Lake Quinault Virtual Office

Trip date: February 2023

The Seattle Times had an article about a BOGO deal that Lake Quinault was running and I thought that sounded like a great virtual office opportunity. Since I was looking for weeknights, there was actually quite a bit of availability. 

My friend Leslie lives out in Humptulips, which is just 30 minutes from Lake Quinault, so we made plans for me to come out for lunch before heading to the lodge. Washington had a fair amount of snow on the days leading up to my trip, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go as I drive a sports car! But that morning Leslie said the roads were mainly clear so I loaded up and drove the 3 hours from Seattle out to the Washington Peninsula. 

Leslie's house actually has a gorgeous stained glass window in it that use to belong to the Lake Quinault Lodge! 

Her guy made us a delicious lunch and then we went out to explore her property. It's very beautiful out there on the banks of the Humptulip River. And her miniature donkeys, baby cow, and chickens could not be cuter! Check out Lucky the cow photobombing!

By the time I left for the lodge it was snowing pretty hard, but the roads were still clear so I didn't have any problems. I got checked in and made my way to the lakeview Fireplace Rooms, which are in an adjoining building to the main lodge. 

There is wifi throughout the property but you only get 30 minutes a day for free so I bought the upgraded package for $16, which included multiple devices and 5GB, since this would be my office for the next few days. The room didn't have a desk but I just moved some furniture so I could work on my laptop in front of the fireplace. My room also had a mini fridge, coffee maker, balcony with adirondacks, and fairly recently renovated bathroom with heated floors. 

When it was time for happy hour, I moved down to the Great Room and grabbed a seat in front of the enormous fireplace.

This lodge was built in 1926, designed by a Seattle architect, and was completed in 53 days! I had camped nearby a long time ago, so had been inside briefly, but to relax in this gorgeous room with a cold martini in hand was truly a wonderful experience. 

I had dinner in the Roosevelt Room, named because the President visited here in 1937. The menu looked pretty good but the prices are ridiculously high! As I was still full from my late lunch I just had the Caesar salad with smoked salmon which was very good. 

I had brought some provisions with me for my room, so headed there after dinner for a glass of wine and to read my book. The lodge is very quiet which was excellent!

The next morning I worked in front of the fire with my coffee and the gorgeous view of the lake for a couple of hours before heading down to the dining room for breakfast. Even if your room doesn't have a view, the dining room is a wall of windows so you will not miss out. 

It had snowed lightly most of the night but the day was partly sunny and I was excited to go on a hike in the beautiful Olympic National Park! I had chosen the Gatton Creek Trail as it is one of the trails that goes right from the Lodge. I had wanted to do the Quinault Loop but it was mostly closed due to down trees.

Hiking in the Olympic rain forest is soooo gorgeous! The moss is 100 shades of green and the trees reach tall to the sky. There was no one on on the trail that morning so the forest was quiet and very peaceful. There was just a bit of snow on the trail and I thought it was beautiful!

But almost as soon as I crossed the bridge at Falls Creek the snow on the path was much deeper. I mean it was still just up to my shoelaces but I was surprised. The trail only had an 800 foot elevation rise but as I went up the snow was deeper; completely obscuring the trail. 

I kept expecting it to clear, not sure why! But at the ½ way point the snow was up to my ankles and I was also having to duck under branches laden with snow. Luckily someone else had hiked the trail the day before and since it hadn't snowed much I could still see their footprints. It was the only way I was able to stay on the course!

This "easy" hike ended up being a real slog! And because no one else was around, and I had spotted some cougar tracks, I was also a tad nervous and was whistling non-stop in order to give any kitties warning of my approach. 

As I came down from the modest elevation the trail was fine and the surrounding trees were stunningly draped in moss again instead of snow.

By the time I made it to Rain Forest Village I was exhausted and my touque and puffer were soaked. Luckily my new waterproof hikers did their job and my feet were dry and toasty. 

