If you're looking for a great weekend trip filled with seafood, pine trees, gorgeous pacific northwest beaches, and awesome outdoor activities, look no further than Washington! I've spent a lot of time in Washington, but hadn't been in a while. Daylen and I headed up to Seattle for a weekend this August, and it was the perfect time to visit! Washington may be known for it's constant rain, but in the summer it's actually quite sunny and warm.
We started our trip by visiting my favorite places in the city for an evening. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed and Pike Place Market was closed for the night, but we still walked around and saw some of the views nearby. Daylen had never been to Seattle, so we had to see Pike Place and the first Starbucks. The first Starbucks is always so funny to me, it's such a tiny little place that is SO crowded. We saw, we took a photo, we walked around the corner and saw another Starbucks with no line. My favorite Seattle restaurant, Piroshky Piroshky was also closed, but I highly recommend if you're in the area!
Next, we walked down to the piers for some great sunset photos and ate at Ivar's Acres of Clams right on Puget Sound. Ivar's is my favorite Washington fast food chain, but they also have a few sit down restaurants around the state. I had panko crusted halibut and it was delicious! The views cannot be beat.
For our first full day, we woke up early to drive down to Mount Rainier National Park. In all of the times I have been to Washington, I had never been to Mount Rainier. I love national parks (like, a lot) so I was super excited to see it! We hiked the short Myrtle Falls Trail and it was gorgeous! It reminded me a lot of Grand Teton National Park, my favorite. I loved all of the flowers, waterfalls, and views of the glaciers on the mountain. We have seen a lot of volcanoes this year between Mount Rainer and Hawaii Volcanoes.
The next day was salmon fishing day for Daylen. We went to my favorite PNW beach, Mukilteo Lighthouse Beach, and he caught his first salmon of the day in the first few minutes! During this time of year, every other year, the Pink Salmon make their trek through the Sound to the rivers. We were lucky enough to be there while they were still swimming through the Sound. I also found some really nice clam shells during low tide, and we saw a couple of starfish near the lighthouse.
We drove over to Deception Pass, up near Anacortes at the top of Whidbey Island. Deception Pass is a bridge that connects to Whidbey Island, and has some pretty amazing views. We stopped to fish below the bridge at Deception Pass State Park, with no luck, but we did see a family of three otters.
Our last fishing spot of salmon day was Bush Point on Whidbey Island. Daylen caught his second salmon here, limiting out for the day. The sunset was so pretty from the island! Right before we had to catch our ferry back, we finally saw a jellyfish in the water. I love jellyfish and had been looking for one the entire trip.
