2020 PNW Trip - Washington 2

We started our full day in Seattle with a quick breakfast at Oddfellows Café and a stroll around Capital Hill. The rest of the day was mostly spent driving around the greater Seattle area, working our way counter-clockwise around Lake Washington from Renton and New Castle, up through Bellevue, Redmond, and Kirkland, and finally shooting all the way over to Edmonds before settle back down to Greenwood area. Overall it was interesting to get a sense of how each neighborhood was like and the “vibes” they had compared to their online descriptions.

Saw a couple of these rigs, really cool trucks that look like the product of AEV, an overlander focused company that’s known for using Rams as a foundation. They’re very pricy and not really well known so spotting one is pretty rare.

One thing that was not rare during our trip were the number of JDM 4X4 vans that have been imported to the States. They’re not common in CA where our SMOG laws prevent them from being registered, but up here that’s not an issue.

On our last day we drove around West Seattle before returning the rental and flying home. I’m lucky enough to already live in one of the prettiest cities in the world, but both Portland and Seattle really do have a lot going for them. One of the few cities that I enjoy every time I visit.

2020 PNW Trip - Washington 1

Last day in Portland, most of it was taken up with a roadtrip along the Oregon coast and into Seattle late afternoon. But before we left, we had to get another taste of Portland food.

Between Seattle and Portland, each city has it’s strengths and weaknesses, but when it comes to food we definitely feel Portland just slays. Maybe if I were a huge seafood fan I’d better appreciate Seattle’s food scene, and their scene is no slouch, but the options in Portland genuinely made me excited just so much more often. Maybe even more than Bay Area…

Once on the road, I wanted to swing by Tillamook’s factory for some of their ice cream. Unfortunately, we chose the one day that they were filming a new commercial. They were letting a limited few in at a time for a factory tour, but the food was closed until they wrapped up their shoot which was indefinite. So being mindful of the distance we needed to cover, we decided not to wait and went straight to the coast.

I don’t know if it’s normally like this or we just got lucky with a break from the weather, but the moment we got to the coast the sun really came out and turned the whole place into Studio Ghibli level beauty. We had to stop at Cannon Beach of course and after stretching our legs a bit and a great lunch, we got back on the road to Seattle.

After checking in we grabbed some nice warm ramen and then walked around Capital Hill for a bit. Had to swing by a Starbucks of course, but this is one location that (as long as the crowds aren’t crazy) I don’t mind going to. Afterwards we drove up to Kerry Park for a good view of the city before turning in for the night.

2020 PNW Trip - Oregon 2

We continued to explore most of eastern Portland but also spent time around downtown, trying to take advantage of some tax-free shopping (even though we hardly bought anything). The weather was also on and off with the rain during the whole day so we ended up doing a lot of the exploring in the comfort of our rental.

It’s probably safe to say the donut is Portland’s local delicacy, but don’t be tricked into automatically going to VooDoo’s crazy cereal/meat creations. Try to look for independent shops, but if you’re gonna go for a chain, I’d recommend either Heavenly if you’re feeling something Winchell’s-like or our choice Blue Star for something a little fancier but so, so good.

See See Motor Coffee is a local chain that I had to visit. Good coffee, cool bikes, and that really cool Camel Pro banner they had on the ceiling made it a good place to take a break from the rain. Afterwards we cruised around Portland’s North District and stopping by 10 Barrel Brewing for great beer, seasoned fries, and amazing, chili-thick minestrone soup. From that point on the rain just hit harder so I didn’t really shoot much more for the rest of our day in Portland.

2020 PNW Trip - Oregon 1

Since 2020 lit ablaze into the dumpster fire that we now know and loath and we had got back from our UK trip just as everything started shutting down globally, we had been bunkered down in the Bay Area and holding off on any of the major trips we’d typically try to do throughout the year. As things started to stabilize a bit and with the storm of the elections and holidays looming ahead, we decided to take advantage of the short window and do a little trip up north to Portland and Seattle.

The plans were to first land in Seattle where we’d rent a car to get us down to Portland, back up to Seattle, and cruise around both cities in the car so as to limit the amount of time spent on shared transportation. One constant challenge throughout the trip though was getting food as seating options and hours were limited compared to normal times. Fortunately, both cities are full of great food options which made it easy to pivot to an alternative when our first choice wasn’t available. “Happy little accidents” is a perfect way to describe how we ended up eating at a super good Mediterranean food place for our first stop. Juicy, grilled chicken with honey sauce? Oh yeah!

And of course you don’t visit the PNW without constantly consuming their most famous local delicacy: coffee. After visiting Tokyo and Seoul, it was actually a little surprising to feel like coffee shops were a little sparse for the areas, but that doesn’t mean we were ever out of reach for some great brews. Olympia is a local chain but we ended up going to one in the city itself as we headed down to Portland.

Arriving to the city within a few hours and with good weather on our side, we quickly checked into our hotel and started exploring some of Portland’s eastern neighborhoods.

When we were planning for our food stops, we did our best to find ones that provided outdoor seating, though that only really works when the weather is decent. We knew it’d be colder up north, but having just flown out from a heatwave that the Bay Area was experiencing that week, we were probably a little more optimistic with the temperatures than we should have been.

Heading back to the hotel, we turned in early for the night knowing we’d be going all around the city the following day, though not before admiring some of the modern Portlandia decor our hotel was filled with.