I stopped by the 1,000+ year old "World's Largest Sitka Spruce", which has lost its top and is looking pretty bad compared to the last time I saw it, and then walked along South Shore Drive back to the lodge. 5 ½ miles later I was done!

The lodge doesn't serve lunch on weekdays in the off-season so I changed into dry clothes, grabbed my laptop, and headed to the Quinault Internet Cafe in nearby Amanda Park. I was able to get some work done and have a pretty decent taco salad! Back at the lodge I worked for the rest of the afternoon in front of my fireplace. 

Before heading to the Great Room for a martini that evening, I walked out to the lakeshore to take in the view of the setting sun. The light was just incredible!

Sitting around the fire, the other guests were very talkative, kinda like when you are on a cruise! 😆 Everyone was giving each other advise on what to do and see, as well as talking about all their prior visits to the lodge. And everyone complained about the dining room prices! I was happy just to sip my drink and listen. 

I had some excellent (and still completely overpriced) fish and chips in the restaurant that night before heading back to my room. There aren't a lot of other options in the area, especially being off-season, but next time I'll try the Salmon House restaurant, which is just a short drive away. 

On my last day I had arranged a late checkout, so I spent the morning working and then hit the dining room right before they finished their breakfast service for my "brunch". 

I had such a nice time at the lodge and will definitely take advantage of the BOGO again, maybe this fall. It's such a beautiful property and they also have an indoor pool which I didn't have time to check out!

Before driving home, I followed South Shore Drive out to Merriman Falls. The 40 foot falls are right next to the road so no hiking required to view.

From here I drove another 5 ½ miles to Bunch Falls; South Shore Drive turns into a dirt road out here,which was quite slushy. I hadn't realized how far these falls were so I was a little concerned driving my sporty car on the icy road with not another car around. But passing through this section of forest was very pretty.

Bunch Falls are right by the Olympic National Park sign and before you get to the bridge which takes you to North Shore Drive. As the roads out here were pretty messy, doing the Lake Drive Loop was not an option. 

It was time to hit the road and get back to Seattle. As I drove out, next to the river, I slammed on my brakes when I spotted the largest bald eagle I've ever seen, sitting high in a bare tree. I mean I have seen hundreds of bald eagles and this one's size really shocked me!

As I got back into my car I spotted another huge one down the road! And on the drive out, one more! No matter how many times I see one I'm always in awe!

Lake Quinault offers the BOGO deal yearly October thru March. 

All Lake Quinault photos here. 

Seabrook Celebrations

Trip date: June 2022

Seabrook seems like one of those places that most Seattleites have been at least once. It's a relatively short & easy road trip, just 2 ½ hours away, and situated on the beautiful Washington coast. When one of my friends decided to celebrate her birthday there last year I was excited to go. I had never been, in fact I don't think anyone in our group had! We found a great 4 bedroom/5 bath house (since Seabrook is billed as a family getaway spot there are lots of houses with a large number of rooms and beds) and booked early in the year since the resort tends to sell completely out each year. 

I drove out with my friends Lorraine and Sonja and, as has become a lovely tradition when driving thru Olympia, we had lunch at Chelsea Farms. I just love this little restaurant with its delicious oysters and stellar clam chowder. It always makes for a nice ~½ way stop. 

The three of us arrived at the house Let It Be (all the houses here have names), before the others, got the groceries put away, and had a little drink on our big wrap-around porch. The house was huge, plenty of space for the 6 of us to cook, make drinks, and relax in. That was the plan for the weekend!

We decided to head out for a walk around town to get oriented. Seabrook was built in 2004 as a planned resort town; there are about 250 homes, a small core downtown with shops and restaurants, a few parks, and of course the pristine Pacific Beach. 

It's cute, in a Stepford Wives sort of way. It's so perfectly planned that it feels a bit eery, but it's very pleasant. Like a neighborhood at Disneyland. I'm not the only person to struggle with the artificial-ness of Seabrook, you can read a great article written by my friend Allecia here.

