Seattle 2014: Part 3 - Twin Peaks Adventure Day!

When I was in Sydney earlier this year I was introduced to the amazing show that is Twin Peaks, and I watched it all and tweeted about it a lot. Helen saw my tweets, and then she watched it as well. So by the time I was coming to Seattle we were both obsessed. Many iconic locations in Twin Peaks were filmed in Snoqualmie and surrounds, which is a reasonably short drive from Seattle. Helen was able to recruit us a car and a driver, the lovely Tim, and together (along with Madeline, another friend of Helen's) we embarked on a Twin Peaks adventure.

All good adventures begin with food. As it happened, that day the SLU location of Veggie Grill was having a fundraiser where a percentage of all sales went towards a great animal cause that I unfortunately cannot remember, so we decided to meet there. I kicked off with some nachos and a side of kale. The nachos were OK, but needed more guacamole - what is with that tiny little scoop? Helen got one of her favourites - the B-Wing Salad (essentially a buffalo wings salad). You may notice the binder above the nachos in the photo - that was full of Twin Peaks location information. We were prepared!





Then we were on our way. We ran into some traffic early on, but then it was out and driving through beautiful Washington state. I was excited - this was my first trip out of Seattle! Our first stop was Twede's Cafe in North Bend, better known as the Double R Diner in Twin Peaks. This place completely embraces the heritage of Twin Peaks - the mugs are embossed with a Twin Peaks motto, there is a Twin Peaks memorabilia and news clipping wall, and they sell Twin Peaks maps (and frisbees)! Helen ordered herself a Damn Fine Cup Of Coffee (and a beer), and Maddie ordered a (sadly not vegan) piece of famous cherry pie. As I don't drink coffee, I ordered a grapefruit juice. I think the waitress was amused by our orders and our quietly geeking out. At the end of our visit, we also bought a Twin Peaks map for fun, and to add to our collection of Twin Peaks location information.







Our next stop was Reinig Bridge, otherwise known as Ronette's Bridge. It was kind of creepy, though it was set over a beautiful river with lovely mountains in the back that I completely forgot to take a photo of.



After spending some time by the bridge and the river, we set ourselves the task of finding the spot where the iconic Welcome To Twin Peaks sign appeared in the TV show. Of course it isn't actually there in real life. It took us a few goes of driving up and down the road, listening to the Twin Peaks theme song and comparing the views to a photo of the sign from the TV show until we found it. But then we found it!!! To make up for the lack of sign, Tim and I posed with the Twin Peaks map in a sign-like fashion.





Another place that took us a few goes was to find the right vantage point for the Twin Peaks High School. The school itself was easy enough to find, but the entrance used in the show was concealed from the road by some trees. But not well enough to be concealed by our super snooping.



We headed into the main street of Snoqualmie to visit the rail yard. Oddly, Snoqualmie makes no references to Twin Peaks in the town, or even on their website. You would think they would tap into the Twin Peaks tourist market, but apparently not. At the rail yard we found the Really Big Log that was used in the opening credits. Helen found a really cool 'Fire Walk With Me' graffiti on it, though I didn't get a photo. There are also a lot of railway cars stored here, and we were trying to find the car used for the murder scene, but no luck. There were some cars under some covers so we assume it was under there.


Speaking of logs, Helen decided to try out being a log lady in training. Because she is in training though, she only has a stick, it takes some time before you are reading for the log.



Afterwards we decided to head out to the falls and the lodge, and to enjoy a picnic. A Twin Peaks adventure day requires a Twin Peaks picnic! Helen had made a delicious vegan cherry pie and Tim had picked up some Mighty-O doughnuts (including my favourite cinnamon sugar). We also had the new Maple Bacon Kettle Chips (they are OK, Tings are still the best of all) and some black coffee with hemp milk. And yes, Helen did carve 'The Owls Are Not What They Seem' into the top of the pie.





Snoqualmie Falls was pretty popular on a Saturday afternoon. It turned out there is only an observation platform, you don't actually hike down to the falls themselves. The falls are famously shown in the opening credits of Twin Peaks. At the top of the falls is the Salish Spa and Lodge, better known to us as The Great Northern Hotel. (Note my super sun sensible attire - a red head should never expose more skin to the sun than absolutely necessary, even with sunscreen).











We did go and have a poke around the lodge, and a look in their gift shop. While it did have cute things, there was nothing related to Twin Peaks! Though there were some owl things so I can make that into a Twin Peaks thing in my head. After this it was time to head back to Seattle. There were a few places we wanted to go to and didn't get to, but I think we still did a pretty awesome job of covering a lot of the iconic ones.

Helen and I got dropped off at her house so I could meet her kitty Zeno (see below!), then I got a lift back into the city. I arrived back at the hotel just in time to get to the downtown Veggie Grill before they closed, so nipped in to get a BBQ Tempeh Plate with Fries to take away. Then I took it back to the hotel, had a good hot shower, and ate my dinner in bed while watching totally trashy TV.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post





Helen is an awesome cat lady, and Zeno is her cat. I was very excited to get to meet Zeno, who was utterly adorable.