Pacific Northwest Bound
Beneath the redwood crown with totems waiving, the eagles guide me in
I didn’t grow up in nature.
When you live in a noisy London suburb, “nature” is relegated to a small copse of trees at the ragged edge of your school grounds complete with stinging nettles and the odd ramshackle blackberry bush.
Moving to Florida, I didn’t really experience much in the way of nature either. We have lovely beaches but I spent less time there and more time near the mosquito-riddled man-made lakes with iguanas the size of Shih Tzus.
It wasn’t until I was well into my thirties that I understood how awe-inspiring nature is, how profound John Muir was and how vital the National Park Service actually is.
We decided to visit the Pacific Northwest for the best reason to go anywhere - because we hadn’t been there before.
Also, Will discovered hiking in 2024 when we visited Nevada and Los Angeles.
When you take your kid hiking, he invariably gets tired and chills for a bit so you can have a glass of wine in peace. Since the PNW is known for hiking and being a wine-growing region famous for pinot noir? Yeah. Sign us the fuck up.
We decided to make Seattle the starting and ending point of our trip, so we stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites in downtown Seattle for the first two days which made life easy.
When you travel with a four-year-old, easy is what you aim for.
Admittedly, the parking garage was a little tight but it was centrally located, walkable and had a balcony with an incredible view of the Space Needle.
I mean, Frasier Crane’s view wasn’t this good.
For some people, vacation means sleeping in and time off to relax.
We are not those people. We’re typically up with the sun, out of the room as quickly as possible and in search of “good coffee” and our first adventure.
Travel Tip: Get the CityPass. If you’re planning on doing touristy stuff in Seattle and have a kid, it’s the way to go. For $200 for the three of us (Will was free) - we got into the Space Needle, the Museum of Pop Culture and the Seattle Aquarium - all of which I highly recommend checking out.
Since Seattle is known for salmon and Will is super into lox (we actually had bagels and lox for his birthday party), we figured bagels would be a pretty great first breakfast.
We went to Rubenstein’s in the South Lake Union neighborhood where Will got his classic - a plain bagel with lox - and I got something a little more creative.
Conceptually, this bagel is awesome but here’s the thing. I had life-changingly delicious bagels in Philly earlier that year. Spread Bagelry and Kismet are straight up the best bagels in all the land (nope, shut the fuck up, New York. The Jets suck and your bagel game just has better PR).
So, these bagels were just fine and yes, I am well aware that I am the actual worst.
The Space Needle is amazing.
I never really thought about it much but the views are spectacular.
It was about 40°F on the ground and considerably colder and windier on the observation deck. Will wasn’t a fan because…well, he lives in America and understands that infrastructure is made of like, gauze and the broken dreams of people who thought they could retire at 65, but he was a trooper and considerably happier inside where it was warmer, less windy and felt safer.
They have a little pie shop/bar inside and I could have happily spent an hour gazing into the distance with a drink but our next destination beckoned and I’ve been excited about seeing this place for years.
I’ve wanted to visit the Museum of Pop Culture since it was the Experience Music Project and Ann Powers was the curator…which means nothing to you unless you were super into Rolling Stone Magazine in the late 90s/early 2000s in which case, hi! Wanna be best friends?
The museum features exhibits on Seattle icons Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana, they have whole sections dedicated to sci-fi, fantasy and horror in fiction as well as video games and guitars from everyone from Howlin’ Wolf to Muddy Waters to Woody Guthrie to my favorite guitarist, the inimitable Stevie Ray Vaughan.
You know John Mayer has an SRV tattoo on his arm? Yeah. That makes me like him way more than I should.
One of my favorite parts was the Nirvana exhibit which featured several listening stations dedicated to Nirvana’s contemporaries - Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, The Gits, Sonic Youth and REM.
We put on headphones and listened to Soundgarden’s cover of the Beatles Come Together. I don’t know if he’ll remember this when he’s older. Probably not - he did way more exciting things on this trip than listen to music with his mom - but for me? It was a pretty special shared moment and it’s the luckiest I’ve felt in a long time.
You might remember the Seattle Aquarium from Aquaman - the tank below is in the scene where kid Arthur realized he had a special connection to the sea.
Unfortunately, Will is not the King of the Seven Seas and cannot command an aquatic army but it was still a good time.
The aquarium is super interactive with lots of exhibits and activities for kids to get their hands on. Will was a huge fan of the touch tanks.
Weirdly enough, the food at the Seattle Aquarium is delicious. Way better than it has any right to be. John and Will both got burgers with Wagyu, applewood smoked bacon and the crispiest sweet potato fries I’ve ever had and I got this black bean burger with like, a whole avocado on it and salsa verde.
When Will suggested demanded eating at the Aquarium, I tried my best to convince him to go to Pike Place instead but I’m glad he won this argument. Kid was right.
Nobody tell him that.
We ended up going to Pike Place Market twice - once when we first arrived and once right before we left and it was different than I expected. Unlike the Mercado San Miguel in Madrid or Reading Terminal Market in Philly, Pike Place is like a rabbit warren filled with hidden alleyways and surprises to discover.
We found the first of many Sasquatch statues, a cool comic book shop and a secret garden at the very top of the market with a gorgeous view of the Puget Sound.
I did not find Ghost Alley Espresso until it was too late and I had already gotten a cup of coffee, so until next time Salted Nut Latte.
