Alas, after 9 years (yikes 😳) I have made my return to Washington for a proper PNW fall! Giving credit where credit is due, I owe this trip back to my high school bestie Ang! Because when your friend from New Zealand lets you know she's coming home and you work for yourself you get on a plane and get your butt to the west coast!

Thanks to technology we get to chat a bit in between her trips to America every two years but danggg the years just keep flying by so I am so thankful I got to make it home to visit with her and meet her hubby (outside of Skype!) We may live on absolute opposite ends of the Earth (literally) but every time we're together it's like no time has passed. 

We totally lucked out and had a beautiful day in Seattle to play tourists. I've been to Pike Place more times than I can count, but I never quite tire of it and I'm pretty sure if I lived there I would totally buy myself one of their bouquets every week. 

After a really fun day of exploring together they headed off to their next adventure and I caught up with another one of my favorite people, Lindsey! With some impending storms in the forecast for the weekend, she suggested we spend a little time outdoors (good call!) So we headed over to Green Lake to walk the lake and take in some fall colors and boy was that a treat.. OMG 😍. 

I always joke with Lindsey that Seattle is so intimidating to me.. I know, I know I live in NYC, but Seattle just has so much variety and different neighborhoods that frankly I know very little about., plus there's that driving thing. So it is always such a treat for me every time we get together and when I get to explore new areas like a local. Ah, I just love it! Seattle you're dreamy.

I know I've already said it but I am SO very thankful for this time home -- and I still have over a week to go! Getting to visit with Angie and Lindsey was such a fun way to kick off my trip and I'm already itching for another day trip up to Seattle. So, so, SO happy this is real life and that I'm getting to spend more time at home. It's such a change of pace that really makes my heart full and I can't wait for the other memories to come from this trip!

If you caught my last blog post I've had some exciting changes in my life as of recent. Even better, I got to kick off my new life adventure with nearly a month on my favorite coast! It was so wonderful to be home to relax and regroup a little, all without having my departure looming over my head. Somehow the month still flewwww by but I did get some quality family time in, which I SO needed! Here are some of the highlights of my trip!

Portland

I kicked off my west coast tour in one of my favorite cities with some of my absolute favorite people -- the PERFECT combo!

It's always so much fun visiting Portland! I may have only lived there for a year, but it always brings back great memories.

Little Duck and I put our walking shoes on and had such a fun adventure! It's probably good we walked a lot too because we followed our amazing breakfast with donuts and cupcakes. #NoShame. Okay, well we saved the donuts for later, but hey, when in Portland enjoy the food!

After an awesome day. We united with our other lovely ladies and enjoyed a fun night out! We checked out a delicious little Italian spot in the Pearl District that was dishing up some seriously good bites and then we headed to the Nutcracker! The last time I had seen the Nutcracker, Little Duck probably wasn't even up to my shoulder in height, so you know it has been a LONG time! It was such a nice holiday treat and I'm so thankful that the Hardersens invited me to join them! 

For our last day in the city, we visited my all-time favorite Portland spot, Pine State Biscuits! Nom, nom, nom! Followed by some shopping at some seriously cool home stores including City Home -- LOVED this place!

Enumclaw

After our amazing trip in Portland, we headed back north! My mom recently moved back to my hometown so it was so wonderful to break in the new digs! We hosted the whole fam for Christmas and it was a great time catching up with everyone!

We even got a little bit of a *White Christmas*! Barely, but enough to say we did ;-) After Christmas I worked quite a bit, which doesn't make for that exciting of blog posts buttt I did capture this work-from-home day with my dad! We have matching hats because we're cool like that.

Fast forward a little bit and Chris headed west for a visit. Almost as soon as he arrived, we headed up north to Vancouver B.C. for a little getaway.

Vancouver, B.C.

I've been wanting to visit Vancouver B.C. for awhile so we decided to finally make it happen! Surprisingly, even though it's only about 3 hours away, I'd never been so it was some new scenery for the both of us.

Normally I'd do a lot of research on visiting a new city, but for this trip we kind of winged it by just booking a hotel and some great suggestions from a friend.

If there's two takeaways I have from our visit.. it is that Vancouver people are some of the friendliest I've ever met and man is the city beautiful! 

Seattle

Following our Vancouver trip, we also made a trip up to Seattle. Aww, love this city so much.

It may have been a little chilly, but the day was gorgeous so we hit up Alki Beach. I just love the views over there.. oh and the donuts weren't bad either!

We also checked out an Oregon Ducks bar for our bowl game. The bar was a lot of fun and it was awesome to see so many Ducks fans in Seattle. The game ended up being an epic bust though sooo we'll just skim over that fact!

