Washington - the state not the capitol!

A southern comedian, Karen Mills, did a funny skit about a woman who said she was traveling to Washington but didn't know if it was the state or the capitol. Kinda scary but funny. This past week I traveled to Washington state. I'm still in training for my job, so I have to fit in tiny bites of sightseeing when I can - usually limited to an hour on the day of arrival or a lunch somewhere cool.

I flew into Seattle and drove across the state to Ellensburg, WA. The drive was breathtaking. I took I-90 through the Snoqualmie Pass. It was grey and rainy - about what I expected for the area. As I drove the the pass I hit a snowstorm but the roads were perfectly clear. So many evergreens though! And the air was so fresh. I thought about all the movies set in the Pacific NW - like the sparkly vampire ones (Twilight) and others I've seen. That's been my only experience of the PNW so far until now. And they didn't do it justice. My pictures don't do it justice either. It's beautiful! I wanted to have so much more time to explore. I'll definitely have to come back.

Ellensburg is a small town but cute. People seem charmed by my accent. It's not hard for them to tell I'm not from around here. LOL. The people were nice. The hotel was decent except for the couple having a fight next door. I suppose that's one of the hazards of travel. I'm lucky that I haven't run into anything worse than some guy shouting obscenities for hours and slamming doors. (Yes, I reported it to the front desk.)

The next day was a drive back to Seattle for the latter half of the week. I was up at 4:30 for an early conference call - hazard of having a company on both coasts of the U.S. But I did get an hour or so to drive around Seattle - see the space needle, sho and eat at Pier 55. All these coastal towns are difficult for me to find places to eat because of my shellfish allergy.

I did get to have an incredible dinner at a farm to table restaurant in Seattle with an amazing view of the water. The restaurant is called Aerlume (like heirloom). I can highly recommend it - but it's pricey. I went with a colleague who I'll be sharing Washington state with for a territory. She also has Alaska. So of course I volunteered to cover for her any time she needed me! 😬

Friday was a short flight back to Boise. One of the few direct flights I've found. It was nice to get back in daylight. Next week I'm off to San Francisco. I lived here for three months in 2011. So I'm happy to go back. So I'm off to do laundry and repack. This is the life of a traveling gypsy. I'm loving it!

As always, thanks for reading.