Honeymoon - Oregon and Washington (lots of pics)

14 day trip is done. Need about 10 more days to see it all.

Flew into Portland and immediately rented an SUV to travel east to Hood River, OR.
This is a hell of an area for a 5-7 day trip by itself.
We stayed three nights at the Columbia Gorge Hotel and Spa. Fantastic views and a great happy hour wine selection for $6.

The town is beautiful and so easy to walk with plenty of breweries, restaurants, and wine tastings.

We did a a nearby hike near Mt. Hood that was only 40 minutes from the hotel. Amazing views of Hood in front and Mt. Adams in the rear view. Stunning.

Plenty of vineyards on the way to Mt. Hood from Hood River, but we decided to cross into Washington to visit Mary Hill winery, which overlooks the Columbia River. I highly recommend the place.

On the fourth day we ate lunch at Nicholas (good Lebanese) and passed through Portland on the way to Willamette Valley where we did three tastings in a day (David Hill, Montinore, and Fairsing. Fairsing was beautiful, but a bit more expensive. Worth it.
We stayed a night at the Grand Lodge to accomplish this trek then headed toward the coast.

We hiked Saddle Mountain (highest point in that area and deceptively tough for a short hike ~4 miles) before spending a few hours in Astoria. Cool place.

After making our way to Ocean Shores for a cheap room we attacked the Olympic Peninsula having traveled ALL of hwy 101 over the course of three days. Hikes included Quinault and Hoh Rainforest as well as Hurricane Hill to the north, but before heading to Hurricane Ridge we visited Ruby Reach for a good three hours. This is a must.

Our lodging for northern access to Olympic NP was in Port Angeles, which is nothing special, but we did make a nice evening trip to Port Townsend, which is quite scenic.

Once we were done with the peninsula we attended First Presbyterian Tacoma (beautiful gospel centered church) and took off for an area just a few miles away from Mt. Rainier in nearby Ashford.

We stayed one night with the intent of hiking near Rainier and seeing the gargantuan volcano. No chance. Too cloudy. So we left for the Snoqualmie area and did a pretty cool 5 miler there.

The Snoqualmie area was most anticipated because we stayed three nights at Salish Lodge—the iconic lodge from Twin Peaks on top of a 268 foot waterfall. It was a beautiful area, but there wasn’t a whole lot to do (we’re used to Colorado ski resorts with built in villages).

Finally we ended up at one of the Hyatts in Seattle, which worked out perfectly. We paid just $120 for three nights due to cc points.
The city felt safe, pretty clean, and everything was so walkable. The food was great and the weather perfect.

I was excited to finally lay my eyes on Rainier on the way to the airport. It’s massive and still covered with snow! It was a truly great trip.

What’s still left to do you might ask?
Walla Walla wine, Bend, OR, Crater Lake, and North Cascades NP.