The Pacific Northwest has some of the most beautiful driving roads in the US. We are surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, countless lakes and huge mountain ranges on all sides. From Seattle, you can head South to Mount Rainier, West to the Olympic mountain range, North to Mount Baker or East to the Cascade mountain range. No matter which direction you head, you will not be disappointed. You can go for a day trip or spend weeks exploring. Some go to hike. Some go to camp. Some to hunt. I took off last Saturday afternoon, after a quick car show, to find some fun driving roads on the way up to Artist Point, Mount Baker.

The trip from Seattle to Artist Point was about 280 miles round rip and would take about 6 to 7 hours based on traffic. Not nearly long enough but it would have to do for a day trip. Mount Baker Highway is a blast and the last 10 miles or so is a crazy fun and twisty hill climb. I got stuck behind an RV at one point but they say my car, pulled over and gave me the thumbs up as I past them…such a great road!

At the top and then in a few different places on the way down, I was able to stop and take some photos. I even ran into another car photographer who shared some of the photos that he took of my car. You can see one of his photos below, watermarked @holdon.media. Of all the photos I took throughout the day, I think my favorite was the lucky snapshot of the shadow. The 911 shape is so iconic that you can recognize it in shadow form. It was a great Seattle summer drive.

I started my Saturday morning with Cars & Coffee, German Day, at The Shop. Given that most big car shows and events have been cancelled, the small gatherings at The Shop have been a welcome diversion from the day to day malaise of COVID.

First the Porsches because…well…they are the best!

There were some awesome non-Porsches there as well:

Okay, my real dream garage would hold dozens of beautiful cars with all of the fun toys to go along with them but those are champagne dreams on a LaCroix budget so this will have to do!

Like everyone else in the world, COVID has caused my entire family to work and school from home and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. To give each other more space, and so I can stare at my car all day, I decided to move into the garage. A very utilitarian garage with a lot of wear and tear…not the best place to spend 10 hours a day. I have always wanted to update the garage to go along with my car obsession and what better time than now!

This was the garage when we first moved into the house 10 years ago. The smallest space (19’x19′) that can legally be considered a 2 car garage but it was my first garage and I loved every inch of it:

This was the garage after 8 years of abuse and during a “small” project to add a Jeep top lift that is still in use and works great (details on that project here):

Now the big reveal and a total transformation! I used a rubberized tile product from Garage Flooring Inc,. some rubberized trim, canvas prints from my car photo hobby and fun Porsche accessories that I found on Etsy. I had the painters use a gray that is close to the interior of the 911 and a yellow accent stripe that matches the yellow on the car to pull it all together. I totally love the way that this came out. It makes me smile every time I see it…and I see it a lot 🙂

It was bath time after that fun charity drive to the mountains which went through a few major rain storms. I was excited to see how the C.Quartz ceramic coating that Metropolitan Detail applied would simplify things for me. I also bought their shampoo AND I bought the AmmoNYC FOAMe product for some extra lubrication to help avoid any swirl marks. It all worked great and made clean up a breeze!

All foamed up at The Shop:

Look at the water fly off the paint…I didn’t have to use a drying towel except in a few spots…ceramic coating for the win!

With the car so freshly cleaned, I was sitting at home and when everyone was going to bed, I decided it was the right time to try my hand at some more night photography. I have so much to learn and I had to take hundreds of photos just to get a few usable ones, but for my second attempt I was pretty happy with the results.

The boys and I love exploring the woods in the Jeep, or at least I make them come with me and they don’t complain much. We have had a hard time finding open forest service roads but I recently heard about a private access area with thousands of acres of explorable forest. Campbell Global offers motorized recreation passes to the Snoqualmie Forest and for a small fee, we get a key, a map, a big ass waiver to sign and the right to explore away! Endless miles of gravel forest roads and rougher side roads to explore. Lakes, waterfalls, hunting/fishing if that is your thing and apparently tons of bears and cougars…I think we will stay in the Jeep most of the time 🙂

I finally made it up there today for a scouting trip and hope to take the boys back with me tomorrow. The weather was ugly today but the views were still beautiful.

Day 2 – Now with the boys!

The scouting trip was successful so I decided to drag the kids along for another trip in the forest. We loaded up on Arby’s, explored the forest and I spent some time teaching Gabe to drive…he needs some off-road experience too right 🙂