Pacific Northwest Journey

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For months, my friends Derek, Mike, Jason (Jay Ro) and I had been planning this Pacific Northwest trip for months. We knew the dates (or sometimes depending on the person😊) to be June 12 to 21st. Along the months, incidents had come up where we thought we were staying at a hotel and then it didn't happen. I will say that Orbitz is not a good place to book hotels and would never recommend it for all the aggravation it put me and my friends through. Another observation was the weather was a lot cooler than expected. We packed a lot of short sleeves, bathing suits and shorts, and sadly didn't get a chance to wear it much on the trip. The highest it got was in Vancouver at around upper 60's.

On June 12 we left for Portland. We were delayed over 2.5 hours mostly sitting on the plane not moving. We were told it was due to the port authority that wouldn't let us leave. There was a lot of confusion and wasn't told much by the flight crew except the Port Authority wouldn't let us go. Supposedly bad weather across the country had caused this. Derek, Mike and I got into to Portland at around 10:30PM local time finally. We didn't eat dinner on the plane so we went to this beach bar in the airport. We got our luggage and then came back to eat. We were waiting for Jay Ro to get in from his Jet Blue flight. It was a great atmosphere at the beach bar with delicious burgers and got a free caramel popcorn crackerjacks at the end of the meal. Once Jay Ro got in, we went to the rental car place. The first car we got the trunk was too small. We got a 2nd rental car, a SUV and checked into the hotel. On the way in, a bum stopped us for money at 2AM! We finally got to the room, showered and sleep by 2:30AM local time. Of course there was an issue with Derek and Jay Ro room reservation from Orbitz, so they had to work that out with the front desk.

The next morning we woke up later and headed to the Stepping Stone Cafe. This was one of my suggestions from the trip because I had seen it on Man v. Food known for a "Mancake" (12 inch Pancake). We get into this cute little cafe and sit down. I ordered this steak and egg dish with homemade biscuit. It was one of the best breakfast I have ever eaten and the coffee was excellent. My friend Jay Ro ordered the "Mancake" as a side and I had a little bite. It was fluffy and delicious. Definitely a great recommendation for anyone ever going to Portland. We left breakfast and headed for the Japanese and International Rose Garden. We walked around and they had amazing sites of the city and so many different colorful types of roses. It was a beautiful site to see.

We headed back to the hotel to relax for a little then walked around the city. Accidentally, I broke Jay Ro phone charger so I had to get him a new one on the trip. The city of Portland was a very laid back mellow atmosphere with a surprisingly amount of homeless people around. There is no tax on anything so food and other things are a lot cheaper than in New York. The people were so down to earth and chilled it was such a different atmosphere from NY. We went to Dick's Kitchen for dinner. They had delicious burgers. Before dinner, we went to this local bar to watch Game 5 of the Rangers/Kings game, we were the only people at the bar watching the game. We left by 1st overtime to eat dinner. Afterwards, we headed back to the bar to see the Rangers lose the game in double OT. Saddened, we went to another bar to try to meet up with this girl I was talking to on Tinder. It didn't work out to meet her so went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

The next day we headed to the Cultured Caveman for an early brunch meal. On the outside this place didn't seem like much, it looked like a little shack with some tables, but the food was delicious. It was a paleo healthy place that had things, like coconut milk and honey in coffee, bone broth soup and food tenders. Everything was very delicious and another recommendation. We left to head up to Seattle. On the drive up we didn't go up directly on the coast, but still saw a lot of beautiful tall trees on the way up and did see some ocean as we got into Seattle.

We arrived into Seattle after a 3 hour drive. In Seattle we went to a Seattle Mariners vs. Texas Rangers game. Safeco stadium was stunning with a retractable roof and a very lively party scene. It kind of surprised me that many people wasn't too interested in the game and would rather hang by the party areas to drink. At the game I wanted to have fried cheese curds which I had read about. I would not recommend this to anyone as they were quite heavy and greasy. The Mariners lost the game but we had a great time. The city of Seattle has a very clean bus and train hybrid system. It was a lot cleaner than NYC subways and felt very safe on this transportation. We checked into the hotel after the game late because the room wasn't available when we checked into the hotel.

