Judy had a work assignment in Seattle and suggested I come along. I could share her hotel room and go out during the day on my own and then we could spend some time on the weekend with our son who lived in Cashmere, Washington.
Wednesday, October 12, 2016, we flew from Ontario (ONT) at 6:00 p.m. on Alaska Airlines and arrived in Seattle (SEA) at 8:39 p.m. We rented a car at Payless and drove to the Sheraton Seattle Hotel in downtown Seattle where Judy had reservations. We drove quite awhile around the hotel looking for street parking (a comment on Trip Advisor indicated there would be) but were unable to find any because a parade closed off much of the parking. We finally had to accede to valet parking at $57.00 per day.
Thursday, October 13, I drove 137 miles out to Cashmere to visit our son, Sam, who was renting a house on a property with lots of fruit trees and working in Leavenworth, about 11.5 miles northwest. I wanted to see the Columbia River, so we drove southeast about a mile to East Wenatchee, which the Columbia River flows through, then followed the Columbia River northeast on Hwy 2 and Hwy 97 for 42.5 miles to Chelan which is on Lake Chelan, which the Columbia River bypasses just to the south. Sam decided we needed to turn around for him to catch work later that afternoon, so he googled a restaurant and we stopped at the Riverwalk Cafe where I had a breakfast burrito, some roast potatoes and hot chocolate. On the drive back, about two miles east of the Rocky Reach Dam, which forms Lake Entiat on the Columbia River, Sam spotted some bighorn sheep off the side of the road. For the next 45 minutes I had one of the most spectacular photo opportunities of my life as I saw over 40 bighorn sheep, including rams in rut, rearing on their hind legs and crashing heads. The lighting and fall colors were perfect.
I dropped Sam off in Cashmere mid-afternoon and headed back to Seattle. That evening Judy and I met with a high school friend of hers who works in Seattle over dinner at Wild Ginger. We got and shared a bunch of small plates, including smoked scallops, salt and pepper king salmon, bass, duck, chicken nuggets and lamb chops.
Friday, October 14, I had reservations for whale watching, but it was cancelled because of bad weather (it was rainy and cold). So I decided to stay local and walked to Pike Place Market, just five blocks away. This was the first of three times I would visit, twice alone and once with Judy. I bought several kinds of smoked salmon at Pure Food Fish which I took back to the hotel and we ate while we watched tv later that night. I went back out with Judy at lunch and we visited Pike Place Chowder where I got a horrible lobster roll and Judy got a sampler of three types of soup: seafood bisque, clam chowder and smoked salmon chowder. Later that afternoon I went back alone to Pike Place Market and then to the Pike Place Chowder on Pine Street and got an oyster po boy and an oyster shooter (items not on the menu at the Pike Place store).
Saturday, October 15, we checked out of the Sheraton Seattle and drove out to Cashmere to spend time with Sam. We drove in to Leavenworth where Sam worked and walked around town. Then we drove up Tumwater Canyon and hiked up in an area where Sam did some climbing. The tree leaves were changing colors and it was gorgeous.
In the afternoon we drove into East Wenatchee and ate at Fonda Oaxaquena. We all ordered the same thing - a tortilla filled with spinach and mushrooms and covered with green sauce and queso fresco. Sam had to get back to work, so we dropped him off at his house in Cashmere and we drove to Bellevue where we checked into the Hyatt House Seattle-Bellevue where we spent the night.
Sunday, October 16, we slept in and enjoyed the rest. The only thing I'm sure we did this day was have lunch at the restaurant Cactus in Bellevue. I had very good seafood enchiladas and Judy had an okay poblano relleno. We also shared a cauliflower appetizer that was great. We may have gone back to Pike Street Market to give Judy more time there. I really don't remember and we had most of the day. We flew out of Seattle at 8:40 p.m. on Alaska Airlines and arrived in Ontario at 11:06 p.m.
The perfect time of year to be there. I'm missing the fall colors right now, especially in light of (no pun intended) our recent fires that have turned California charcoal black.
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