Washington/Oregon

nice_guy80

Hello

Can anyone give me the highlights of visiting Washington state and Oregon?

I am planning a two month driving holiday from Vancouver in Canada all the way down to San Fran and Yosemite.

I've done a good bit of research on places to visit, I just would like any suggestions from anyone who has been there.
eg cool things to do/see. things best avoided.

Thanks!!!

vicwatson

Whidbey Island off the coast of Everett, WA is very nice.

I've driven from Seattle to Vancouver. If you wanna head away from the coast take a drive over the North Cascade Mountains - Very Nice.

Wompa1

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Hello

Can anyone give me the highlights of visiting Washington state and Oregon?

I am planning a two month driving holiday from Vancouver in Canada all the way down to San Fran and Yosemite.

I've done a good bit of research on places to visit, I just would like any suggestions from anyone who has been there.
eg cool things to do/see. things best avoided.

Thanks!!!

My plan when I do it is to go see the Seattle Sound, maybe Microsofts office and some Kurt Cobain sites. Then I'd take a drive over to Washington Olympic Game Park to see the waving bears. Then down by Portland, I would like to go see the Mahmouth Falls (not sure of the spelling) I'd also like to visit Yosemite Park. I can say that Arizona has some beautiful places if you can get over that far. The Grand Canyon, Sedona and even parts of Phoenix are pretty nice.

nice_guy80

yes, Yosemite is on my radar
I don't think I'll go any further inland though (thats for another time!)

Definitely doing the micro breweries in Portland
hopefully up to Whistler in BC.

No real interest in Kurt Kobain though. what else is cool in Seattle? Is Mount Rainer worth the trip?

Keep them coming.
Cheers

tehjimmeh

Lots of micro breweries in Seattle too.

Going up the Space Needle is a total rip off (~$20), but something you kinda have to do. You do get a great view of the city from there. The Experience Music Project museum right beside it is supposed to be good too, though I've never been.

Pike Place Market is a must.

I particularly like the Fremont neighbourhood. Eat lunch in Paseo - it'll be the best sandwich you've ever had. Then check out the troll under the bridge, the chocolate factory, the market if it's a Sunday, and Fremont Brewery (which is a micro brewery in a garage where you can sit and have a pint with the locals and their dogs).

Go kayaking and head to the Lake Washington arboretum, or just go there on foot, it's beautiful.

If it's sunny, go to Alki beach. Get the West Seattle water taxi there from down town.

If you're a soccer fan, and there's a Seattle Sounders game on, go! You can get cheap tickets at Sounder TicketExchange. While the MLS usually gets average attendances of 10-20,000, the Sounders' average attendance is just under 40,000, making Seattle by far the best soccer fans in the US. The quality might not be at Premier League level, but it's not bad at all, and the atmosphere at matches is unreal. Drink at Elysian beforehand and get Dragonstooth stout.

Feel free to PM me if you've any questions about Seattle. Been living here for just under two years.

InTheTrees

Two Months is good length of time.

Starting in Vancouver... You'll want to visit Whister, its a mountain town, the site of the Winter Olympics in 2010, so lots of ourist facilities. Suposed to be beautiful even out of season.

Also Vancouver Island and Victoria (the capital of british columbia).

Float Planes are a way of life up here. Maybe if you dont drive up to whistler you could take a brief aerial tour of the area?

Vancouver is an amazing city. 3-4 times the size of Seattle.

There's a few different ways to get from Vancouver to Seattle. There's a fast passenger only ferry from Victoria to Seattle. There's Trains from Vancouver. Bus. Floatplane. I think you can also get a ferry to the San Juan islands (about half way between van and sea in the puget sound).

Seattle is small. There's the Space Needle you can go up. The Music museum. The Market. There's a old downtown area of pubs and restaurants too.

Microsoft HQ is east in Redmond, which is a suburb the other side of Bellevue.

What else? Olympic national park on the Olympic penninsula is worth the drive. You can also drive about a quarter of the way up Mt.Ranier to a visitor centre. Most of the time you'll see Mt.ranier in the distance, its 14,000ft so its snow covered all year.

There's some great drives into the mountains east of Seattle too:
http://www.cascadeloop.com/

Here's some random links:

www.clippervacations.com
www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries

www.empmuseum.org
pikeplacemarket.org
www.pioneersquare.org/
www.spaceneedle.com

www.olympicpeninsula.org

vicwatson

Boeing Aircraft Facility in Seattle

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/tours/index.html

InTheTrees

tehjimmeh wrote: »

Eat lunch in Paseo - it'll be the best sandwich you've ever had.

LOL! Yes. I agree.

I live about five blocks north.

The Zoo is really good. Its one of those modern zoos with less animals but more space and fewer cages. 2 adults and 2 kids can get pricey though.

www.zoo.org

InTheTrees

vicwatson wrote: »

Boeing Aircraft Facility in Seattle

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/tours/index.html

Also the Museum Of Flight at Boeing Field (in Seattle):

www.museumofflight.org

InTheTrees

tehjimmeh wrote: »

If you're a soccer fan, and there's a Seattle Sounders game on, go! You can get cheap tickets at Sounder TicketExchange.

Seattle Sounders have a reputation as having the best attendance and best fans in north america so its well worth going to a game if you're into it. They do sell out a lot though which can be an issue.