The next day we did a duck tour and got to see all of Seattle. I had done this tour previously years ago but enjoyed my experience on the tour. It is a great way to see the city and get to touch on all the big spots of a city. After the tour we went to Pike's Market diner for lunch and walked around the market. We tried to go into original Starbucks but there was a huge line to get in so we decided against it. On the way out of the market, we found this store that had homemade chocolates which was quite tasty. We met up that night with my friend James and his girlfriend for dinner at this greek place. I personally didn't love the food but enjoyed the ambiance and was great to see my friend and meet his girlfriend.

The next day based on a great suggestion from James we went to Snoqhalmie Falls. It was a great place to go and would highly recommend it. It is free and get to see this beautiful falls, which was a much condensed version of Niagara Falls. It was only a half hour drive away from Seattle and well worth it. We got back into Seattle after seeing the falls and went to lunch at this place called Citizens Cafe for lunch. The food was excellent and another great recommendation for food. As we sat outside this cafe, the sun finally came out. The weather in Seattle was cloudy as expected, and though we didn't get as much rain as we had heard, one day it rained quite a good amount. With the sun out, we got to see the Space Needle and the surrounding city. Our hotel was right near the Space Needle and in a pretty good location of the city with only a 5 minute walk to it.

We went to the Space Needle. Mike and Jason went to this pop culture museum so Derek and I waited outside while waiting to go up. While outside I was a little disappointed to find out that I wasn't going to be able to meet Carrie Mashaney for dinner. She was a chef on Top Chef who I had spoken to on Facebook. She messaged on Facebook to let me know she wouldn't be able to come because she was sick from being pregnant. I was very happy for her news and didn't realize that she was pregnant. She seemed very down to earth and was excited to meet her, but I was happy for her great news. We went up and the views of the city are as beautiful as I could have expected. You could see everything from miles and had an excellent time. We went to dinner at Carrie's restaurant Aragona. It was very close to Pike's market and the food was one of the better dinner meals I have ever had. It was a spanish style restaurant. From the second we got there, the hostess and waitress apologized for Carrie not being there. They were quite attentive to us the whole time. Our friend Joubin who was out visiting Seattle for work came with us to dinner. Carrie sent out a free appetizer for us which was a delicious fish and chips dish as an apology for not being there. The food from appetizer to desert was great. One funny part of dinner was Jason dropping his phone into water while holding it out. The waiter came out with a bag of rice and he tried to put his phone in it to suck up the water, however this didn't end up working. The dinner was an early birthday celebration and it was a very touching gift to go there and celebrate with great friends. We left the next day and went to the iPhone store, so Jason could get a replacement phone. Derek and Mike went to budget to get a GPS for the drive to Canada and we were on the road at 11AM.

We drove up to Vancouver expecting an easy 3 hour trip. However, once we got past the border, we hit a lot of traffic. In total, it took us 7 hours to get to our hotel. On the trip, we noticed a man who fell asleep in his car since the cars was crawling do to traffic. It was hilarious to say and definitely something you don't see every day. We got to Vancouver and the city was magnificent. It was on the water and had some attributes of NY, but you could see water, mountains and the coast all around it. We got to the hotel and check in. In the room, I noticed fresh press coffee or tea can be delivered to your room each day by a designated time. This coffee was absolutely delicious and better than any coffee that could be made in the room with the coffee machines. In our stay, Mike and I took turns ordering either coffee or tea each day, which made for a great start to the morning. We settled in our rooms and walk around the city. On the streets, we noticed protesting due to a pipeline expansion into the US. We found out that this was a highly debated issue and many protests have been ongoing for months. We ate dinner at Rogue Kitchen, which was right by the wall (pier). Dinner was great and we walked around afterwards. At 9:30PM at night, the sunshine was still out and the pictures of the sunset was one of the more beautiful sites I can ever remember in my travels. After walking around for a little, we headed back to the hotel and go to sleep.

