Roslyn, Washington | Cicely, Alaska.

There's a feeling I get every time I go back to my hometown. It's a familiarity and sense of belonging despite the fact that I've been gone for a long stretch of time. Six months, a year, sometimes more. Things change, but overall it's the same town I know and love. This is the feeling I had when we arrived in Roslyn. 

There was a part of me that was afraid that I'd be disappointed when I finally got to experience "Cicely, Alaska" for myself. After years of growing up with this show, and many recent Cleveland winters spent hibernating under blankets re-watching it all, I thought perhaps I was building it up in my head. Maybe I'd see a few sights from the show, but it wouldn't feel the same. I was wrong. I loved every part of it. And while obviously the community of Cicely don't really exist, I got the feeling that it was very much the wonderful, eclectic small town that it portrayed on TV. 

We spent an evening and part of the following day here. I thoroughly enjoyed eating at Village Pizza and The Roslyn Cafe, wandering the streets and stores, sitting in Chris in the Morning's chair at KBHR, and getting my fill of the history of Roslyn. I can't wait to return someday. 

More pictures HERE.  

Snoqualmie and North Bend OR visiting Twin Peaks.

It's not often that I get to say that I've made a long term dream of mine come true, but recently it happened. About 7 years ago in college, when my roommate and I were immersing ourselves in Twin Peaks, I came across the fact that some significant locations in the series were filmed just down the road from the town of Roslyn, WA. Roslyn is the town where they filmed six seasons of my all time favorite series, Northern Exposure. It was at that moment that my dream vacation was born. Things fell into place this past year, my cousin moved to Seattle and invited us to visit and we found out we were expecting a baby in December - I was really craving one last getaway for the two of us while I was still physically able to do a decent amount of hiking. So we went for it. Our first stop was Snoqualmie Falls. 

The first thing that struck me was how intense the falls are. The intro shot in Twin Peaks doesn't do it much justice. It's easy to understand why they use the falls to generate power. It was a rush seeing it. The surrounding scenery is also really fantastic. There were daises spattering the cliffs near the overlook which was beautiful and as we walked down the hillside to the bottom of the falls we got our first taste of the moss that seems to cover and hang from all the trees in Washington State. One of my favorite parts of traveling is getting to experience new environments and all the different species of plants that come with them.

We had plans to make it to Roslyn for dinner that night before stopping at a B&B for the evening but we took our time and made one more essential stop. Twede's Cafe, or the Double R. We got a "damn fine cup of coffee" and a slice of apple pie since neither of us are huge fans of Agent Cooper's favorite, cherry.