We headed back to Let It Be where we had happy hour in the hot tub and waited for our friends Travis & Sandra to arrive.

The next morning was absolutely beautiful so after a quick stop at Vista Bakeshop we all went for a nice long walk on the beach. It's really such a beautiful spot!

We circled back up to the town after and had lunch at Rising Tide Tavern. Since Pacific Beach is known for their razor clams I chose the chowder and then a fancy fishwich sandwich. Both were great!

A few of us drove out to Hoquiam after lunch to pick up some crab for that evening's dinner at Lytle Seafood. We thought we would get a few things from them to add to our dinner menu but honestly the shrimp didn't look great so we skipped that. 

When we got home Sonja had a lovely happy hour waiting for us and our crab feast that night was delish!

The next morning our friend Gavin arrived and I made up a big skillet of truffle scrambled eggs. The weather was absolutely awful, it poured rain all day, so we stayed inside playing games and having the fireplace on. We took a very quick walk to Cookies Country Chicken, which had a food truck there, to grab sandwiches to have at home for lunch. While we waited on our sandwiches Sonja, Lorraine, and I checked out the cocktails at Rising Tide. 

That evening we cooked up some absolutely gorgeous bone-in ribeyes that we bought in Seattle at Beast & Cleaver, had a proper baked potato bar with all the fixings, and I opened some lovely wines from my cellar. It was Lorraine's birthday celebration after all!

And then the weekend was over! I was glad to have gone to Seabrook with this fun group of friends. But would I go again? Maybe? I personally wouldn't plan it for myself but if I was invited I'd most likely say "Let It Be"!

All photos of Seabrook here. 

New Finds in Walla Walla

Trip date: November 2021

Last fall the ladies from the wine group I'm in decided a return to Walla Walla was in order. Covid was still wreaking havoc so it wasn't a normal Walla Walla trip but it was still incredibly fun!

Sarah and I decided to fly over, while Lorraine, Sandra, and Sonja drove. I had actually never flown to Walla Walla before; it's a quick 1 hour flight on a small prop plane, very similar to the flight into Santa Rosa wine country. 

When we landed we found out our friends, who were to be picking us up from the airport, were running a bit late. We tried to find an Uber or Lyft, thinking we would just meet them at our first wine tasting appointment, but Walla Walla still doesn't have car share services. When we found out the only restaurant in the airport didn't serve wine ("we don't want to seem like we are playing favorites" was the reply when I asked why not!) Sarah and I took the advice of the cashier and wheeled our suitcases down the street to Cavu Cellars and had a glass until our friends made it into town. 

Our first tasting of the weekend was at Grosgrain Cellars. It's in a beautiful location and the wines here are very very good. They even have a gorgeous vacation rental if you want to stay! 

We checked into our own Airbnb afterward; a HUGE 5 bedroom, 4+ bathroom house directly across the street from Pioneer Park. This was a great rental for a group with a super well stocked kitchen, lots of comfy seating, and big tv for movie watching. 

After a quick tasting at El Corazon, we had a stellar dinner at Hattaway's.  It was my first time here and I loved it! The food was great, our table in the wine cellar was perfect, and the wine selection was awesome. Highly recommend!

The next morning we called in salad orders from Graze -as we had a full day of tasting appointments and didn't want to have to worry about finding a lunch spot- and hit the road. Except for El Corazon, all the wineries we had lined up for the weekend were new visits for me and I was super excited! 

First up was Devison where we tasted in their working cellar. The reds here are absolutely delicious! I also recently had a chance to try their rosé which is super solid as well. 

We didn't have far to go for our next appointment at Rasa as they share the same building. They have a small tasting room set up with comfy lounge chairs and poured us through quite a big line up. I think the group had mixed opinions on the wine here but I did buy a couple of their QED which is a nice Rhone blend. 

