Olympic/Seattle Trip in Instagram (and iPhone Photos)

Antoine and I just got back from our four night/five day trip to Olympic National Park and Seattle.  It was fantastic and we both fell in love with the area!  And in true Jessica fashion I took way too many pictures...I think something like 900 or 1,000.  Yeah, so those are going to take a while to sort through and edit.  So, in the mean time, here's some of my Instagram/iPhone photos from the trip. 

 Our flight to Seattle left bright and early Wednesday morning.  Luckily we had enough time to stop by the Delta Skyclub and grab some (free) breakfast before our flight left.  Oh, how I am going to miss the perks of Antoine having Diamond status when it ends next year.

 

 We flew from Cincinnati to Minneapolis and then Minneapolis to Seattle.  Once we picked up our rental car we stopped off in Olympia for some lunch at Fish Tale Brew Pub.  This little pub serves locally brewed beers and ciders from Fish Brewing Co.  I enjoyed a pear cider and a ham and brie sandwich, both of which were very tasty!  Antoine got an oatmeal stout and the cod and chips.  We both left full and happy.

 

 After lunch we stopped by Lake Quinault, which is part of Olympic National Park.  It was rainy, but we slipped on our hiking books for a small little hike by the lake.

 We spent our first night at Kalaloch Lodge on the coast.  The lodge and it's cabins sit on a small hill, with steps leading down to the beach.  We checked in and immediately made our way down to the beach to explore.

After some early morning tidal pooling in the rain and a trip to the Hoh Rainforest (also in the rain) we decided to follow the sunshine for a bit.  It led us to Clallum Bay where we walked along the beach and enjoyed a couple locally made sodas.

 We spent our next night at Lake Crescent Lodge, also known as "heaven on earth".  Seriously, this place was gorgeous.  And so tranquil.  We checked in, wandered around taking photos and then had a fantastic meal at the lodge's restaurant.  Then we shared a bottle of wine by the lake and it started to gently rain.  It was pure magic!

 After some hiking near Lake Crescent and an attempt to drive up Hurricane Ridge, we took the ferry into Seattle.  We spent our last two nights at the Westin Seattle downtown, where they were nice enough to upgrade us to a fancy deluxe suite with a killer view!

 Saturday and Sunday we dived into all the glorious food Seattle has to offer.  After our tour of Pike Place Market we enjoyed clam chowder and seafood bisque at Pike Place Chowder (AMAZING!!!).  For dinner we got some stellar wood-fired pizza from Serious Pie!  And then Sunday we got lunch at Brave Horse Tavern where we had a pretzel with smoked peanut butter and bacon...along with a burger with smoke blue cheese and these amazing smashed potatoes (that came with Antoine's chicken fried steak) and some kick-ass ginger ale from Silver City Brewery!

After lunch and a trip to the Volunteer Park Conservatory and the Kubota Garden, Antoine and I were a couple hours early to the airport so we hung out in the Skyclub and proceeded to get pretty drunk.  Luckily, this meant I was actually able to sleep on the plane, an almost unheard of thing for me!

I'm not sure at this point when I'll be able to share the photos from the rest of our trip, as my grandpa fell and broke his hip this weekend and I will be heading up to north to see him and the rest of my family for a couple days.  But once I do get all those photos sorted, prepare yourself for nonstop Seattle/Olympic goodness!