Over the summer continuing my two-week long summer travels seeing parts of Colorado, I also got to visit Oregon and Washington.

Oregon

June 7, my mom and I arrived in Portland Oregon, to visit family and explore the city. Portland is known for its “quirky” art, and is a big scene for music and food.

Since we were seeing family, it was nice and relaxing, perfect for getting to know all the local places. Voodoo Doughnuts was founded in Portland and is popular for its unique flavors, however there are much better local doughnut place like Pipp’s Doughnuts, which only locals would know about. Voodoo has recently become a large chain company so opting to go to Pipp’s was a much more “Oregon” experience.

After, we visited the International Rose Test Garden, that had a huge variety of roses in colors I didn’t even know existed. Though it was beautiful, I could only stand to look at roses for so long, so we shopped around Pearl District, an upscale area in Portland known for its mix of boutique stores and restaurants, including brand-name stores as well. One of the local places to stop is Powells City of Books, the world’s largest independent new and used bookstore.

Going into Powells, a book lover could spend the entire day just looking, shopping, and reading around, there are three floors and nine different categorized rooms containing different genres of books.

Oregon is one of the three states that make up the Pacific Northwest, along with Washington, and Idaho. this region is known for its natural beauty, mountains, forests, rivers, lakes, and coast line.

The Northwest Coast is very different from East Coast beaches many of us are used to, in Oregon the day we spent by the coast at Cannon Beach. The weather was very overcast, foggy, and cold, not a beach for swimming. However, it was super cool to look out into the water at the massive 235 ft. tall, Haystack Rock, “one of Oregon’s most recognizable landmarks,” which was featured in the 1985 Goonies movie and Kindergarten Cop.

Cannon Beach is a little less than an hour and a half car ride from Portland, so we spent the day in the little town, peaking in the shops, and enjoying the beauty before heading back and packing up for our next stop, Seattle.

Washington

From Portland’s Union Station we took the train to King Street Station in Seattle. As with most travels, we spent the first day getting situated, staying with my cousin in her amazing apartment that has a spectacular view of the Space Needle.

The second day I toured the University of Washington. The campus is located in the heart of the city, however with the surrounding trees, and the setup of the buildings, the campus feels very secluded from the busyness of the city. Overall, the school was very different from other colleges I’ve visited. One big adjustment, was how everyone wore greys and black, matching the gloomy weather, a big contrast to me being the only blonde one and wearing a pink skirt on.

The campus was very pretty but didn’t seem like the place for me. My favorite part though was the stadium and how it’s situated right next to the water, where many people tailgate on their boats. My other favorite thing was, University Village, just down the hill. So obviously we had to check it out and go shopping. It had all my favorite shops and great spaces for students to study, like in the huge Starbucks, or for when the weather is nice, beautiful outdoor green spaces.

On the following day we spent more time in the city, hitting all the must-do destinations, going to the first ever Starbucks, we had to get up early because of the extensive line that quickly formed. We did have to wait for a bit, but once inside it is just like any other Starbucks, but contains a rich history and exclusive merchandise. Being down by Pike Place Market, after fueling up we walked through the market, getting to explore the variety of booths. Seattle can be defined for the iconic-ness of Pike Place Market, it was, “Founded in 1907 and is one of the oldest and largest continuously operating public market in the United States.”

My mom has been to Seattle multiple times for work in the past but exploring around there were many new things as well. In 2022 the Overlook Walk, a boardwalk by Pike Place Market opened, connecting the market to the waterfront, downtown, and the Seattle Aquarium. It was really pretty to sit at some of the lookout points on this walkway, seeing Elliott Bay, Seattle Waterfront, The Seattle Great Wheel and much more of the city skyline, including Lumen Field, home to the Seattle Seahawks.

One of the last main attractions we had to see was the Space Needle, a 605 feet tall observation tower, that was built in 1961 for the 1962 World Fair. The architecture is so unique and modern because the fair was themed, “The Age of Space” Inside, there is tons of information about the history and construction of the building but most entertaining to me was the view from up top. The elevator was a bit scary going up 605 feet in only 41 seconds, but the view was unbeatable.

The deck has all glass wall-windows, and you can walk all the way around, getting a 360 of Seattle. On the level below this is another observation deck, containing a rotating glass floor, “The Loupe”, which you can stand on to get a view of what’s going on 500 feet below you.

It worked out perfectly that when we went to the Space Needle, it was a sunny and clear day, allowing us to see everything the city has to offer, not always an opportunity with the rain and clouds. Getting to explore all these new places was surreal and made for a great summer, it went by too fast but checked off more places I can say I’ve been to.