Washington State: Mt. Erie Lookout, Roozengaard Festival and Heading Home

Day 6: Mt. Erie Lookout, Roozengaard Festival, Supper with Ayottes, Seattle Again

Our last day in Washington was a busy one! We were up fairly early, got ourselves packed, and then hit the road to check out the Roozengaard Festival in Skagit Valley. On the way, we stopped by one of THE most incredible places we visited the entire trip: the Mt. Eric Lookout. It was absolutely breathtaking!

Mt. Erie Lookout

Roozengaard Festival

We didn't know what to expect with the Roozengaard Festival. We hadn't ever heard of it before, and the drive there felt like a wild goose chase down back country roads. We were pleasantly surprised with all the beautiful flowers, however, and incredible mountain scenery in Skagit Valley. It was definitely worth the time (and small entrance fee) for a couple hours.

Dinner with the Ayottes

After Roozengaard, we parted ways and we made our way to Seattle for the night, as our flight was early the next morning. We met up with Kristin and Loren on our way home for supper at Scuttlebutt Brewing Co in Everett. I had been chatting with Kristin on a web forum for about 4 years and had never met her before, so it was fun to meet her and her hubby and catch up on things. So fun :)

After supper, we made our way to our hotel to check in for the night, and Mark returned the rental car (after only a little trouble finding the place). It was the end of our big trip, and we were blown away by all we had experienced in such a short amount of time. Yet, we were so, so, so very exhausted. It was a phenomenal trip, and we're SO glad to got to experience everything we did. I can honestly say there wasn't a day we'd have skipped, and there wasn't a single part of the trip we'd want to do over. (Well, okay, except for the time we wasted looking for my wallet...we could have done without that part) ;)

Washington State? Yeah, we'd go back!

Washington State: Seattle

Overview

Click on the links to go directly to the specific days or events

Day 0 (Apr 6): Travel, Arrival and Sleep

Day 1 (Apr 7): Show Me Seattle Bus Tour, Pike Place Market, Lunch at Beecher's, Seattle Center/Space Needle, Steelhead Diner, Stayed in Renton

Day 2 (Apr 8): Museum Of Flight, Traveling to Pacific Beach

Day 0: Travel, Arrival and Sleep

We got into SEATAC around 7pm and picked up our rental car. Cashel did great on the trip, but man do you ever end up with a lot of extra stuff with a baby in tow!

We made it to the hotel around 9 and got our stuff unpacked, said a quick hello to Daniel, Iryna and Sophie, then headed to bed.

Day 1: Tackling Seattle

We started out the day with breakfast at the hotel, then got ourselves re-packed and headed into Seattle (from Bellevue, if you recall from the nutshell recap) to catch our bus tour of the city with Show Me Seattle minibus tours.

Show Me Seattle Bus Tour

The tour included 3 hours of commentary and exploring the city of Seattle, covering everything from downtown Seattle, Pioneer Square, Chinatown/International District, The Waterfront, breathtaking views from Queen Anne Hill and Fremont and the Ballard Locks. We were also able to get a few pics of the houseboat featured on "Sleepless in Seattle", which was pretty cool :)

View from atop Queen Anne Hill

Ballard Locks



The boat house from Sleepless in Seattle

The Ogre

Pike's Place Public Market

After the tour, we were getting hungry and ready to explore a bit more, so we headed downtown to Pike's Place Public Market, parked the rental car and explored. Highlights here were observing the fish market, smelling the beautiful flowers, lunch at Beechers, and a vanilla chai latte at the Original Starbucks.

Lunch at Beecher's

The Original Starbucks

Supper at Steelhead Diner

We relaxed near the Waterfront for a while before finding some supper at Steelhead Diner.

Seattle Center/Space Needle

After supper, we were planning on going to see the sunset atop this one taller building in town, but found out it was closed, so we went down to the Seattle Center to explore a bit. We were contemplating going up in the space needle, but decided that $20 was a bit extreme to ride an elevator, so we just wandered around for a bit.

Then, it was getting late, so we got on the road to find out hotel for the night in Renton, where we checked out the pool for a bit before hitting the hay in preparation for another big day!

Day 2: Flight Museum and the long drive to Pacific Beach

After enjoying a strange, but delicious breakfast in a random hotel suite (renovations in the breakfast nook caused them to move it to a hotel suite instead), we got all packed up and hit the road for the Flight Museum.

Unfortunately, as we were arriving, I realized I had misplaced my wallet, so it was tough to really enjoy it too much. We still did enjoy it, but left to return to the hotel to search for it, and Mark miraculously FOUND IT hidden behind the headboard. We're about 95% sure the maid actually swiped it and hid it there, since we had called to report it missing prior to returning there, and they swore up and down that they hadn't seen it. Either way, we were ecstatic that we found it!

Museum of Flight

We enjoyed the flight museum for another couple hours before hitting the road for the long drive to Pacific Beach for the night. We really wish we had spent more quality time there, considering the wallet fiasco ate up a lot of our time :( It was a really neat museum, although I honestly can't say I'd probably ever return.

Here are some pictures from the Flight Museum:

Well, that's it for Seattle! I'm sure there is a ton more to do there, and while we had a nice (albeit short) visit, I don't know that I really have much of a desire to go back anytime soon. As for the rest of my Washington review, however, I'd go back in a heartbeat! To be continued...