[Closed] Must do Seattle/Olympic/Mt.Rainier/Mt.Hood/Portland?

Hood River is a lovely little town with nice bars/places to eat for a few days - typically in summer theres a lot of kit surfer type on the river. between mount hood and Portland so on your way to town

Portland
Lots of micro breweries and food festivals
lots of small groups of food hubs around town - most are excellent
Blue star doughnuts (don't queue for the tourist voodoo doughnuts)
If you have the time head out to the coast via wine area and Tillamook state forest - The sea looks amazing with big rollers and beautiful light - lots of towns to stop in and great seafood

Cheers plumber -we're actually driving through Hood River o the way from Packwood along the eastern side of Mt St Helens so will make sure to stop off for a wander/beer/food

Nip over to Sequim and spend a day helping Leo Sampson restore Tally Ho, as featured on YouTube. Leo is an all-round Good Bloke and I'd love to have a look over his boat and his workshop. Might even get in one of the videos.

Here: http://sampsonboat.co.uk/

Don’t really have anything to suggest - Washington state looks amazing. my brother was on the top of mount rainier a couple of days ago. The camp before the ascent to the peak was on a snow field that was “hotter than the desert”.

I thought the Olympic Peninsula was interesting but ultimately a bit repetitive. 2 days there was plenty for me.

I really enjoyed the Chihuly glass exhibition in Seattle.

How very useful. We’re in mount hood right now.

Won't work without a car - Crater Lake is about 4 hours drive from Portland and is pretty amazing. If you do have a car, stop off at Becky's Union cafe for some awesome pies. It's in the woods on the last leg to Crater Lake. Take some nuts to feed the chipmunks, at the lake they'll pretty much eat out of your hand.

Oregon State Aquarium at Newport
Cheap outlet shopping at Woodburn Premium outlets (OR has no GST)
Evergreen Aviation Museum & the Waterpark next door.
The various falls along the columbia river gorge.
MT hood is nice, It can get frikkin freezin mr bigglesworth on the one chairlift they run in the summer - take something warm. Timberline lodge restaurant is a bit up itself & can get really busy.
Car is essential. It may be hipster central, but you still need one to get about the state.
Have you watched Portlandia? It's like that, but in 3d.

Wot no St Helen's? Very good visitor centre and explanation of the disaster. I guess I'd agree about needing less time to get the feel of Olympic Peninsula. One of the hot springs makes a good end to a hike, we did Sol Duc. When we went to POrtland they had a heatwave. 95 deg plus and it was unbearable, so we headed off to Seaside for a couple of days, which was charming. Must do an aviation day somewhere, Boeing, Evergreen or Flying Heritage Museum. Baiinbridge Island bike shop and museum worth a mooch too, we stayed on the island and up at Mt Baker.

For Portland, stay / drink in the Pearl District. 1-2 nights will be enough, nice enough city but OR is all about the great outdoors. Powell's City of Books is one of the 'sights'. Don't be surprised by or put off by the numbers of homeless - it's seen as a liberal city and has a moderately mild climate.

Deschutes bar is quite touristy though food is reliable. Better to wander in to other random microbreweries. Black Pedal / 10 Barrel / Rogue Pearl were good. Ringlers Annex Bar / Al's Den on the corner of McMenamin's was quirky, tiny upstairs, live music and bar downstairs.

In Seattle: -

If you like food and art - Pikes Place Market.

If you like planes - the Boeing factory tour.

If you like coffee - the Starbucks Roastery.

If you like the beach - Alki Beach (they do a great Pineapple cider).

If you like the beer, Holy mountain in Seattle is a bit out of the heart of the city, but their taproom is cool and it's a short bus ride toward Ballard. It does nothing for non beer lovers though.

Just hope there are no forest fires when you go, we didn't see the sky for the first 2 days we were in Seattle a couple of years ago!