2020 UK Trip Pt 6 - London

Final post of the trip. The whole day was dedicated to stomping around old favorites as well as exploring some areas that we haven’t really seen. We started off going straight to our old neighborhood and favorite area, Shoreditch.

If the previous day seemed quiet, this was even quieter. No surprise that many businesses ended up closing down after the week had ended.

A great spot that I never managed to visit before was Bike Shed. They now have a location in SoCal as well, but I couldn’t imagine it looks as great as this under-bridge lair.

Since we were so close, we decided to swing by the old building that we stayed at several years ago. It’s since been renovated to a much nicer apartment complex, but the streets still look and feel the same as they did back in the day.

Finally saw the infamous “MI6” building.

And so we end the night and trip grabbing one last order of boba (of course) and head back to the hotel for an early flight the following day. We were VERY fortunate that not only had the flight back been mostly empty and without any issues, but that we didn’t experience any symptoms the following weeks when we were home. \

As I mentioned in the beginning, it was a very strange trip. With our previous Asian trip we made a relatively-last minute pivot from Hong Kong to Tokyo due to the protests and looking back that was clearly the right call at the time. This time wasn’t quite as clear, but a lot of it had to do with pure luck in timing. The experience was incredibly smooth and easy, but the stress of the world shutting down around us ensured that this was something we didn’t want to experience again.

2020 UK Trip Pt 5 - London

One last day of driving. Waking up in Lake District and grabbing a quick breakfast, we eagerly got back on the road.

Finally in London, the last stop (and close to the airport). With two nights to spend here, we mainly focused on dinner for the first night and taking it easy, especially after the string of days on constantly traveling. We also tried to stay mindful of the number of times we would take public transportation, so we tried to stick with one area, and this round we chose to hang around Covent Gardens.

One thing for sure, it was really REALLY quiet during the whole stay here. With exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas day, I don’t think we had ever seen the city so empty.

2020 UK Trip Pt 3 - Isle of Skye

Despite the cold, rainy weather the night before had turned into, the following morning was bright and welcoming. We took off early and pushed into the furthest point of our trip: the Isle of Skye.

Our fun little rental (thankfully manual!) allowed us to venture a little off the larger M and A roads and explore via the smaller and tighter B roads that cut through Scotland.

The driving on this day was easily my favorite. The landscape, weather, and roads drastically changed every half hour or so. After driving through some properly twisty roads through forests, we briefly stopped for some breakfast at a little town called Ballater before heading off again.

Snow sports are snow sports and I’d happily spend all day on these slopes (especially given the current shutdowns) but driving by these runs makes me thankful I live so close to the Sierras.

This section was a little dicey, with a fairly long stretch of road narrowing down to a single lane and plenty of blind corners.

Eventually though we made it to the Skye Bridge, a simple but vital bridge that connects Skye to the rest of mainland UK. Despite taking longer routes, we still have plenty of time left in the day to explore the area, so we decided to drive around the island and see what Skye had to offer.

Turns out what it offered was probably the most surreal moments of our trip. Isolation is one thing, and the Scottish Highlands offers its flavor of beauty that I’ve never encountered anywhere else, but Skye had a touch of the familiar to me.

Maybe it was the more modern wooden architecture of this community space/cafe we found, but if someone were to explain to me that I were looking at an unmapped section of western America, I could believe them. I knew I hadn’t been to anywhere like this place before, but it didn’t feel alien to me. Or maybe I was just a sucker for the dramatic sky. Either way, after some delicious chocolate cake and coffee, we headed back towards our AirBnB to swing by a nearby attraction with hopes to catch it before it closed.

Of course it’s a castle! There are genuinely so many scattered around countryside that it’s kinda hard to not see one (this was the 2nd we saw today, the first being that white grain elevator looking structure in one of the earlier images). Not many of them look that amazing though, and so despite not being particularly rare in this area, this was still pretty fantasy-looking to us. The sunshine/rain weather that was slamming us helped make things look magical as well. Sadly it had closed up early probably because of the drop in tourist traffic with the COVID epidemic quickly approaching, but it looked great from the shores.

As this wasn’t really an area with many dine-out options and we were pretty tired from the all-day drive, we grabbed some microwavable dinners at the local market and headed to our tiny little AirBnB shed. It was clearly on the small side, but actually a pretty nice place to stay.

After our routine wipe down of all the surfaces, we settled in for an early sleep as tomorrow would be the longest leg of our entire trip. Next stop, Lake District!

2020 UK Trip Pt 2 - Dundee

Next leg of the trip was Dundee, just about an hour north of Edinburgh. The bulk of the drive was not too different than the drive to York; expressways across grassy hills. There were plenty of sheep, this one known statue, looming mountains in the distance, and some nice bridges, but otherwise pretty uneventful.

We arrived just after noon and immediately went off to grab some lunch. To our surprise, we stumbled on a Kiwi cafe which happened to have some of that Supreme coffee that we recognized from Tokyo. It’s like this brand has a thing for small islands around the world.

Afterwards we went to the McManus Gallery, a museum housing much of Scotland’s historical accomplishments as well as some of their older art. The best part was, like most museums in UK, the entry was free.

Fun fact; Lemmings and the original GTA video game came from here!