Travel Tip: Before your trip, google “Hipster Neighborhood in NAME OF CITY” - I swear to God, this hasn’t lead me astray yet and as a result, we’ve found some really cool stuff. Case in point, the Ballard neighborhood in Seattle.
It’s on the waterfront, historically home to fisheries, canneries and lots of Scandinavian immigrants and home to a truly excellent farmer’s market, Mox Boarding House which is a pretty awesome tabletop game store/restaurant and the Ballard Locks. It’s supposed to be a great spot to spot salmon but we didn’t see any. We saw some cool sea lions, though.
One of the last things we did was take a ride on the ferry - nothing fancy. Just a roundtrip from Seattle to Kingston but it was nice to be on the water on a rainy day and kinda cool to have a cocktail at Marination Ma Kai while we waited.
We left the city in search of our first adventure - Mt. Rainier National Park.
I maintain that the two greatest things America ever did (other than bottomless refills of drip coffee and fountain Diet Coke) are Bruce Springsteen and the National Park Service.
Since it was winter, we didn’t anticipate doing much hiking in the park but we figured we’d drive around to a couple of viewpoints and take in the scenery.
We figured wrong.
The drive was gorgeous but we definitely noticed the temperature dropping as we snaked our way up the mountain.
And then, it started to snow. While Will has seen snow before, he had never seen snow fall, so we had to stop and check it out. He learned two things:
It’s cold.
Snow makes things slippery as hell.
You know what you need if you plan on driving around a snowy mountain?
Snow chains.
You know what our rental Jeep did not have?
Snow chains.
You can only get so far before you hit a fork in the road…which has conveniently vanished under a thick blanket of snow and the GPS goes out.
At that point, we had two options - make headline news in a week’s time - “Idiot Floridians Freeze To Death at Mount Rainier Like The Dumb Dummies They Are",” or throw the car in reverse and white-knuckle it down a windy, snow-covered road to safety.
What’s vacation without a little adventure?
A quick note about food. I am pretty much obsessed with the notion of eating well everywhere I go.
“Well” being a relative term because I’m less interested in Michelin-star dining and more interested in excellent representations of stuff that I love - tacos with truly delicious salsa (looking at you, salsa macha from Santa Diabla in San Antonio), vegetable soup with fresh brown bread (pretty much everywhere I went in Ireland) and the animal-style grilled cheese, animal style fries with peppers and a Diet Coke from any place that has an In-n-Out.
As a result, I am a meticulous planner and for this trip, I created a color-coded spreadsheet organized by activity and geographic locale.
Look, I’m not the biggest fan of Friends but Monica Gellar is not wrong.
But one of my favorite things is when you come across a great spot by fortuitous accident. We stopped in Mossyrock to stretch our legs and found the Lemon Tree Cafe & Espresso - a tiny spot with fresh baked bread, giant quesadillas and the freshest hummus and veggie sandwich I have ever had, complete with local fave, Tim’s Cascade potato chips. Literally the best jalapeno chips I’ve had in my life.
On our loop back to Seattle, we stopped in Kurt Cobain’s hometown on Aberdeen, saw his childhood home and grabbed a drink at Mount Olympus Brewery. It’s a relaxed, kid-friendly spot with a Come As You Are IPA and a couple of really tasty ciders on tap.
Our last meals in the Pacific Northwest were Indian food and pizza which kinda represents who we are as people.
We got chicken patiala, rogan josh and vegetable kofta at Nirmal’s - all of which were delicious. More spinach rassa in 2025. I think we’re all over the red sauce, right? I also got a mini culinary anthropology lesson as I eavesdropped on the owner talking about Indian food before colonization and the introduction of New World ingredients like tomatoes and potatoes.
We got pizza from West of Chicago Pizza Company because God, on a rainy cold night - tavern-style thin crust is pretty much everything you want. The produce tastes really fresh in this part of the world and I get the feeling that the next time I get lazy and decide to order a thing crust pie from Domino’s, I’m gonna be filled with disappointment and rage that it doesn’t taste as good as this.
Anyway, back to the trip.
Our next stop was Vader, Washington - conveniently located on between Washington and Oregon between Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens.
I don’t know when we became mountain people as such but I suspect that living in Florida with its pancake topography and reading entirely too much John Muir has something to do with it.
We were only in the tiny town of Vader (population less than 700) for a night but our airbnb in Vader was Will’s favorite stop of the trip as it was a former saloon with stick horses and a little jail cell nook upstairs. Being exhausted and freezing, I did very little exploring that night but John assures me that The Tracks Bar and Grill in town had a great burger and beer which is pretty much all you need in this life.
One of my favorite things about the PNW is the prevalence of little drive-thru espresso stands all over the place. It’s so much of A THING that Eater wrote a great piece about them a few months before our visit.
No matter which one you go to (and we went to a bunch), both the coffee and the vibes are immaculate and now, one of my pipe dreams is to start my own little roadside espresso shack serving iced cafecito (because hi, South Florida), orange mochas and cardamom-cashew cream lattes (because hi, Indian).
After grabbing “good coffee,” we headed to Mount St. Helens and stopped for a quick mile and a half loop in Toutle.
After our adventure at Mount Rainier, we felt a little more equipped to handle the snow and made it pretty far…until a winter storm advisory kicked in and we saw a bunch of service vehicles heading down the mountain.
Yeah. Definitely time to get the hell out and head to the next stop on our roadtrip - the great state of Oregon.
