The Seattle Diaries: Wonderland in WA
Hi! Hope everyone missed these because while it may be a new year, new me, my blogs aren’t going anywhere. Hope everyone had a very special new year and is looking forward to what hopefully is the best year of each of our lives! Obviously setting my expectations high (but not high enough so that they’re crushed before February lol)
This past week, I returned to the Emerald City of Seattle, where I have been enjoying the snow and literally slipping down the streets (though here, it’s sadly much more rain than snow) with my best friend, Donna (shoutout to Donna). This entry will be filled with fun travel ideas for your next trip to WA but also just a fun opportunity to catch up with me and what’s been going on.
We got back last Thursday, and after a very long flight and wait for our baggage, we arrived back at my apartment, which I had surprisingly missed so much since leaving. For all of you who haven’t moved out and got a place, there is nothing more liberating than knowing there is a place made for you where everything is just as you left it (unless that means you choose to not clean it and/or your bed’s on the brink of collapse). Thankfully only one of those applies here.
We went grocery shopping that night, which was a FANTASTIC reminder that when I’m in Seattle, I live only a ten minute walk from a Trader Joe’s, something I can only dream of back home in Illinois. One of my weekly highlights was sending the store employee on a ten minute quest to find me my favorite pecans, until she checked the dessert section and found them in five seconds. And then me and Donna demolished them in less than five days.
The next day (after a grueling day of work), we went to a hotpot restaurant in Bellevue, WA. Bellevue is one of my favorite places to see, and also…one of my least favorite to drive in. So as long as you close your eyes and are okay circling to find parking, Bellevue is a beautiful place to live. THE HOT POT WAS INCREDIBLE! I cannot believe I’ve lived 21 years of my life without it and there will be zero more years of my life I let the same happen. While the concept of dipping raw meat to cook it scared me at first (as did wearing a white shirt…because of course I wore that to hot pot), I ended up loving it.
We ended the night with a night out at the Rhein Haus, a super epic, super trippy bar in Capitol Hill. Not only does it feel like you stepped into Alice and Wonderland and had a few too many cookies, but it also makes a “Sex on the Beach” like no other bar I’ve ever been to, so we danced the night away (as best we could for there being a million people in a tiny space….reminded me of Junior turnabout at Stevenson).
As much fun as we had, an itinerary of Sharon’s stops for no one (including a category one blizzard) so we got up early the next day and drove to Leavenworth (or as I called it for the majority of the trip, leavenSworth, aka Christmastown, USA. Called the #1 holiday town in the U.S., I was really excited to see if it would live up to the hype. To get there though, we first plowed up Stevens pass, one of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen. I never plug my Instagram, but PLEASE check it out if you want to have your jaw on the ground. I’m not sure what the seven wonders of the world are, but this is now one of the seven wonders of my heart. Truly breathtaking.
Halfway in between Seattle and Leavenworth, which is actually a small Bavarian town 3 hours east, the weather weirdly changed from rain to a beautiful flurry of snowflakes. Though, I’m sure Donna would call BS on me calling it a “flurry”- it felt like we were two people in the midst of a winter wonderland. Again, check Instagram for the masterpiece that is that trip.
A short review:
True to its calling, Leavenworth feels like a small town hidden in the mountains. Adorned by stunning lights that stretch through the narrow streets and surrounded by heaps and bounds of snowfall, it is a perfect, whimsical village that feels like you have left the country altogether. Its gingerbread factory, small sledding hill for kids, beautiful “Rockefeller tree knockoff” center, literal REINDEER FARM and delicious wineries are just a few highlights from our trip. If you’ve ever been to a Kriskindlemarket and had a longing for an entire town of the same, Leavenworth is your next holiday destination.
Alright, now that I have felt like a travel blogger, I have to say that visiting Leavenworth truly was one of the highlights of my time in WA so far. We stayed at the Icicle Village Resort. Some of my favorite recommendations: getting massages at the fabulous Alpine Spa (one look out the windows into a blissful snow paradise), taking advantage of outdoor hot tubs and heated pools (nothing is quite as exhilarating as freezing as you run into the building and bonding with strangers), going to Krystal’s for the best soft pretzel in existence (not even an exaggeration), and walking the lit up streets to look into their beautiful ornament shops and endless stores. Make sure to make a reservation for the reindeer farm as we didn’t and weren’t able to hang out there, but I feel pretty confident I will be back. And hey, fun fact: Donna and I even found out that the latest Hallmark movie, “Cloudy with a Chance of Christmas” was set right there.
After driving back from one of the coolest places ever, all me and Donna wanted was a taco Sunday back home at my apartment, which we enjoyed along with a “the circle” marathon. On Monday, we must have not gotten enough time at the wineries, because we headed to Woodinville, the wine center of Washington, for a delicious wine tasting. I know next to nothing about wine except that the white, sweet ones that taste like sparkling grape juice, but I was surprised to really enjoy some cabernet’s and chardonnay’s. And Donna educated me about each of them as I happily sipped each in my innocence.
By Tuesday we were tired and happy to stay in Seattle, so I showed Donna two of my favorite parks- Kerry Park and Green Lake. Despite having very different “personalities” (Kerry is known as the perfect postcard view, Green lake is the perfect night walk but isolated from all the craziness of Downtown), we felt right at home and I can’t recommend visiting these two if you come to Seattle. Just be careful driving UP to Kerry Park….the almost 150 degree incline makes you sort of feel like you’re on a broken roller coaster. We had a lot of fun with that😊
On Wednesday, we had one last long drive up to Bellingham, WA, one of the most famous Washington cities. Unfortunately, the drive there was mostly work, so we only got there later at night, but the views were beautiful. I had heard so much about driving up Chuckanut drive, the road up to Bellingham, and it didn’t disappoint one bit. Someone has asked me whether I like Seattle or Chicago better, and I think my answer after seeing all the beautiful nature is this: I like Chicago better than Seattle, but I like Washington much more than Illinois. WA is the most stunning intersection of the mountains, water, and wildlife, and even the rain adds something with those evergreens that is going to be extremely difficult to say goodbye to.
Finally, Thursday was Donna’s last day, and we celebrated/mourned with a trip to one of my favorite “suburbs”, good old Fremont. Despite being only a five minute drive from me, the town features such cute boutiques and shops, a full plant nursery, a chocolate factory, and the Dreamland Diner, which was so cool to see.
Overall, as I drove Donna to the airport, I thought a lot about how lucky I am to live in such a special place. Washington is one of the only states I never thought that I would care to visit, but now that I live here, I sometimes realize I don’t appreciate enough how close it is to everything: Portland, Vancouver, the Pacific ocean, and so much more. Snow or rain, I am lucky to be experiencing it, and lucky to be keeping you guys in the loop about it too. See you next week and enjoy the long weekend!