Taking a vacation to WA/OR need advice

Hey y'all, I'm taking a trip to Washington and Colorado to help me and my GF decide where we want to move (currently we reside in South Dakota) and I've already been to WA and I really want to move there, she's only been to CO though and she is stuck on that.

So I was wondering if you could help me brainstorm on things to show her to help persuade her to consider WA? I really like the rain forest. And we both like nature areas, so any semi-secret nature spots would be great. She also enjoys shopping and stuff, so any crafty shopping areas would be nice too.

Thank you in advance for your help!

P.S. We only have 5-8 days out there so we need to probably stick with only the "shockers" I can't spend the whole time doing one thing, unfortunately.

 

Pacific Ocean > Colorado but that may just be me.
In seriousness where in Washington are you planning on visiting.
Also something some people who have moved here often complain about is that it really does rain a lot during the year. Not a lot like inches but there are many days in a row where it will rain some amount, and some people can't handle it. For your trip you are coming out during the best 3 month period for the Northwest. It will be green and sunny a lot.

Hope you have a great time.

 

Well I was thinking of visiting around the Olympic peninsula, because I really love the rainforest, so most of our time would probably be spend in the far western part of Washington. I was also thinking about looking for nice smaller towns where it would be cheaper to live than Seattle/tacoma, but still near the peninsula.

But otherwise we could visit any part of Washington or Oregon if it's worth seeing. We agreed not to plan to much, so I'm just looking for ideas

Thank you! We'll certainly try (and I'm sure we'll succeed)

 

^what he said

 

I love the Olympic Peninsula. I'd say drive the loop of HWY 101 all the way around, be sure to take HWY 112 all the way Cape Flattery (the tip of Washington). Sooooo much beauty to see on that drive.

Feel free to PM me - I have lived here my whole life.

 

That sounds pretty cool. Where is hotel 1000?

I might just follow that pretty closely, sounds like you know what you're talking about.
Thanks!

Keep the ideas coming, I really appreciate it!

Edit: oh and salmon, where does 101 break of to 112? I've been on 101 from Seattle to Portland before and it was great, would you say 112 is even more scenic?

 

I'm thinking hotel 1000 is probably out of our budget, we have a rather limited amount to spend on this trip:/ I was thinking we might end up staying in cabins in state parks or something to save money and experience nature.

And yeah bigger trees too, and a rainforest. But she's more scared because it's 22hrs from "home" instead of 13hrs

 

Go and I tent camped for 4 days the state parks had showers...we were there in august I don't think you could have camp fires on the state parks but could in the national parks?

 

Interesting, any specific state parks? Also do you know can you camp in Olympic natl?

 

We camped at Neah bay it was OK go didn't like it (very poor semi sketchy Indian town with nothing beside coast guard station) but I was right on the water some cool spots if you have a 4x4 truck and get there early. It's cold and wet so come prepared lol

1st nite I think we stayed east of Port Angeles sqeium bay state park I'm stressing early there were nice spots near the water we rolled in late and got a spot near the Rd (101) aka heard cars all nite

 

Yeah I'm pretty sure it was Sequim Bay... then cape flattery/hobuck beach, thenBogachiel state park..... sound right?

Quote from the mrs lol

 

Places we traveled to & visited: (the Olymic Peninsula/Olympic National Park), Port Townsend, Hurricane Ridge, Port Angeles, Cape Flattery, Forks, Hoh Rainforest, Ruby Beach, Seattle, We camped in Sequim Bay State Park, Hobuck Beach (camped close to beach, listened to the waves), and Bogachiel State Park (Near Hoh rainforest. We used the motor of the truck to heat up soup because we couldn't have a fire to cook anything. It rained all night & a tree fell around 1 in the morning so John decided to yell, "Sasquatch!".)

 

Well My wife is one of Seattles Best Hairstylist!!! That should get her here!!!

 

Haha well that might help.

So my friend was telling me about fresh food market place in Seattle, but I can't remember what he called It; does anybody have any idea what he might be talking about?

 

Pikes place market