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This last week Chris and I were traipsing all around northwestern Washington state. Seattle-Olympic Peninsula-Central Cascades-San Juan Islands-Seattle again. Once we landed a week ago Saturday we made a beeline for the flagship REI store to buy supplies for our four days in the Enchantment Lakes, I was completely enamored with the city. Hippies, hipsters, regular folks…organic, crunchy, no-plastic-bags-at-the-store…my kind of place. I saw pink hair and was instantly wanting my pink hair again. ‘Pinky’ as my mom called me, might be resurrected soon. Need to muster some courage up though. It’s one thing to sport pink hair in a community that supports that, another in an area or society that tends to get judgy on appearances and those who are ‘different’ (even if they aren’t really different…you know what I mean?).

I took nearly 1,000 photos so there will be multiple blog posts sometime in the coming weeks of our trip. We caught Seattle in a warm spell and excepting the last day and this morning flying back, the entire time was sunny and warm….with the interior regions reaching into the 100′s.

A brief synopsis:
+Pike Place Market was a let down. Felt like a spiffied up flea market. Though, they did have some remarkable prices on their cut flowers! I was more impressed with the farmer’s market/art and craft market on San Juan Island the day we visited there.
+Mt. Rainier is nowhere near as close to Seattle as the postcards make it out to be. In fact, we completely missed it as we drove south out of town to the Olympic Peninsula and only saw it when we came back from the central Cascades later in the week. It does jump out at you though, being this 14,000′ mountain in the middle of relative flatness, no other mountain around it.
+Despite Starbucks being from Seattle (the flagship store is across from Pike Place Market) there are tons of small coffee stands, similar to the sno-cone stands here in Texas. I only wish we had that kind of coffee diversity here!
+Mountain goats = racoons. Or squirrels. I think the would have ate out of our hand if we’d let them. (No, we did not feed them, but dude you better protect your packs and bury your waste good!)
+I forgot what the hiker hobble was. It rudely refreshed my memory. Stairs are still a bit painful.
+The toughest mile on the Appalachian Trail is Mahoosuc Notch. It might be slightly tough, but it is fun at least. Aasgard Pass however is one mean mile of boulders and scree. Straight up. Going down isn’t much easier, in fact trickier I think in order not to slip and fall (which I did!).
+I could eat here or somewhere similar every month (ok, every week but it isn’t in my budget). One of the best meals I’ve had in a long time.
+I went to Canada. Kind of. Ok, so I was on a boat, but I think it counts.

Trip report soon! I have a lot to catch up on here at the house, pick up my cats from my mom and sometime figure out what is still living in my garden.

Drop by Sprout Dispatch tomorrow to check out a special guest post!