Seattle, WA June 2019 Trip Recap

Your favorite travel duo is back and in one of our favorite places! 😉 This past week Jessica and I flew up to Seattle to explore, work a little, and enjoy everything the pacific northwest has to offer. We spent time in Port Angeles, Neah Bay, Sequim, and good ole downtown Seattle. In this post you’ll find recommendations for each spot and a personal recap of our trip, with some travel tips sprinkled throughout. Enjoy. 🙂

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Day 1: Fly In + Drive to Port Angeles

We landed in Seattle around 4:30pm, so we had just enough time to grab the rental car, get some coffee, go to Trader Joes for some groceries and eat dinner before we drove up to Port Angeles.

Seattle’s coffee scene is unparalleled and all the locals have opinions on this roastery over that coffee shop because of these types of espresso beans… yada yada yada. On the flight, a Seattleite sitting next to us recommended we try Victrola Coffee Roasters and I have to say, it did not disappoint.

We went to the location on Pike Street, near the Starbucks Reserve Roastery. We wanted to see the Starbucks, but wanted to try out something we couldn’t get at home so this worked perfectly. Driving through Starbucks at home is a little neater now after learning about the process at the roastery. If coffee is your thing, you should check out both of these spots.

A little budget tip…
When Jessica and I travel we have a system. (Okay, it probably isn’t cool enough to be called a “system”, but we think we are really smart, so that’s what we call it. ;)) One of the first things we do after we land is go grocery shopping. We get enough food to cover breakfast every day, lunch most days, and a few snacks. Not only is it a lot cheaper, it’s healthier than eating out every meal and easier. Win win win.

Day 2: Engagement Session + Sequim

Our day started early at 5am, because Jessica had an engagement session at Lake Crescent. We discovered this beautiful dock last year when we went, so when Jessica’s couple wanted a Seattle engagement session, she couldn’t resist suggesting this spot.

Thankfully they were totally on board and I know it made for some of the most amazing images!

After her session was over, we headed back to the AirBNB to regroup and eat some lunch before heading back out to explore the nearby town of Sequim.

This wasn’t our first time visiting Sequim, but this darling city never gets old. About 15 miles east of Port Angeles, Sequim is a small town known for their lavender farms. Seriously y’all, the whole city smells like lavender! It’s a dream. We grabbed a cup of coffee (typical) from Hurricane Coffee Co., then went to the Purple Haze Lavender Farm. No rhyme or reason for choosing this one… We just followed the signs to the closest farm.

It was gorgeous, but no one was shocked by that. 😉 After exploring the farm for a bit we went towards the water and found a huge field of daisies along the way. (Is this a fairytale story? I don’t know, you tell me.)

We finished the day by getting dinner at Next Door Gastropub in Port Angeles. 10/10 recommend, y’all. It was delicious.

Day 3: Hurricane Ridge + Cape Flattery and Shi Shi Beach

You might have caught on that relaxing on trips isn’t really our thing. Thank goodness we both feel the same way, because we love getting to explore as much as possible when we travel.

Our friend, Betty, is a local Seattle wedding photographer who hired Jessica to shoot a promo film for her business. This was awesome because I’m not sure Jessica and I would have thought to head up to Cape Flattery, had Betty not suggested doing her film there.

Filming started at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. If you go to Olympic, make sure you go here and Lake Crescent. I promise they won’t disappoint.

After we finished up at Olympic, we headed on out to Cape Flattery aka the northwesternmost part of the contiguous US. How cool is that?! Hiking and filming here was so fun and seriously beautiful. You need a permit to go, but they aren’t hard to get. Just stop at the Makah Mini Mart on the way in.

Next, we got adventurous at Shi Shi Beach. There is about a 2 mile hike in and if you take it all the way, there is apparently a staircase that takes you to the beach. Well, we didn’t know about that and we turned off a little too early, which had us take a really steep hike down. (We’re talking majorly steep with ropes to hold onto, guys.) Don’t get me wrong, this would’ve been so fun, if only we didn’t have tons of camera equipment on us. But we did make it and we did have fun and we did have snacks in the car. So all in all, not too bad!

Day 4: Downtown Seattle

On the last day of our trip, we explored the city. Jess and I both love sushi and everyone knows it’s better on the coast, so that was the first order of business. We went to a place off of Pike right by Victrola — I wish I remembered the name of it, but let’s be honest… good sushi isn’t all that hard to find in Seattle.

After sushi, we went down towards the Pike Place Market. We did a quick stop in Storyville coffee to back up images and answer emails before heading out to the market to shop.

If you are a first time Seattle go-er, definitely check out the Pike Place Market. It is totally a tourist-y thing to do, but even still I think it is really cool and fun! If you are there, you should also check out the gum wall.

We had dinner at the Ballard Pizza company, where you can get a reasonably priced pizza by the slice and finished our evening with dessert at the Salt and Straw ice cream shop. There is more than one location downtown and people rave about their scoops. If you are nearby, it is totally worth dropping in.

The next day we packed up and headed out for our early flight back home! Exploring every corner of our country will never get old and thankfully, I have a great travel pal who is always up to adventure with me. We are both thinking that a yearly trip to Seattle needs to become a thing! 🙂 If you’ve been or are a local, let us know what we need to check out the next time we go! Thanks y’all!

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