these next few days were all about visiting small towns from eastern to west coast of washington. i woke up early from my campground near pendelton, oregon & made my way to walla walla, washington. i made the very dumb mistake of going on the wrong freeway for quite some time. it turned out to be easier to take a detour than turn back around, but this added quite a bit more to time.
my first stop was a national historic site which honestly was not really worth my time, so i will not bother saying anymore about that. the next stop was the fort walla walla museum. it really is a mish-mash of stuff & not just about the fort. a better description would be a heritage museum. the museum includes exhibits about the fort, but also other local history, & an outdoor museum of re-located older buildings. the outdoor pioneer village was my favorite part. it included a little town, like a barber shop & railway building, but also a lot of older residences.
the pioneer cabin
the italian farmstead with a real vegetable garden growing gourds
what nightmares are made of - the interior of the pioneer cabin.
i saw these daffodil-esque flowers all throughout my trip. they were so pretty to see in the fall.
i then got some coffee at dutch bros. & quick mexican food before taking a short little stroll through historic walla walla. i did not have a lot of time because there was a pretty long drive to my campsite & i wanted to get there early enough to set up before dark.
historic downtown walla walla
on the way to the campsite was a small state park in ellensburg. it consisted of some trails & a few buildings, but you can't go inside. it was a nice stop to take a little walk before arriving at my campsite.
originally, the plan was to meet my sister where she lives the next day, but she instead decided to to take the day off & drive closer to me the night before so we could spend the whole next day being tourists since she rarely has company to travel with. i ended up sleeping at my pre-planned campsite, while she stayed at a motel occupied by skiers in the winter & truckers on snoqualmie pass. the lobby even had an antler chandelier.
at my campsite, unfortunately i had some random dude who took my spot that i had reserved months in advance. he acted like he had no idea what i was talking about, but i knew he just did not want to move. luckily there was an actual person who was working there so she re-assigned me to a new site (unfortunately across from the annoying man), but i accepted my fate that night. the site was ok. it was nice that there were not that many people (the state park does not get very busy), but the showers are not free. so i just took a bird bath, ate a subway sandwich, and went to to sleep.
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a big reason why my sister decided to meet early as i was going to be in the area where a lot of exteriors from twin peaks was filmed. i have never watched the show, but did not have all that much planned. it ended up being a full day. i met her at her at her motel & then we drove to north bend. we looked for the sign from the show, but it was not where the internet said it was located. after a bit more sleuthing, we found out it was removed due to vandalism. we then decided to go to where the old police station was & is now a race track. we knew when we drove there it was going to be private property & my sister got scared of the no trespassing signs so drove away. i noticed a sign that said you can take pictures of the police car, to not get too close to the race track, & you can enter the office building that was used as the station.
i called my sister so she turned around, i took some photos of her with the car, & we went to the station. the lady was very nice & showed my sister some things. she was going to show us the meeting room with the original desk, but there was an actual meeting going on. i know my sister was really happy that we go to see some of the props.
the twin peaks police car.
on the way back from the station, we stopped at a bridge. i am a fan of old bridges. we also learned that one scene from the show was filmed there. sadly, it was also the bridge that 2 people killed themselves, an old man & a young teenage boy. the bridge is not very high & the water below is pretty shallow.
the view form the bridge
the next stop was the diner that twin peaks used on the show. like i said, i have never watched the show, but my sister had to get a cup of coffee and cherry pie. it is a cute little diner & sells merch for the show including small business merch, mugs, and shirts.
besides her coffee & cherry pie, she got hashbrowns & i got biscuits and gravy.
my sister wanted to go here to see twin peaks site, but i wanted to see the train depot. the depot is a part of the northwest railway museum. the historic snoqualmie depot was originally built in 1890 & has been restored. the station was active until the 1970s. there are a few trains in the back, but my favorite was actually the waiting rooms inside the depot. it reminds me of the main street train depot at disneyland as they are from the same period, early 1900s.
the backside of the historic snoqualmie depot
there were hydrangeas in the back! (one of my favorites)
even more hydrangeas!
the next stop was twin falls, which was also used in the theme of twin peaks. the waterfall was pretty, but i found the area surrounding to be lackluster. i was hoping there was more of a trail. also parking was crazy expensive!
we then made our way to snohomish, a cute little town with quite a few antique stores. this ended up being the highlight of the day. the town was pleasant. i could have stayed there longer, but businesses were closing. i did end up getting a vintage handmade dress, a vintage shirt, and a vintage bag - it was a big win for me. there was a farmers market & we got free ice cream.
an old carnegie libarary
we ended up going to this cute dark academia coffee shop called the looking glass.
one of the many antique stores
the main street is along the river
we then made our way up north to where my sister lives in skagit valley. unfortunately, we did get stuck in the seattle traffic but it was not too bad. my sister lives with some farmers, so i would be staying at the farm. they raise cattle & grow produce.
they had some hops growing to help with the winds.
i tried a blueberry & strawberry from the garden
we had a slow night, but we did go back out to an olive garden. we are both nostalgic to the place & no one ever wants to go with us. we got the soup, salad, and breadsticks (i love the chicken gnocchi soup) & split a tiramisu.