Crater Lake and Mt St Helens are well worth seeing. For Mt St Helens you need a permit from the ranger station in Cougar. I believe you can get them online too. It’s a spectacular climb up to the rim, with amazing views to Mt Rainier, Mt Hood and Mt Adams

If you are into trees, the Hoyt Arboretum in Portland is worth a visit. The world forestry centre is near there too. Highlight for me was the timber harvesting simulator

A trip to Manzanita on the coast would be on my list to include the best burritos outside of Mexico

I’m heading back out there in September for what must be the sixth or seventh time.

No wildfires yet, and it's rained a bit the last few days, which will help.

Seattle I can reccomend the underground tour in Pioneer square, quite a good take on Seattle's history.

I also like the Wooden Boat Center and the museum of industry.

On the peninsula Crescent Lake Lodge is pretty nice.

Or you could pick up some demo.bikes and sample the damn fine trails of Tiger Mountain, Raging River, and Duthie Hill. Some fantastic riding less than an hour outside Seattle.

http://www.zoobombpdx.org/

We did this in Portland last year. Probably the most fun we had all holiday. Plus it was completely free, less the tram fare.

Zoobomb meets every Sunday night to ride the MAX elevator to the top of Washington Park and bomb crazy bikes down big hills.

I'll second Crater Lake too. Its stunning. Its bloody cold up there though. It was shorts and T-shirts weather at the base but proper cold up the top. We were in Klamouth Falls (after Portland) and drove from there. Its still quite a drive though.

Also get the hospital cable car in Portland. Its dead cheap and the views are good. It does sway about a bit though.

West Coast really is the best coast.

You already had a pretty good itineary, and some great suggestions. Timberline to Town is supposed to be awesome, never got to do it. The hike is a good choice.

Hopworks Urban Brewery on SE Powell St is great and easy to get to (by car!). Also check out one of the food cart pods - huge selection of good food served from various wheeled vehicles. And the Green Mile, if that's your thing 😉

I lived there for 2 years and never made it to Crater Lake. I'm sure it's awesome, but it's a long way out. If you somehow have the time, get there on the mountain road via Bend (itself an awesome town where middle aged couples with no kids spend their time skiing and biking).

Find a copy of the book "Curious Gorge" for the drive along the Columbia River Gorge. There is a huge amount of cool hidden stuff to find.

Thanks for all the replies guys....so much to do in our 2 week trip so having to be ruthless just so we don't end up driving too much to just tick things off - having to accept that we cant do/see everything

Globalati - We will be driving through here and had a look at that website - he's after volunteers for a min of 6 weeks, but we had decided to stop off her for a couple of hours so will try and seek it out

Crater Lake / Newport Aquarium / Aviation Museum etc - all look good but as we only have 3nights/2days in Portland it's too much of a stretch

Konagirl - Perfect thank you!!!

Phinbob - Underground Seattle is on the list now 🙂

Daffy - Pike Place & the Roastery are on the list 🙂

Midlifecrashes / Mcmoonter - Mt St Helens, I know - this has been a bit of a problem for us - 3nights in Packwood (Mt Rainier), then drive to Government Camp (Mt Hood) for another 2 nights. WE looked at calling in Johnson VC on the way from Mt Rainier to Mt Hood but its such a big detour and adds on a good few hours that we've decided to go via the 'backroads' and see Mt St Helens from the East, Windy Ridge our friends who were there last year also said how much they enjoyed Mt St Helens which is really making us doubt our plans now - plus goingf that way would mean a drivae along the Columbia Gorge rather than just crossing at Hood River

Toby1 - I'm pretty sure we'll end up at the Ballard locks things at some point so I'm sure we'll find that brewery 🙂

Tallsam - I want to do that Zoobomb - we're actually there on a Sunday night - did you hire bikes?

Twrch - yes, the Green Mile is mine and Mrs Yoshimis thing:) thanks for the heads up on that - we do intend to stock up in Seattle - the thought of sitting on the deck of our forest cabin miles from anywhere/anyone with views of Mt Rainier with a BBQ going sampling Washington States finest supplies makes my heart flutter:)

Again - thanks all and sorry if I didn't respond to all 🙂