About 30 minutes away in  Morton, WA, we stopped for breakfast at Rivers Coffeehouse & Bistro. It’s an eclectic joint with fascinating décor, quality food, delectable pastries from Cat and Fiddle bakery in Ashford, and freshly roasted-in-house coffee (albeit dark roast). For some reason, we all were extra hungry, and their prices were very good, so we placed a pretty hefty order.

Dad and I drove down the road to Rainier BaseCamp, a collection of mountaineering services in Ashford. After stopping in the Whittaker Mountaineering gear store for a brief look around, we walked over to the cafe at Whittaker’s Bunkhouse for breakfast. Dad got a sausage, egg, and cheese bagel sandwich, which was pre-fab, but still tasted pretty good. We also got two drip coffees (they were just fine) and a mocha for Faith. Meanwhile, Faith made some pancakes for her and Walker back at the cabin.

Leaving Ashford, WA around 07:45, we retraced our drive from last night back to Packwood, WA and headed to The Mountain Goat for breakfast and coffee. We ordered a blueberry scone; two ham, bacon, cheddar, and green onion scones; two blackberry cream cheese pinwheels; a plain iced latte (that was supposed to be hot) for me; a drip coffee for Dad; and an iced Americano for Faith.

While Mom and Faith packed up and grabbed some fruit from the breakfast buffet at the hotel in Puyallup, Dad and I headed out to gas up the car and get some less-healthy breakfast food. We stopped at Happy Donuts to get a variety of flavors of old-fashioned donuts, plus some donut holes. They were very good, but paled in comparison to Daylight Donuts.

About 15 minutes later, we arrived at Santo Coffee Co. in the Roosevelt neighborhood near the University District. This was a much better choice. Santo sources a small selection of top-grade Colombian coffees, plus a couple others from around the world. They have a narrow scope/focus, and do it very well. We got two cups of their batch brew, a citrus-y Colombian and a very peach-y Ethiopian. I noticed they also sold local Spinnaker Chocolate bars, about which I’d heard high praise, so I purchased one of those too.

All three drinks were excellent, and I wish we’d tried more of their offerings, especially the pastries. Sadly, we’d not yet realized I left the donuts at the condo, so we only ordered coffee and moved on. From what I’ve read, this place would probably get 3 stars, but because we didn’t try any food I’ll be conservative with my rating.

After waking up at 04:30PST, Dad and I met in the hotel lobby at 05:15 to walk to the offsite parking and get the van. We met everyone else downstairs at 05:30, loaded up all our luggage, and hit the road north, again driving up the Saanich peninsula. The hotel, at our request, had set out some breakfast for Faith and Walker, so they ate in the car during our commute.