Driving the Pacific Northwest - Sept 2006

Oregon Coast

We decided to spend a week driving in a rented convertible along the Pacific Northwest coast to see some of the sights but mostly to catch up with friends whom we had not seen in a while.  On this trip, we visited Seattle, Olympic National Park (Washington), Portland, the Oregon coast south of Portland, and Napa Valley, ending the trip in San Francisco for a brief visit.

Accommodations:

We mostly stayed with friends along the way (the best accommodations ever) but did stay in a few hotels as well - we generally opted for cheap places on this trip.

Best Western Olympic Lodge (Port Angeles, WA) - Located on the Olympic Peninsula, this hotel is nice, clean and convenient to the Park.

Hampton Inn (Medford, OR) - No specific reason why we chose this place other than a convenient place to stop on our way down to Napa to split up the driving distance.

Napa Valley Marriott Hotel & Spa (Napa) - Nice hotel, convenient to the wineries, and better yet, free on points.

Activities:

Seattle Area
We flew to Seattle and spent our first night with our friends Kim and Keith (Kim used to work with Shawna at Chase in NYC).  After relaxing at their house, we headed out to the treat of our trip - dinner at The Herb Farm.  Since we knew we were going to consume quite a bit of wine, we hired a driver to take us to/from dinner.  Dinner was an awesome experience - amazing food, nice and cozy atmosphere and excellent wine.

Hike around Mt Ranier

The following morning, we went with Kim and Keith to Kelly and Reed's house (Kelly is a friend of Shawna's from undergrad) and had a late breakfast together.  We then all went for a beautiful hike around Mt. Ranier.  Given our late start in the day, we did not hike for very long but enjoyed the views and the company.  That evening, we stayed with Kelly and Reed and had dinner at their house.

On Sunday, after saying our goodbyes to Kelly and Reed and their adorable kids, we drove out to Olympic National Park, a beautiful peninsula west of Seattle.  We were met there by Deborah and Damian (friends of Keith from when we lived in DC) who live in Portland.  While in the area, we visited the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge which is a long sand spit filled with birds, fossils and driftwood - it is eerie and yet beautiful.  We also spent a day hiking in the Park, taking in the scenery of the mountains in the area; however, our hike was cut short when a ranger kicked us out since we had Deborah and Damian's dog with us (apparently dogs are not allowed in the Park).

Hike in Olympic National Park

Oregon
On our way down to Portland, we stopped to visit Mt. St. Helen's.  It was amazing to see the devastation that still remains to this day.  We took an interesting helicopter tour of the area and hiked around a bit.

Hike on Mount Hood

While in Portland, we stayed at Deborah and Damian's house for a couple of nights.  Keith and I did a hike on Mount Hood as well as took a scenic drive along the Columbia River Gorge, stopping a few places to see some of the waterfalls.

We left Deborah and Damian's and drove south along the Oregon coast, stopping in some of the cute towns along the way.  The scenery was beautiful.  Our last sight seeing adventure before we drove to CA was to see Crater Lake.  Unfortunately, forest fires in the area made it very hazy that day so we were not able to explore as much as we would have liked.  We did take a boat tour of the lake and drove around the lake to some of the viewing points.

California
We met up in Napa with Charlie and Melissa (friends that Keith had met traveling in Africa before he went to business school) for a few days of wine tasting.  And wine tasting we did!  We learned rather quickly the differences in how Americans and Europeans approach wine tasting.  While Charlie and Melissa wanted to savor every sip, learn as much as they could about the winery and sit and relax on the terraces, Keith and Shawna wanted to maximize how many wineries could be visited in one day!  Surprisingly, we got to visit quite a number of them in the two days that we were there, including Opus, Cakebread (where we did a tour of their production facility), V Sattui (where we had a great picnic lunch), Duckhorn, Matanzas Creek, Ferrari Cerano and  Domaine Carneros (beautiful setting, sparkling wines).

Wine Tasting in Napa

We had a couple of great dinners as well (see info below).  At Auberge, we were able to taste what a $500 bottle of wine tastes like.  Apparently, someone had ordered it at lunch earlier in the day and decided that they did not like it so the somalier let us have a small taste.  While it was good, we honestly could not taste the difference from a $50 bottle of wine -- good thing for us, I guess!

Before we returned home, we spent one night in San Fran visiting with our friends Rakesh and Simran (whom we met in business school).  We had dinner with them in the city and crashed at their place for the evening.

Restaurants:

The Herb Farm (Seattle) - An AMAZING culinary experience!  This restaurant serves a nine-course meal (paired with wine) that uses all local ingredients including many from their own farm.  There is only one seating per evening and thus all guests arrive at the same time.  Before dinner, they give you a tour of the herb gardens.  The food was superb!

Auberge (Napa Valley - Rutherford) - Great restaurant with excellent food, nice decor and views of the valley if seated on the terrace.

Martini House (Napa Valley - St Helena) - Another great restaurant with nice seating options outside.

A16 (San Francisco) - Good Italian restaurant in the Marina District.

For more photos of this trip: