Welcome To Twin Peaks Part I

Being big fans of the 90s tv show, Twin Peaks, Sean and I hit the road last weekend to immerse ourselves in the world of David Lynch. That meant driving down to Snoqualmie, Washington to seek out all the filming locations. And of course, the trip would not be complete without a stay at the Great Northern Hotel, which is the Salish Lodge and Spa in real life.

We arrived in Snoqualmie by mid-afternoon and checked into the Salish, which is perched above the spectacular 268 feet high Snoqualmie Falls. Upon check in, we were upgraded to a river view room with balcony. After decompressing for a few minutes after the 4 hour drive, we headed out on our adventure.

The Salish is always going to be known as the Great Northern Hotel to Peak freaks, although it’s obvious that they’re marketing themselves as a 5 star property and and not as a theme destination. I’m sure everyone that was a guest there never even heard of or cared about the show. But not us. We were loud and proud Twin Peak-ers. We were given a small (not drawn to scale) hand sketched map of nearby Twin Peaks attractions.

We drove to the nearby location where the sheriff’s office and the Packard sawmill was filmed at; otherwise known as the Weyerhauser administration offices. Although we were told by an after hours maintenance man that we were actually trespassing on private property, he was kind enough to let us hang out for a bit and take pictures.

After that, we familiarized ourselves by driving to the next town, North Bend, where we found Twede’s cafe, which is the Double R Diner in the show. It seemed the diner and the rest of the businesses were closing up at the obscenely late time of 7pm. (that’s small towns on a Sunday for you) so we headed on back for some r&r.

I am so not a steam room, sauna or whirl pool person because I always feel like I can’t breathe, it’s so hot. Or that I feel like my organs are getting cooked from the inside. Ling soup. But dang, the 2 swanky soaking pool with its mineral water and treetop views were just too sweet to pass up. especially when it comes along with some jet action in the stone pool, as well as a water fall faucet. Talk about relaxation.

I remember floating back up to our room and getting ready for dinner at the Attic Lounge. But just minutes after we snagged a table overlooking the Snoqualmie Falls, the restaurant was completely smoked out because one of the servers lit the fireplace, but forgot to open the flue.

What may have been a disappointing turn of events actually worked in our favour. We got dinner delivered to our room, where it was nice and quiet. Where we could have our feast on the king sized bed, all comfy and cozy with the telly on.

Hella starving by the time there was that knock on the door, we scarfed down with relish our $16-18 sandwiches with Yukon gold potato fries (fire roasted chicken & bacon with fontina cheese on house made sea salt foccaccia for Sean and salmon & avocado with basil aioli, lettuce and tomato on a house baked brioche bun for me), caesar salad with balsamic dressing and for dessert, lemon cream filled crepe with glazed blueberries. Oh my god. So good.

I don’t watch tv. Heck, I don’t even own a tv. So for me it was a real treat to curl up under the covers and watch some cable tv, while the food in our bellies digested.

And may I say without going in so much details that the ginormous whirlpool tub has got to be one of the best things about staying at the Salish. And did I also mention the peekaboo window that you can open up so that you can talk to the person in the next room from the bath?

The oversized 2+ person tub comes with a myriad of massaging jet stream action AND you have your choice of pink, blue, orange, green, pearl (or a combination) lighting up the water from the bottom of the tub. How very disco.

And so with that ends our first night in Twin Peaks. Not quite the bizarro Lynchian world (no dancing midgets speaking backwards or log lady flickering the lights on and off), but never the less, satisfying as a slice of cherry pie and a damn good cup of coffee at the double R.

View more photos of our getaway on my Flickr album here and here.

Tub photo: Salish Lodge and Spa