but tickets were discounted after 4 p.m. It ended up being the best thing I did in Seattle. They have a lot of neat glass artwork and a glass blowing show.

With the Seattle trip, I was not aware that it would be my last time on an airplane for over a year. I tried to make the best of it. Obviously, I ate way too much food, and it made me realize that food tours are not fun unless you have someone to enjoy it with you and help eat some of the food.

The Mountains: Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens

In October of 2021, I returned to Washington on a trip that I took to Oregon and Washington. The trip was dedicated to three mountains -- Mount Hood, Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens.

On a rainy and foggy morning, we drove to Mount Saint Helens. She was enshrouded in fog when we arrived. We were not able to see her, but we did learn about the May 18, 1980 eruption and see how it carved out the surrounding landscape following the eruption. She rained ashes down on five different states. A hiker who was climbing nearby Mount Adams captured photos of the eruption. Fifty-seven were killed, but only a few were in the marked out danger red zone. She took out nearby Spirit Lake, the lodge and its owner and his twenty cats who refused to leave the area. Today, Spirit Lake is still used. Despite the eruption changing its shape, it proved how if you let nature do what it does, it can come back. Spirit Lake is full of fish, aquatic plants and other life again.

We also enjoyed Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks. Mount Rainier was the preferable of the two. It was a sunny, busy day at Mount Rainier, but we had excellent views of the largest mountain in Washington at 14,410 feet.

A clear view of the highest mountain in Washington

Olympic National Park is massive. We took several hours to circle the park and probably did not see the highlights due its the size. A highlight our park visit was we saw the rainiest city in the contiguous United States, and it was sunny! The city of Forks receives about 120 inches (or 10 feet) of rain each year. It is also notable for being where Twilight was filmed.

Washington was a mix of too much food, a lot of gray, huge trees and beautiful mountains.