Farewell to the PNW!

A recap of July, August and September in Seattle

It is officially fall here in the PNW and the scenery is just gorgeous. Red, orange and yellow tree leaves are falling and beautiful foliage lines every street. The temperatures are crisp and cool. This means that our Seattle summer has come to an end. This is our last week here in Washington before we begin our next adventure - we are SO excited and counting down the days until what’s next.

This summer was full of adventure and beautiful sights. Rewind with us a few months back to recap all that we did.

July

Back in July we drove up to Canada to celebrate my birthday (we are only 2 hours from the border!). We explored Vancouver, the Sea to Sky Gondola, Whistler and Joffre Lakes Provincial Park. Joffre Lakes was the highlight for us, although the entire trip was amazing. The sites were absolutely stunning and reminded us of our Banff trip. Canada is a beautiful country and we hope to be back one day! We highly recommend Joffre Lakes Park as a cheaper alternative to Banff - the water colors are very similar and Joffre Lakes is smaller area to manage and significantly less crowded.

One of our favorite Washington hikes of the summer was Winchester Mountain near Mt. Baker national forest. The pictures tell you all you need to know about this beautiful place. It was a really hot summer day with a very exposed trail, but somehow we made it to the summit. Lucy enjoyed cooling off by rolling in the patches of snow still melting along the way up. We did a quick drive through North Cascades National Park after our hike and saw the famous Diablo Lake. The national park was still very hazy from recent forest fires.

August

The first weekend of August Tyler’s parents came to visit. We enjoyed showing them around our new city. Our next hiking trip was an early morning hike to Summit Lake Trail. We had stunning views of Mt. Rainier and a nearly empty trail. We loved this hike and as you can tell, Lucy did too. After this hike we drove through Mt. Rainier National Park to get a closer view of Mt. Rainier.

We took the ferry for the first time mid-August to explore Bainbridge Island. This was such a fun experience for all of us (yes, Lucy got to go!). Tyler especially enjoyed the logistics of the ferry (yes he is nerdy).

Our last trip in August was to Olympic National Park. We spent our morning hiking Mt. Storm King Trail which was extremely tough but rewarding as always. The rest of our day was spent driving to other areas of the park and to the coast - this park is huge and should be split into several days to experience all that it has to offer.

September

At the beginning of September, Tyler’s parents generously took us on a wonderful vacation to Naples, Florida. We had the best time being with our family and relaxing by the ocean. This trip was a much needed getaway and we enjoyed every minute of it!

We took a day trip to Mt. Rainier National Park mid-September to see the fall foliage. It was an absolutely beautiful time to visit the park. The fall colors and crisp cool air were just perfection. We were lucky enough to see two bears, two mountain goats, deer and marmots while hiking. This trip marked our last hiking adventure for the foreseeable future and we were definitely in our feelings about it. We have loved our hiking trips and will miss the challenge, quality time, memories and beautiful views it allowed us to experience together.

Our last weekend of September was spent exploring all of the iconic Seattle spots with my dear friend and fellow traveler, Faiziah. We met during my contract in Santa Barbara and immediately clicked. We had the best girly time bopping around the city, eating amazing food, exploring Pike’s Market, the Space Needle, and of course talking so much that my voice hurt by Sunday night. Faiziah’s visit was perfect as it allowed us to enjoy the highlights of the city one last time!

As you can probably tell, we truly feel like we have made the most of our time here in the beautiful PNW. We have so many memories made here that we will cherish forever. While our time here is rapidly coming to an end, we feel immense happiness and excitement for our next chapter. Stay tuned for what’s next for the Wandering Wrights :)