Our third stop was at Dillon which is near the airport. Dillon specializes in Chardonnay and Syrah and although domestic Chardonnay does not tend to be my favorite varietal I absolutely loved Marc Leahy's! This is one talented winemaker! They were also kind enough to let us eat our salads as we tasted. Another stellar stop!

We were all very excited for our final tasting of the day. Alton Cellars has been getting a lot of press since opening their new tasting room in 2020. The building, by Architect Jon Gentry of GO’C, is simply stunning. Sitting in the middle of rolling hills, the steel/glass/wood structure manages to look both completely out of place and somehow natural in it's setting. 

And that's the end of my positive experience at Alton. As we walked inside and were seated we all commented on the VERY strong scent of what we assumed was someone's cologne. So strong was the smell that I could actually taste it in the back of my throat. This is obviously something that you don't want while wine tasting.

One of my friends finally asked/commented about the smell to the woman pouring for us and she responded excitedly that it was actually a scented candle that they had burning. And in fact they consider it their signature scent.

WTF????? What winemaker has scented candles burning in their tasting room?? Especially one called Cowboy's Camp? Did I also mention that their tasting fee was $30? Utter bullshit. Enough said.

We decided to have dinner at home that night and picked up an order of Greek food from Yamas, which had been recommended to us by one of the (better) winemakers, and to-go cocktails from Passatempo. Both were absolutely delicious! 

The next morning, after some mimosas and pastries, we had our first tasting. The winemaker of Tempus Joe Forest was great and took us through a tasting in the cellar room. The wines here are super approachable, very well priced, and the staff were all great. I think everyone bought a few bottles!

Down the road and very near the airport we stopped at the incubator area. These cute little buildings are part of a program to help growing wineries and winemakers get a foothold in the industry. We had an appointment to taste at itä where winemaker Kelsey Albro Itämeri charmed us while pouring some absolutely delicious rosé, semillon, and pinot noir. 

This was such a great stop! Kelsey is from Seattle and does club pick up parties both in Walla Walla and Seattle making joining her wine club an easy choice for all of us. 

So enamored by the incubators we headed next door to Hoquetus (rhymes with lettuce) and tasted through the three wines that winemaker Robert Gomez was making. You may know Robert as he worked at Montana bar and Dino's Tomato Pie in Seattle before moving to Walla Walla in 2017. His wines are crunchy and lovely.

Before leaving the airport region we stopped at Prospice where they were holding tastings outside under a big tent. Sarah and Sonja went to the nearby taco truck and brought over lunch while we tasted some gorgeous syrahs. Jay Krutulis (former cellarmaster at Tranche) and Matt Reilly (former cellarmaster at Gramercy) aren't new to wine making but this is their first venture together and they just started in 2019.

The wines are great, well-priced, and they made it very easy to join their cellar club :) 

We headed back into downtown after this and Sandra, Lorraine, and I did a final tasting at House of Bones which is in the old Rotie space. I was pretty excited about trying the "French-style" chardonnays here but they only served one and the other 3 tastes were Proper Syrahs. All good, but I somehow thought we'd be tasting all Chard.

They did pair the wines with some delicious chocolates though!

We met everyone at Brasserie Four and had a cocktail out on the patio with some oysters & escargot while waiting for our delicious to-go order which we thoroughly enjoyed back at our home.  

The next morning the car-crew headed out fairly early as there were reports of snow in the pass. Sarah and I called every "taxi" driver in town before finally getting hooked up with some random guy and his SUV. 

I headed across the street to Pioneer Park to take a little walk in the sun while Sarah packed up. It's a gorgeous park with huge trees, a pond, and an aviary.

We picked up another order from Graze and headed to the airport. After checking in (1 case of wine free per person flying out of Walla Walla!) we found an area upstairs in the airport where we could have our lunch away from other people. 

It was a great weekend, with some great ladies, and a chance to taste some really lovely wines! 

All Walla Walla photos here.