The following day we went to this breakfast cafe near the hotel that had a delicious hash hollandaise breakfast. It was another exquisite dish on the trip I won't ever forget. We walked to the Vancouver aquarium and had a great time there. On the way inside, we noted a kid taking a piss in public with his full pants down. It was a disturbing site and surprisingly a parent would make their child do that in broad daylight. At the aquarium, we see otters, beluga whales, sharks, penguins, sting rays, many different colorful fishes and eels. It was well worth the visit. Afterwards, we headed to this place called Lift Bar and Grill. They had half off sushi and thoroughly enjoyed it. A funny incident occurred when we all decided to ask the bartender if she could guess where I was from. She first guessed South Africa which stunned me and didn't even know what to say to her. After giving her a better hint and said was from the states, she guessed Nebraska! On the whole time in Vancouver, none of the locals could guess where we were from, though one did guess New Jersey. We went back to the hotel and relaxed. We came down for dinner and found out our rental car was damaged. The hotel was quite accommodating and gave us a letter admitting the damage and offered to pay for it. We went to dinner and on the way noted a stop sign and a stop light on the same street. Definitely realized wasn't in New York anymore seeing that. We ate a delicious dinner and headed back to rest for the next day's activities.

On my birthday we went to breakfast at this restaurant connecting to our hotel called Forage. The food was very good and a good recommendation. We went to Lynn Canyon to go hiking. This is a huge recommendation as it is free to go hiking and they have their own suspension bridge. The park was beautiful and it was a good 3.5 mile hike. We got to see amazing views and saw the twin falls. The weather was cool and it was a great day for it. Afterward, we went back to the hotel and relaxed. We got to meet up for dinner with two friends (Angie and Hilary) from my Australia trip. It was so great seeing them and made the birthday extra special. We went to Steamworks for dinner. At dinner, I had a drink called a Caesars, which I was told was a Canadian favorite. It was probably one of the tougher drinks to ever get down as it was a Bloody Mary mixed with Clam juice. We stayed at dinner for about 2.5 hours. My Canadian friends got me a shot glass, keychain and a magnet to remember my trip. It was a very touching thing and something I will always appreciate. After dinner we parted ways and went to a Crepe place. This crepe was simply awesome with three scoops of ice wrapped in a crepe. It was one of my best birthdays and something I will never forget.

The next morning we did breakfast at this cute little place next to the hotel. They had the World Cup games on and the breakfast was decent. We picked up some souvenirs for family/friends. We went to English Bay and took pictures around the Burrard bridge. The views of Vancouver was amazing. We took a water taxi to Granville Island. It is an island with a lot of cute shops and had a brewery there. We did a tasting inside Granville Island brewing tasting. Inside, we met these three gorgeous down to earth women who we talked to from Vancouver and Calgary. We had considered asking them to hanging out but by the time we realized to do so, the time had past. We went to the Keg for lunch which had great burgers. Afterwards, we took the taxi back and walked to the hotel. We went to dinner at a place called Aphrodites. The food was good and even had a delicious chocolate banana cede pie for desert. We went to a park after and at 9:00PM the sun was going down. The views was amazing seeing mountains with snow, and this picturesque sunset. The views in Vancouver are one of my favorite of all trips I have ever gone to. We saw 3 planets up in the sky and even saw 2 bats flying around at 10pm at night.

We left early the next day and headed back to Seattle for our flight. it was an easy 2.5 hour drive back to Citizen Cafe for breakfast. After breakfast, we tried to get onto the highway but a marathon was going on, so we had to navigate creatively around it to just get onto the highway. We brought our car in and left to go home. Overall it was another solid trip. Portland is a great mellow city. Seattle reminds me a little of NY but has a small town feel to it. Vancouver was by far my favorite city and would love to go back to visit anytime. I had a great time with my friends and hopefully we we will do it again!

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Comments

[Jay Ro]

Great blog... yes I had trouble remembering the dates due to standby travel.

[J61982]

Thank you
Thanks!