Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I'm coming to Portland for VVC and my husband's gonna come out for about 11 days before the conference to travel around Washington & Oregon with me. Yay!

We definitely want to go to Seattle (3.5 days), Portland (4 days) & Olympia (1 day) but we also want to do fun outdoorsy stuff. We can't do camping because it's not practical to bring our camping stuff, we already suck at travelling light!

I think we have time to spend 2 nights at Cannon Beach and one somewhere in Washington State Park, we're looking at Kitsap Memorial at the mo'...or near Wallace Falls... or somewhere else in that area?! Does anyone have any recommendations? Is Wallace Falls such a must do that we could skip other parts of the park & have the majority of our chilled out beach / nature time on the Oregon coast?

It's extra hard to decide because I have a week in the US/Canada after VVC to do stuff and I don't want Nick to miss out on something super awesome!

Are you guys Twin Peaks fans? If you are you should really check out snoqualmie falls in Washington. There are lots of places on the Oregon coast where you can rent yurts which is fun if you don't have a tent. I've never been to any of the places you mentioned but I love the Hoh rainforest on the Olympic peninsula and Mt. Rainier.

Cannon Beach is my favorite coastal city. It's adorable. Ecola State Park is located there, and if you like hiking you can hike a path right along the ocean, but in the forest. It's gorgeous.

I would spend an afternoon in Manzanita - cute shops, vegan food available, breathtaking view coming in from the North . . . and all the rest of my OR coast time on the beach in Cannon Beach! There is a nice semi-affordable hotel in midtown Cannon Beach, the Cannon Beach Hotel, that I recommended to a colleague, and she was very happy with her stay.

I might be able to loan you some camping stuff, depending on how much you're used to camping with.

I would just like to say that Kitsap Memorial is like half an hour from my house. Exciting! But Wallace Falls might be prettier. The Hoh Rainforest and Lake Quinault are also both super gorgeous. I can recommend an awesome place to rent a cabin on Lake Quinault.

Cannon Beach is my fave - I've vacationed there every year since I was a little kid and it's just so great. The dough and sauce at Pizza a'fetta are vegan, so you can get a (delicious!) pizza if you have them hold the cheese. There is a cooking school, EVOO, that does a thing where they fix a multi-course meal for a small group and they told me once that they can accommodate vegans with advance notice (fun fact: we got engaged there).

I'm excited for a Seattle meetup!

I'm afraid we're not, I've never seen it! Should I?! I think the rainforest might be too far in the wrong direction (we fly to Seattle & are driving to Portland) & we went hiking in rainforest in the Canary Islands last year... but I would love to check out Mt. Rainier.



Awesome, that sounds perfect!



Cool, we'll try to check out Manzanita. That hotel is the one we were looking at, I may have gotten the recommendation from another PPK thread! It looks super adorable.



Thanks panda, I think we may skip camping for this one though. It doesn't seem worth the hassle for one or two nights!



I'm even more excited about Cannon Beach now that I know there's pizza! Any other vegan options in town? I just kinda assumed we'd have to bring our own food but I'm always surprised at the vegan friendliness of small US towns compared to UK ones! Lake Quinault looks amazing, I'll definitely hit you up for cabin details if we decide to head out that way & I'm excited about a Seattle meet up too!

Here's another Cannon Beach vegan option: http://www.cafesweetbasils.com/ They have nice salads, wraps, and sandwiches, and are very nice about helping you find and adapt other things on the menu; right next door is a wine bar!

Check out Sleepy Monk Coffee in Cannon Beach when you're there to! I really like Sweet Basil Cafe. They're coconut vegetable soup and Vegan Paninis are awesome. The pizza at Pizza a'fetta is meh to ok. The problem is that if you get a veggie pizza without cheese the veggies make the dough way to soggy and your pizza is a mess to eat. I prefer to just get bread sticks!

There used to be a place called Burritos McGee in Cannon Beach but they closed. There was a Thai restaurant at one point too.

Also, take a hike at Oswald West state park (between Manzanita and Cannon Beach on 101) There's a trail you can follow to the beach. Amazing!

Nahelem Bay is beautiful as well. You can rent a yurt there. There's a neat thrift shop/recycling center near there too!