Stanwood: Small Town, Big Surprise | Weekends in Washington

Born and raised in Chicago, I headed to LA as soon as I could to live the glorious life of actress-slash-waitress. After several years of working on TV commercials and YouTube shows (not to mention successfully being able to recite all the ingredients in raw, gluten-free bread while delivering a kale cashew shake), I fell in love with a high school sweetheart and decided to follow him… to the absolute middle-of-nowhere. Culture shock doesn’t begin to describe what it feels like when you move from a city of 4 million to a town of 800. Needless to say, I was initially unimpressed with the lack of 24-hour restaurants, Ubers and Target. LA – and its sushi and improv theaters – was calling me back home. But then I started to get to know my community: the quirky artists and the proud cowboys, the locally-made ciders and the high-mountain-lake hikes, the annual rodeos and weekly breakfast sandwich specials. And, while I still can’t get my beach fix up in the mountains, and while I’ve experienced freezing temperatures for the first time in a decade, I maybe-can-sorta-see why some people might actually like this place… I’m a workaholic and a city girl, a millennial and an extrovert, and my new mission is to visit every town in Washington State to find out what’s so great about the Pacific Northwest. Join me in my adventures!