Seattle....

We love taking road trips together and most of the time they are quite pleasant.  None have been as terrible as this one though!

We planned a trip to Seattle to see a friend, and really, just to get away before the craziness of the holidays began.  We really needed this vacation.  We didn't have the money to fly back east for Christmas because they hike up the prices so much that it should be considered robbery.  And because we had such a nice weekend away last year about this time (McCall, ID), we figured this would be a nice gift to each other instead of buying a bunch of gifts we don't really need.  

We had an invite from a friend to stay on his family's boat, so we accepted and budgeted to use our money on gas and some eating out.  As we began our trip north, the day was beautiful, and we estimate only 8-9 hours.  Right as we approached the last mountain pass before Seattle, it began to snow....harder and harder.  We were okay until we got to the base of the mountain and every car had pulled over to put chains on their tires and did we have chains or four wheel drive? NOPE.  It was dark by now even though it was around 4pm and we had to turn around, drive all the way to Portland, and up to Seattle through that route.  Better safe that sorry.

Thankfully, we found a nice hotel on hot-wire.com at an excellent price and we stayed in Portland, OR for the night.  Probably the best decision we could've made.  We had a nice place to stay and were able to sleep in and continue our trip to Seattle the next morning (only 2.5 hours from there).  

While we were there it was wonderful.  Our friend, Steve, and his girlfriend took us to eat at the space needle, then we went to see someone they knew play live music at a place downtown.  The entire day was a lot of fun and though it was cold, the weather was great.  The next day we spent most of the morning and early afternoon at the Pike Place Market.  We tried a ton of really good food and yummy treats while we were there and had a wonderful time together.  That night we ate at a really good seafood restaurant and just enjoyed relaxing a bit.  

On the way home Sunday morning it started out a little rainy, then continued to get worse as we drove. So for about 80% of the trip we were tense and driving slow because the roads were so bad.  Snow pack roads most of the way caused us to get home after 11pm and we vowed to never drive during this time of the year again.  

Overall we had a wonderful time in Seattle and it was fun since it was my first time being there!  Next time, we will go in the summer :)