Before getting my flight, my friend advised that I grab a window seat on the left side of the plane so as to get the best view of Mount Rainier on my way into town. An hour or so after passing over the Tetons, looking out my window I noticed a small point way off on the horizon. As we got closer I figured that couldn't be the same Rainier my friend was talking about. Shortly thereafter a much bigger peak came into view. 'That's gotta be it', I thought. As we got closer, I started to think, 'Hmm, pretty cool' when just around the wing came the real thing: Wow.

As we made our descent, the summit looked like it was going to snag the edge of the wing. The western face still had leftover snow turned pink by the fading sunset. Pretty impressive.. and if that wasn't enough, how about flying right over the city with the Olympic mountains to the west in crystal clear silhouette reflecting over Puget Sound?

A few minutes later, I grabbed my bag from the claim and met my friend out front, all smiles. He suggested a toast so we headed to Elysian Brewing Co. in Capitol Hill, on the east edge of downtown. If you're in Seattle and into beer, check that place out. The Jasmine IPA and Oak Frost are gems. Oh yeah, and their happy hour starts at 11pm (this was on a Wednesday), so get there late.

The next morning came early, as we set out for an 8-mile hike about two hours north of town. True to August form, it was a perfect bluebird day and the 'hills' were out in full. For the Lloyds and Harrys of the world who 'thought the Rocky Mountains would be a little rockier than this' I suggest they visit the Northwest. The Cascades, are, gnarly.

The first half of the hike zigged through thick forest, with grandfather firs up top and plenty of ferns underneath. The second half was wide open with a crowd of peaks that seemed to offer in nonchalance, 'welcome to life at the top.' Now at that time of year, most of the snow had already found the many streams down below. But when summer taketh snow-capped beauties it giveth wildflowers and huckleberries instead.

There's something so simple and so awesome about eating food untouched by any machine, any farmhand, any plan. It's just there, all on it's own. And we took full advantage of it, grabbing both for the moment and the next morning's breakfast. We zagged our way back down, fruits of labor in hand, anxious to find the two yellow lines which, ironically, symbolize what we were trying to escape in the first place.

There were two thoughts on the ride back to town: how good (and big) dinner was going to be and how well we were going to sleep later. Crossing the bridge over Lake Washington, our attention quickly turned to the Olympics looming straight ahead. Of all views, that may have been my favorite from my time out there. The combination of water-meets-mountains is nearly unbeatable (sadly that was the last time I saw the Olympics save for the window seat view on my flight back East). All conversation stopped for the 3 or 4 minutes it took to cross the bridge. At the end, I simply looked over to my friend and all he said was, 'yeah..'

Ultimately we landed at Buckley's in Belltown for dinner, a couple pitchers of the local Mac and Jacks African Amber and the Seattle Sounders game. And based on the atmosphere, I'd say MLS may be the new town favorite over the Seahawks and Mariners.

Belltown sits about a block up the hill from the famed Public Market as part of the west edge of downtown. We spent the most time there out of any particular area and with good reasons. One is the Virginia Inn, an indoor/outdoor restaurant right on the corner, prime for people watching in one direction and a good look at Puget Sound in the other. Along with a tasty Nine Pound Porter from Georgetown Brewing, I took advantage of the local cuisine and ordered Dungeness crab, caught earlier that day. With the sunset to the west, gulls cruising overhead, a comfortable breeze and an uptempo street corner, Belltown is an easy place to be.

Across the Sound lies my favorite area of town: West Seattle and Alki Beach. Unfortunately, the one day we headed over there was the cloudiest of the trip, but it was still enough for me. Shops and restaurants line the promenade (you can literally smell coffee from your car as you drive by) with homes and apartments tucked back into the hillside among the evergreens and even a few small palm trees. On the other side of the pavement you can catch the left edge of the skyline stretched out with the iconic space needle well off to the left. Coming around the mountains rise up and quickly get lost in the low clouds, but you know they're there, and what little you do see is still worth your attention. Calling back on a past trip to Europe, Alki reminded me a little of Lausanne in Switzerland, a small city on Lake Geneva. Similar waterfronts, similar climates, both with surrounding mountains and again, palm trees. Even on a cloudy sub-70 degree day, there were multiple beach volleyball games going and even some curious kids checking out the tide pools. We made way down to the rocks and joined in their enthusiasm for uncovering small crabs and even a few small eels. We were unable to make it back to Alki under clearer skies, but I can only imagine how much I'd like it even more.

Back towards the city, we check out the token view of the skyline from the ever popular, Kerry Park. KP is a part of Queen Anne, which is a bonafide climb from the north end of downtown and right up there with Pike Place Market as far as the tourist factor. Going into the trip I half-promised myself I wouldn't take out my camera for arguably one of the most photographed angles of any city in the US. But actually being there, at that right time of night, even with dozens of tripods already set up, it was impossible not to follow suit. It's one of those things that you can't just look at a photo and get an idea of what it's like, you need to see it in person. Plus, what you don't get from any of those pictures, is the surrounding neighborhood itself, with historic mansions behind lush and diverse landscaping, dressed to impress. Definitely one of several desirable places to be in the area if you can foot the bill. The only thing missing from the viewfinder was..

How many skylines feature something vertical and not man-made.. you know, like a volcano. The 14,400 foot Rainier looms just to the right of the view from Kerry Park and is every bit a part of the Seattle cityscape as the Space Needle. Roughly 75 miles away, it looks like it could eat downtown. That is assuming you can see it (something so big tends to get lost in the clouds).

Because of those clouds, I wasn't able to actually see Rainier from the ground until my third day there. We had again woken up early with plans to drive south towards the mountain and hike up a small portion of it. The weather in Seattle was overcast with little visibility, but things were supposed to clear up by midday so we took the chance and loaded up. For almost the entire duration of the drive to, my friend kept pointing straight ahead saying, 'if those clouds weren't there, she'd be all over the windshield.' Little by little, the sky started to show more and more blue. Still no Rainier, although the alpines were back and creating some tunnel vision as we got closer. Finally, with green all around and blue up above, this big white thing came into view. I'll put it like this: there's 'impressive' and there's 'holy shit..'

We parked n hiked about a mile up at the Sunrise area, along with a few hundred other visitors (note: at least on the weekend, unless you get there early in the morning, you'll save time parking in one of the side lots before the main one). The (paved) trail was trafficked with everyone from 5 to 75 years old, which wasn't how I had pictured it, but the surrounding scenery nullified any complaints whatsoever. Looking up at Rainier from that relatively close distance is still hard to describe. Foreign and beautiful. And big.

I would later get a view from over Lake Washington (every bit worth the hype) and then from the window seat one more time on my flight back home (along with those three other peaks I had originally mistaken for Rainier, which my friend told me were likely Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood). It's pretty wild to see four volcanoes from that perspective just sitting there all together, hanging out. A great last frame for a memorable first trip to the Pacific Northwest.