The Baseball team, the Seattle Mariners, isnt doing so well though. Its been in the doldrums for quite a few years now which means you can always get good seats at a reasonable price. Its quite a slice of americana if you've never been to a baseball game, I'd highly reccomend it.

Both the football and baseball stadiums are easily walkable from downtown.

nice_guy80

great replies.
thanks.
I see plenty of soccer in Ireland, so its not a big draw.
Unless they are using hurleys, it doesn't interest me!

I'll be renting a car and going exploring.
4/5 days in Vancouver, up to Whistler for few days. Anything else up there??
over to Vancouver Island by ferry - 2/3 days around Victoria and then heading out into the wild. would love suggestions!! I'm well prepared to camp!

back down and getting ferry across to WA
Mt Olympus was on the radar alright.


I'm more interested in the scenery, cultural things, food, drinks
hoping to hit Astoria to do the 'Goonies' spots, Columbia gorge around Portland

nice_guy80

has anybody anything else to add to this?

booking flights this week!
I can actually stretch the trip out to three months if I so wished. just in November the weather begins to deteriorate.

InTheTrees

I live in Seattle and used to Live in the Bay Area and I've driven between the two many times. But I just stuck to I-5.

You know with two months you would have time to go all the way down to Los Angeles. That would open up a whole new climate of southern california desert.

Death Valley, Joshua Tree and Palm Springs. nice weather all year round too. If you budgeted in the extra charge for leaving the car off in another state you could end the trip down south?

Just a thought.

ProudDUB

My sister lives in Seattle, and I spend a fair amount of time there. I don't normally suggest people do those Duck Boat tours when they visit cities. I think that they are a bit of a rip off, but I do recommend Seattle's. The reason being that the water part of it takes you onto Lake Washington, which is the water based airport for all the float planes taking off and landing. There are usually a lot of them coming and going. The planes have to give right of way to the boats, even if they are coming in to land. It is a lot of fun being out on the water, with all of these float planes zipping in and out around you. You can also go up on hour long trips on the float panes themselves. They give you great views over the city. It's not that expensive if there are a few of you. The Duck Boat tours also give you a unique peek at the houseboats on the lake (including the mega famous one from Sleeping in Seattle) which is a style of living that you won't ever see in Ireland.

Downtown Seattle is cool and very easy to navigate, due to the grid system that it is laid out on. There are lots hip shops & boutiques to explore that are a welcome change to the usual brands you'll see in the malls. The Westlake Center Mall is downtown too. It houses the monorail to Seattle Center. I don't normally recommend mall food courts either, but theirs is darn good. Lots of good, fairly authentic ethnic food for just a few bucks. Especially good if you are on a budget.

Seattle has some amazing sea food restaurants too. The Crab Pot restaurant (behind Pike Place on the waterfront) was featured on the Seattle ep Man vs Food. It's the one where you are served up a big bucket of varied crab legs, clams, mussels if you are into that kind of thing. The pier that it overlooks is where the ferries depart for Bainbridge Island. Bainbridge is a nice place to go for a day trip too, and the ferry journey is only 25 mins long compared to some of the other longer Washington Ferries journeys. Btw, be careful if you decide to go up to Victoria or Vancover on the Victoria Clipper (at least I think that is the name of it.) I have never done it, but I am told that the journey can be very, very rough if the weather is bad.

Pike Place is cool for a mooch around, but you can see it in an afternoon. It does seem kinda touristy at first, but the locals use it too so it can't be all that bad. The Space Needle is worth going up, but don't do it on an overcast day as you won't really see all that much. The uber trendy neighbood known as the Republic of Freemont (as the locals call it) is good for a browse around, and has some great restaurants and bars, especially Thai and Vietnemese ones. Seattle in general has a lot of really great restaurants from that part of the world, due to the high numbers of people from Pacific Rim nations living there. If you are a fan of their food, you'll eat very well in Seattle.

Orca's Islands and the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound are absolutely gorgeous. Great spot to go whale watching too.

The eastern part of the Washington State is gorgeous and has a completely different eco system and climate to the Seattle side of it. Gorgeous desert landscapes and much warmer, dryer weather than the western side of the state too. Seattle in November can be fairly similar to Ireland. After spending time in the non stop, cold and drizzle of Seattle, you'll appreciate the change in the weather.

If you are into sports, stick with football or basketball as the baseball season will already be over. If you can't get NFL tickets, try the University of Washington. Their home games are quite the spectacle.

I agree with others that that it is an awful long way to go, and for an awful long time, to only limit yourself to 2 states. I would definitely suggest checking out Utah, Northern California (if not all of it) and/or Nevada Arizona too. Amazing, amazing scenery.

nice_guy80

If you read my first post, I am starting in Vancouver, Canada. up to Whistler, then onto Departure Bay, Vancouver Island.

following that a ferry from Victoria to Washington State, either Port Angeles or into Seattle itself.
hoping to take in Mount Rainer and Olympic Park if possible

onwards to Portland for few days and doing the Columbia gorge sights.

back to San Fran for a while and home

I don't have much interest in going near LA or South. Cal
thanks

InTheTrees

This is a great shop for outdoor gear in Vancouver:

Mountain Equipment Coop:

http://www.mec.ca/Main/home.jsp

Its actually kind of a copy of a similar chain of stores in the US that are based in Seattle:

http://www.rei.com/