Seattle & the Pacific Northwest

	Seattle
	Stacey bent over backwards — literally — to put us up in her home when we visited in May 2003.

She affectionately calls her tiny back-alley apartment "the box."			We really enjoyed the cozy accommodations.
	Stacey gave us her comfortable bed, while she slept on an air mattress in the living room.		Such close quarters gave us an opportunity to spend more time with one of our best friends.

Stacey showed us all around the wonderful city she's come to call home.

We visited some of Seattle's most notable neighborhoods.

	First up was Pike Place Market, a center of Seattle commerce since 1907.		Established in 1852, nearby Pioneer Square is Seattle's oldest neighborhood.
This downtown area was preserved as a historic district in 1971.			Many of its buildings date to just after a devastating 1889 fire.

Detail from the Gas Works memorial sundial

Fremont is Seattle's most unusual neighborhood — the "Artists Republic of Fremont" considers itself the center of the universe.

Stacey lives near Green Lake, a laid-back oasis in the middle of the city complete with playgrounds, jogging tracks, and a nearby zoo.

Of course, we couldn't see all Seattle has to offer in one weekend. Here are some of the places we might have visited if we'd had the time:
Seattle Art Museum	Experience Music Project	Seattle Monorail
Museum of Flight	Mount Rainier National Park	Microsoft Campus

	Olympic Peninsula
	One of the highlights of our 2003 trip was a visit to the Olympic Peninsula.		We sailed across Puget Sound on the Edmonds-Kingston ferry.

	Olympic National Park

Olympic NP is home to beaches, glaciers, and temperate rain forests.		The Hoh Rain Forest receives over 12 feet of rain each year!

	With so much to see, we'll have to come back to the Pacific Northwest for another visit before too long.

Return to Seattle
Seattle served as the jumping-off point for our trip to the San Juan Islands in June 2007.
	Afterwards, we made our way down to Seattle Center, and took in the panoramic views of the city from the top of the Space Needle.

Cascade Mountains
After laying about for a week on Orcas Island, we hit the road along Washington State's "Cascade Loop".

		Along the way, we passed through Ross Lake National Recreation Area, a series of three manmade reservoirs along the Skagit River.
		These lakes, the centerpiece of North Cascades National Park, have provided hydroelectric power to Seattle City Light since 1924.

	We continued our journey up the North Cascades Scenic Highway as it traverses Okanogan National Forest, winding its way through the spectacular Washington Pass.

Winthrop

	The true objective of our drive through the Cascades lay in Winthrop, a former ghost town which saw its fortunes revived with the completion of the highway in 1972.

	Now a popular tourist destination, Winthrop drew us on with the prospect of visiting our friend Stacey.


She lives there with her husband, Craig, and their daughter, Haley.

This page was first published 21 June 2003, and last updated 17 August 2008.

Olympic Peninsula