Spring & early summer wedding season hit us like a ton of bricks,

and we were in desperate need of the kind of vacation that offered us the opportunity to escape for a few days, completely cutting ourselves off from technology and all the stressors of life and simply focus on relaxing and being together. The North Cascades has been a destination we’ve long dreamed of, and seemed like just what we were looking for.

A few weeks ago, we boarded a flight to Seattle on a Thursday afternoon and did our best to leave all our cares behind in San Luis Obispo. We arrived in Seattle as the sun was setting and made our way downtown to the Belltown Inn, where we spent our first night in a city we’d never explored before. Our hotel was super centrally located, in close proximity to all the super touristy things Seattle has to offer (we wanted to see it all). That night we had Italian for dinner on a busy street and headed back to watch the Olympics (our favorite) and get rest for a full day of exploring the city.

What we didn’t realize was that we hadn’t been in a bigger city since we visited New York pre-covid, and being in our small town and traveling only to nature had left us feeling incredibly anxious and overwhelmed in a loud, crowded city. We did our best to explore Seattle before realizing we needed nature stat. We had breakfast at Top Pot Doughnuts (this came highly recommended, and when would we ever say no to donuts) before walking around the city for a bit. We headed up toward the Space Needle and explored around the new Kraken arena, before deciding to head back to our car and get up to the mountains.

In hindsight, we’re so grateful we did this, because that day gave us the best weather of the entire weekend. We found a Chick Fil A on the way up to the North Cascades, and we were well fueled for our journey. It was warm and clear once we reached the mountains, so we decided to flip our plans and do our driving day in the park then. We pulled off the North Cascades Highway at just about every point you could to take in the views of places like Diablo Lake and the Liberty Bell. A wildfire on the east side of the park prevented us from driving all the way through the park, but we did get to see most of it, so we weren’t complaining.

We stayed at the Glacier Peak Resort in Marblemount for the weekend, and that place had LOTS of character. That night we had unexpected, really good Korean food at one of the only restaurants in town before meeting * all * the locals at our hotel’s basement bar. We decided to hit the hay early again because A) we are basically grandparents at this point and B) we had a hike planned for the following day and wanted to get on the trail early!

On Saturday morning we woke up at the crack of dawn and headed out onto Cascade River Road for the hour drive to our trailhead. If you’re visiting the North Cascades, do not miss this road. It takes you back into the kind of stuff we came to see- super jagged, dramatic peaks covered in glaciers. Just the drive was stunning, and then we began hiking. The first part of our hike took us up to Cascade Pass through forested switchbacks. We’re both in pretty good shape and thought this part was super easy (which came as a shock after the incredibly difficult hike we did in the Tetons last summer, lol).

The pass was stunning, overlooking a valley with more glaciers and jagged peaks and meadows and trees. Our mountain fever was quickly being cured. We continued up the (much harder) section of trail to the Sahale Glacier Camp, and boy was that climb worth it. I’m not even sure I have words to describe how beautiful and breathtaking the views are. Fortunately, most of our photos from our trip were taken on this stretch of trail, so just keep scrolling to see for yourself. We had such an incredible morning logging 12 miles & 4000 something feet of elevation gain (our butts were SORE), and ended the hike sharing a gallon of chocolate milk because that’s all we could think about while we were out there.

After taking a nap, we learned a nearby brewery was having live music, and we had to be there. We had a celebratory dinner and several beers at Birdsview and listened to bluegrass music while sitting in a swing and just had the best night. We highly, HIGHLY recommend this place if you like beer and a good time :)

The next morning we woke up to rain and tons of smoke. The winds shifted and the nearby wildfires were blowing smoke toward us, so we headed back to Seattle (again, thank goodness we came up early on Friday!!). We decided to check out the Ballard area because we noticed its wealth of breweries, and ended up spending the entire day hopping from place to place and getting deep into good conversation together. We also checked out the Ballard Locks (super cool) and ended the evening with dinner at Elysian.

This vacation was exactly what we needed. We barely checked our phones (no service, babyyyy), drank a ton of good beer, and got four uninterrupted days full of quality time together. We came home feeling super refreshed, ready to take on the insanity that is about to be fall wedding season, and so grateful for this beautiful weekend together. If you like nature and mountains, you’re definitely gonna want to keep scrolling ;)