Pacific Northwest

Day 1

Our trip began bright and early at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport with a direct flight to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. My parents had purchased tickets on the flight but Ashley and I planned to standby on the flight. Standby is a benefit for airline employees that allows us to purchase discounted tickets if a flight has empty seats.

As the departure time neared, the flight continued to fill up and Ashley and I began to get a little nervous if there would be room for us. As luck would have it, there ended up being only one empty seat on the flight. Ashley decided to took the remaining seat and I started looking for other options as Mom, Dad and Ashley taxied out and headed for Seattle.

The Delta gate agents helped me look at other flight options but unfortunately the best option was to wait 24 hours for the same flight the next day. Since our plan was to fly into Seattle and then drive to Portland, Oregon, I also looked at flight options into Portland.

I ended up making the decision to jump seat out of Louisville that afternoon to Portland. So I left the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport via car and headed back to Lexington to wait for my flight out that afternoon.

Once arriving in Seattle, my parents and Ashley picked up the rental car and headed to Portland. I arrived that afternoon and they picked me up at the Portland International Airport. We then headed to check in at the Portland Mariott Downtown Waterfront before grabbing dinner at an outdoor cafe.

Day 2

We started our second day with donuts from Voodoo Donuts before exploring the city of Portland.

After our nutritious breakfast we stopped by Powell’s City of Books. Powell’s is the largest used and new bookstore in the world. We spent a while wondering around the various rooms in the store and browsing their book collection.

We ate lunch at 10 Barrel Brewing on their rooftop patio before heading north out of the city towards the Columbia Gorge where we checked out Oregon’s tallest waterfall, Multnomah Falls.

Our next stop was Mount Rainer National Park. Since we only had a few hours to check out the park, we started at Paradise where walked up part of the Skyline Trail to get a better view of the summit and spent some time exploring the nearby area. On the way out of the park we stopped by Narada Falls which are just off the road and easily accessible.

After finishing the drive to Seattle, we grabbed a quick dinner at Chick-Fil-A before checking into the Hampton Inn & Suites Seattle / Northgate hotel.

Day 3

We planned to start our day with a visit to Discovery Park, but along the way we passed the Ballard (Hiram M. Chittenden) Locks and decided to stop in and watch a few boats pass through.

At Discovery Park we hiked the Discovery Park and Lighthouse Loop Trail. This was an an easy walk through the woods that took us down to the beach where the West Point Lighthouse sits.

Our next stop was Pike Place Market, which is one of the oldest continuously ran farmers’ markets in the U.S. We walked through some of the shops and watched workers throw full fish to each other at the Pike Place Fish Market. Before leaving the area, Ashley made sure to visit the Original Starbucks that opened in 1971.

The final attraction for the day was the iconic Space Needle. We purchased tickets and rode elevators up to the observation deck located 520′ in the air. At the top we were treated to great views of the Puget Sound and the city of Seattle. We could also see Mt. Rainer towering in the distance.

Day 4 – A Day Full of Aviation!

We checked out of the hotel and headed to the Boeing Future of Flight Aviation Center which was the meeting point for our Boeing Everett Tour. The guided Boeing Everett Tour took us along the Everett aircraft assembly line where we were able to see some of the final UPS Boeing 747-8s being manufactured. The Boeing Everett Factory is the largest building in the world by volume and covers nearly 100 acres. Pictures weren’t allowed during the tour but I highly recommend checking out the tour for yourself if you have any interest in aviation.

Note: As of March 2020, tours of the Boeing Everett Factory Tour are currently suspended without a scheduled date to return.

After lunch we headed to The Museum Of Flight. The museum consists of multiple buildings and pavilions with a wide range of aircraft, spacecraft and other aviation memorabilia. We spent several hours exploring but it would be easy to spend a full day if you had time.

Our red eye flight home on American Airline departed Seattle at 11:40 p.m. and we arrived back to Kentucky at 5:30 a.m.