First and foremost, let's get this pronunciation correct...it's snow-hoh-mish. Or, at least that's how I think you pronounce it. HA! I'm not a Seattle native, so I'm still learning. But I'm pretty dang sure that's how you say it (not to mentioned, I looked it up).

I'm glad we got that covered. I feel like I can tell you about Snohomish, now we both know how to say it.

The other weekend (to be exact, I'm talking about July 27th), Josh and I adventured up to Snohomish. We didn't go out with the plan of exploring Snohomish, but that's the beauty of it, we just sort of ended up there. Here's how...

We started off just going to taste some root beer. Now this, we had every intention of visiting. It's a root beer store in Lynnwood (which happens to be in Snohomish County) that has over 100 different types of bottled root beer. Yes, over 100 brands of root beer exist in this world. The store is called (believe it or not) The Root Beer Store. Clever, eh? We learned of this awesome store from a show in the evenings here called Evening Magazine (yet, another clever name) where they featured the store. Maybe it was hot when we watched the clip, but that root beer looked delicious.

We discovered they were not joking about the 100 brands of root beer. There were rows upon rows of root beers. The staff really knew their root beer too. We'd both never really thought about there being different root beers, and the differing tastes. It was quite entertaining. The main differentiator seemed to be strong versus sweet. The two they steered us towards were the Dang! Butterscotch and Frostie Vanilla root beers. So we bought those and a few others. Before we left, we shared a tasty root beer float in a frosty mug. Slurrrrrppp!

And the root beer is where the afternoon plans ended. Yet, it was still around 3pm, and weren't ready to go back home. Josh realized we were in Snohomish, and suggested we go visit a veggie stand. I was doubtful - a veggie stand? Really? We want to visit a veggie stand? Alllrighhhty then. So Josh plugged it into the GPS and off we went.

I drove doubtfully still unconvinced of Josh's veggie stand plan. But I drove onward trusting him and my GPS.

We reached a road that winded down and then suddenly before us was open farmland. The sun was shining down, and my doubtfulness vanished. I secretly smiled to myself at the beautiful scenery (I say "secretly" because I was not quite ready to tell Josh he was right about this adventure to a veggie stand).

Soon after reaching the farmland area, I saw a super-cool barn. I thought to myself, "oh man, I bet that'd be a great photo." But I whizzed right by in the car. Then another thought came to me, "what would Don Brown do?" And I knew the answer immediately without question: I had to pull over.

Now pulling was another thing. It was a single road with barely space on either side. But I wasn't going to let this opportunity slip. I found an open driveway, and pulled in. I turned around, and managed to finagle my car in a small dirt spot along the road just down from the super-cool barn.

Before reaching the barn, I was greeted by some calves. Hello Norman! I started to snap some photos, and Norman made his way towards me to say hello (or maybe in hopes of more food). Norman #296 was licking his chops in this photo (or was he picking his nose...hmm).

After the cows got boring, I moved on to the main event, the super-cool barn. I really don't know why I think this barn is super-cool. I think it's just that it's old, and has a cool picture on it (dude, that's deep).

As I was snapping shots of the super-cool barn, a lady started yelling at us from a window of the house across the street. I thought for sure she was mad that we were taking photos of her property, and was going to tell us to leave (sad that I jump to that conclusion). To our surprise, we weren't getting shoo-ed off at all. Instead, she was directing us to go down the road further by the wheat for the best shot. Still shouting over the road, she explained that the wheat with the field and barn made a perfect shot. What do you think? A perfect shot?

As were were by the wheat, the lady came over to chat (whose name we learned was Barbara). We learned that the barn has been in her family for over 100 years, and the farm homes (e.g. the one she was shouting from) were built in 1910. The farm had cows (as we saw), sheep, and pigs. The two farmhouses were also hers and she rented them out for long stays (through VBRO). The one house, the one she shouted from, was her "White House" and was so cute & quaint.

We chit-chatted for a bit, and since we had never been to the area before, she steered us to downtown Snohomish where there was a river and nice boutiques and pubs. So the adventure continued onward.

Following her directions, we landed in the downtown area - it was cute as a button. Antique shops, boutiques, and pubs (just as she said) lined the main street. The buildings were older, and had so much character.sd

Josh and I roamed the town, and enjoyed the evening. We stopped in a few shops like the Uppercase Bookshop and Faded Elegance (those were my two favorite shops of the day). Then, we wrapped up the evening with dinner at Fred's Alehouse. Before heading home, we took a peek at the river.

And that was our unexpected adventure. Who would have thought at a random idea to go to a veggie stand, would lead to a barn, that would lead to a nice lady, and would land us in a new part of Washington. Oh life, you're crazy! But I do love these life surprises. It's just nice to come across such unexpected treasures.

I urge you to jump in the car, and see where it takes you!