Pacific Coast Highway-Day 1 & 2

For years Rob and I had been dreaming of a Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip. 

This last June we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. 

What a great occasion for our dream trip. 

  It was difficult deciding how much time we would need to travel 2,200 miles.

We are "those people" who swerve off the road every time we spot a cute little shop.

Antique shops, junk shops, coffee shops, curiosity shops, etc. The list goes on and on.

We also wanted to be able to stop at all the scenic stops along the way.

(Ever wonder about the World's Largest Skillet?  We had to see it!)

We knew we needed to give ourselves plenty of time.

We decided to do the trip in nine days. 

This seems like plenty of time.  Doesn't it?

Hmmm, I guess it depends on if you want to actually have time to sit down and eat.

If I were to take this trip again, I would love to have at least two weeks.

{Should I start buying Lottery tickets now?}

Today I'll share with you the first leg of our trip.
From Idaho, we had around a 600 mile drive
 to get to the beginning of highway 101. 

We were headed to Leavenworth Washington
for our first night's stay.
(I think it was out of our way, but I really wanted to go there.)

 

The first unplanned stop of our trip was in Pendleton Oregon. 
It was one of those
"Oh I've always wanted to go to the Pendleton woolen mills!" 
So, we swerved off the road and took a tour of the factory. 

We bought a wool blanket from their "bargain room". 
It has a little flaw with one of the fringes
which is basically unnoticeable. 
What a bargain!

I don't even know how many times we have driven past Pendleton and we have never stopped. 

It had some very interesting little shops.  If you are into western wear, this is the town for you.

This was one of the prettiest shops-very surprising for a western shop.   

It's called Hamley. 

Stop there and look around if you have a chance. 

It had sculptures, beautiful woodwork, brick walls, and tin ceilings. 

We resisted buying a custom made saddle for $5000!

Pendleton has an old underground city. 

We would have liked to take a tour, but we had places to go, and things to see.

We spent our first night in Leavenworth Washington. 

In my opionion, this is one of the cutest towns in the Northwest. 

I didn't take very many pictures, because it was so difficult to capture the beauty of this town. 

A bavarian village in the North Cascades. 

So beautiful! 

Some of shops closed early, which made me feel bad that I had spent so much time in Pendleton.

Early signs that it was going to be difficult to see everything I wanted to see.

On the second day of our trip we were headed to Cape Flattery,

the most northwest point in the continental United States.

Our first unplanned stop for the day was 11 miles out of town in Cashmere, Washington. 

Well, who could pass up a tour of the Aplets and Cotlets factory?

It's a very short tour because the factory is very small. 

We did get lots of good samples, and we couldn't resist buying candy for the road.

We spent a few hours in Seattle before taking the ferry to Port Angeles.

While we were in Seattle, we had to go to Beechers

and try Oprah's favorite Mac and Cheese. 

 

If you ever plan on trying it, be prepared to stand in line.

It was a very long wait.

We also bought some fantastic fresh fruit at Pike Place Market.

When we finally arrived in Cape Flattery it was getting close to dusk, and it was breathtaking! 

It's a 3/4 mile hike to get to the cape. It's a really nice trail with bridges and cedar boardwalks.  
It's easy to enjoy the views and take pictures, because
along the trail there are really nice cedar observation perches.

At the end of the trail, there is a beautiful view of the Cape Flattery Lighthouse.

It was getting dark and there were warnings on the trail about wild animals after dark.

I don't do well with wild animals, so we made really good time on the 3/4 mile hike back to our car!

We had an hour drive still to get to our hotel in

Forks, Washington.

We arrived at our hotel at 11:05 p.m.

The town was dark. 

It appeared the entire town had shut down for the night-

including our hotel!

Well, we learned something that night. 

Hotels in small towns don't have 24 hour reception. 

Fortunately, we found a number to call and we were in our hotel room by midnight.

The end of another great day.