And Back to Enumclaw!!

For the rest of my trip I mostly stayed local for some more family time and a few Seahawks games! Plus I got to be home for my mom's birthday (the first one since I was 18) soooo that was really nice too! 

It was such a great trip, although still somehow not long enough! I think being home so long almost threw me off in a weird way! If plans had to get pushed around I was thinking, "oh no problem, we'll get together later" and then poof! Suddenly there wasn't time for later. So to those I didn't see, or see enough of. I'll be home again soon! :)

After a wonderful weekend in Ashland it was time to head north for the week! I hit a few more travel bumps in the road (that’s what I get for not listening to my horoscope about traveling during Mercury retrograde!) Lucky for me, I have some great friends in Portland who were happy to have me for an extra night in Portland until I rescheduled my train ticket. 

These two cuties are the best! :) Not only did they welcome me into their home but they also greeted me with some delicious Dave’s Killer bread and their hedgie babies!

Travel mishaps aren’t so bad after all, huh?! I had a great time catching up with my friends for the evening! Before I got on my train and headed to my final destination, we went to an amazing restaurant in the Alberta neighborhood called Gravy!

I may not get to Portland all that much, but this place is definitely getting added into the rotation! I got their friend chicken with gravy and pan fried hashbrowns and boy, oh boy was it fabulous! 

Here’s a look at the Chile Verde that my friend ordered. One of my favorite parts about the meal? This may sound a little surprising but their ketchup! They make it in-house and the waiter said it was a blend of garlic and cloves in the ketchup. Man did it add some incredible flavoring to the hashbrowns too! The gravy was the perfect combination of hearty yet not over-done too. Let’s just say I left Portland with a full stomach and a big smile on my face!

A few hours later I was reunited with Mama Duck in Washington! She surprised me for the evening with some wine tasting at Charlie’s! It was such a fun surprise! We had such a fun evening of wine tasting and pairings! If you are in the Puyallup area, definitely check this out! They do it once a month and it really was a lot of fun. We had some very friendly people at our table too we got to chat with a little. 

Something I was craving to do while I was home, was go hiking! So my friend Sara and I did just that and headed up past Wilkeson for some hiking near the Carbon glacier!

You probably won’t find it too surprising that I don’t get to hike often living in Manhattan, unless you’re counting the hill from 2nd to 3rd avenue ;-).

It felt great to get out into the outdoors! Mmmm the smell of fresh air in the woods — can’t beat it!

After our 6.5 mile hike we decided we definitely deserved a trip to Red Robin (Sara and my tradition). There’s a new one in Bonney Lake, so naturally we had to check it out. 

Red Robin has definitely classed it up with the new presentations and menus! I definitely got in my Red Robin fix to get me by until my next trip!

By the middle of the week it was time for a little family time and squeeze in a visit with my Grandma and Aunt Kathy!

It’s always nice to have some time to just relax and catch up on life with family. :)

As the weekend approached, it was time to squeeze in a visit to Seattle with some of my friends!

One of my friends recently moved to West Seattle so before we met up, my friend Kristina and I walked along Alki Beach.

Talk about a gorgeous view! I can’t remember the last time I visited Alki, but I have to say, I’m totally in love with this view. 

I loved it so much that I found my perfect little beach house ;-)

Okay so maybe it’s not really mine, but it sure was adorable!

For the evening, my friends and I headed down to the Georgetown. From my understanding, the area used to be heavily industrialized, but has recently been revamped and has become a trendy little spot.

We had such a great time bar-hopping! The neighborhood totally reminded me of parts of my old Portland neighborhood. It was a fun time!

As my trip came to its end we had one more event in-line.. The Buckley Log Show. Surprisingly enough, after all of my years living in the area I don’t think I’d actually been to the show (unless I went when I was little).

So after my friends suggested we go, I figured it was about time!

The weather was a little iffy it poured pretty much most of the afternoon, but we could handle it.. We are from Washington after all, right?! Okay, so it wasn’t ideal and I definitely had to go home to change clothes with my mom, but we made it work.

After the Log Show it was time to hit the only bar in town for the after party, which was a lot of fun! Definitely a back-to-your-roots experience. Let’s just say explaining what a Log Show was to my friends at work when I got back to NYC was a pretty funny experience. City folk have a hard time wrapping their heads around that one ;-)

On my last day home we ended my trip in true Osgoodby fashion with a BBQ and some more family time!

Last days home are always pretty bittersweet for me, but we always try to make the best of them! Until next time Washington!