Help a family from Virginia get an essence of the Pacific Northwest! (Seattle: rental car)

[garrityminus]

Hello All,

I am from Virginia and have traveled extensively along the Northeast coast of the US and Canada. I have always wanted to see the Pacific Northwest and figured Washington would be a good place to start. However, I don't know what attractions or activities are available that may be different from the East coast. In a nutshell, I would like to get the essence of the Pacific Northwest in a week long driving tour during mid-August.

I plan to rent a car for about a week and drive along with my family, which includes one Engineering college student, one 24-year-old graphic designer, and a mother who enjoys fine cuisine and small quaint towns. We all enjoy natural landmarks and a little bit of history/culture. Maybe a day of fishing would be nice too! I would like to create a list of places to stay each night as way points to guide our journey and another list of places to visit each day. Could you all helps us out come up with a list of attractions, landmarks, hotels, cities, or towns for a semi-adventurous family?

We would also consider driving to Vancouver or Oregon too at anyone's recommendation.

Many thanks!
Andy

[j_k_k]

Washington is very diverse. It has ocean, rainforest, lakes, major rivers, mountains, arid high desert, big cities and tiny quaint towns. It has access to outstanding seafood, a wide variety of ethnic cuisine and great heaps of regional agricultural goods. It has one very live volcano and a few less live ones.

The best way to approach Washington is to describe the kinds of things you all like to do, like you did with fishing. You can find outstanding fishing in most areas of the state, for example, but one great way is to hire a driftboat guide on a swift small river, with which we are plentifully supplied, especially on those rivers that dump into the Columbia. One reason the state is popular is because of its diversity of activities, so we can accommodate a lot of different wishes.

One idea is to take a big circle around the state, going from Seattle over the North Cascades, then down south through the arid Southeast, then along the Columbia, then keep going until you see surf crashing in, then work north along the coast and back to Seattle. And just do whatever you see is available to do, be it a museum or a beach or a nature trail or a pleasant little town.

[yukiko11]

I live in WA and the previous post is full of very good ideas.
There are so many things to do here and definately something for everybody in your party.
My best recommendation would be to join the AAA Auto Club. for your $99.00 membership, not only will you get free roadside service, key service and towing, but they will provide you with unlimited amounts of maps for your journey and provide you with published guidebooks for every destination along your route showing points of interest, restuarants and places to stay including prices for everything. Many of these places offer a 10% discount to members which will easily pay for your membership just on this trip.
If you plan to visit Vancouver BC, you do have to have a passport to get across the border as of 6/1/09 so plan accordingly. I can tell you, it is worth the trip.
Have fun! I guarantee you, that no matter what you end up doing, you will not be disappointed.

[bmsea]

Here's a great itinerary:

Day 1 - Arrive PDX, grab your rental car, head west on Highway 26. Drive 1-1/2 hours until you hit Astoria. Admire the beautiful Victorian homes and have lunch in Astoria. Climb the Astoria Column and marvel at the great Columbia River. Lots of Lewis & Clark exhibits/parks/history in this area. Back in the car, head across the Astoria Megler bridge and head North on Highway 101 and then West on Highway 105. (1-1/2 hours) Stop in Westport, check in for your fishing charter (tomorrow) and spend the night in the oceanfront condos at Vacations By The Sea

Day 2- Wake up at 5:30, get on your fishing charter boat and spend the next 8 hours out to sea, catching Salmon and enjoying the open ocean. Dinner in your condo will be the fish you caught (or they can box it up and freeze it and send it home for you if you like). (Alternative: you go fishing, kids take a surfing lesson).

Day 3 - Up early with the crack of dawn, (climb Washington's tallest lighthouse before you leave town, if you like), check out and head East on highway 105, to highway 12, then 8, then 101, back to I5 - head North to Seattle (total 2-1/2 hours to Seattle). Spend the rest of your day at Pikes Market, take a walk through the sculpture garden, drink coffee at the original Starbucks. Visit the space needle and enjoy the fountain at Seattle Center. Spend the night at your choice of many many great downtown hotels.

Day 4 - Visit the Fremont Troll and have a picnic lunch at the Ballard Locks. Rent Kayaks on Lake Union, and take Kayaks through the locks. Head East to North Bend. Dinner in North Bend, and spend the night at www.theoldhen.org.

Day 5 - Hike Mount Si. Recover with a great meal. Spend night in North Bend.

Day 6 - Early morning, drive south, here I can't decide: Mount St. Helens or Yakima Wine Country. Mount St. Helens will be more educational. Wine country is hard to pass up.

Day 7 - Either way, head back to Portland, and say goodbye to the Northwest.

There's a million ways to do this itinerary, and there's a million things that will be hard to choose just 7 days worth of activities, but you won't regret visiting the beautiful PNW in August.

Enjoy!

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by bmsea

Day 4 - Visit the Fremont Troll and have a picnic lunch at the Ballard Locks. Rent Kayaks on Lake Union, and take Kayaks through the locks. Head East to North Bend. Dinner in North Bend, and spend the night at www.theoldhen.org.

If they get close enough to see the Troll, they need to eat at Costa's Opa. A trip to Fremont without dinner at Costa's is like a trip there without browsing the harp and dulcimer factory at Dusty Strings: it missed the best parts.

[Chris1955]

I grew up here, and there are still things I am doing that are new.

Honestly I doubt you could see all there is of Seattle in a week, let alone the whole state.

It sounds like your crew is all adult which makes it a bit easier. Have you considered camping along the way, is is this going to be a hotel/motel trip? If so we have some spectacular camping areas, but it would pay to book ahead. And you don't need much to camp with at this time of year, sleeping bags and tarps or modest tents are all you need. Those blue ones can be tossed or given away when you leave. Add a decent cheap cooler and a trip to a thrift store and you have your cooking implements for a modest price.

The advice about a charter or packaged fishing trip is a good one, I doubt you have the gear handy or would want to pack it, and I likely have several thousand dollars worth that I use. If you want to fish.

Figure out a way of seeing some of our remaining old growth forest, I warrant you have never seen anything like it in VA.

And we have quaint towns out in the boondocks to please anyone. Lots have some sort of festival going on during the summer.

If any of you know how to sail you can charter a bare boat and go cruising for a week, a trip by water up the Sound to the San Juans would be a one of a kind for out of staters, as the natives like myself amuse ourselves in that manner. (I own a 45' cutter.)

Eastern Washington is its own trip. A day trip up or down the Yakima Vally or over to Walla Walla was fun and a run through the Okanagan area is something you could spend a week doing.

Then as noted there is the trip up the coast starting as noted the Portland area over to the bar, then up through the various oyster towns and Grays Harbor, on up to Neah Bay then along the coast to Port Angeles, down to Port Townsend and one to Bremerton, etc.. I noted a bunch of Japanese renting motorcycles and doing that a few years ago.

There is just too much you can do, I could give you a whole summers worth.