Kessi World

Mindful travel around the Pacific Northwest.

Pacific Northwest travel

A white alpaca looks forward around other animals of brown and dark brown colors. Visiting an alpaca farm is a fun thing to do in Bend Oregon while visiting Central Oregon.
Pacific Northwest travel often involves flight. Here Matthew Kessi gets off a flight after using his Alaska Airlines Miles to fly to Redmond/Bend Airport in Central Oregon. He's wearing a plaid shirt and holding a blue face mask away from his face while he smiles. A Horizon Air Q400 sits on the tarmac behind him.
The Peter Irdale shipwreck sits wedged into the sandy beach at Fort Stevens State Park, near Astoria as the sun sets beyond the horizon of the Pacific Ocean. The glow is yellowish as the clouds and upper sky fight to keep their blue color.
Flowers are a huge part of Pacific Northwest travel because something is always blooming year round. Here flowing cherry blossoms burst onto the scene in Spring.
The wide awnings of buildings in downtown Leavenworth highlight the German theme of the town, with holiday lights still dripping from the wooden deckings, ornate with carved designs.
A bronze raven looks up to the sky with wings in full flap of flight. This art installment is located near the entrance to a white marble building on the campus of Seattle University.
Pacific Northwest travel offers fresh peaches on a farm stand on Sauvie Island displayed in five different crates. Each crate has a sign in orange lettering outlining the variety of peach, while the plumb brightly colored fruit await buyers. The table cloth is red and white checks.
The iconic Portland Outdoor Store in downtown Portland shows off a green retro style neon sign with white lettering while other vintage red brick buildings stand across the street and further down.
The garden outside the Japanese Guest House on the property of the Bloedel Reserve offers a peaceful escape in the zen of the raked gravel garden, surrounded by green squares of grass and alternating concrete.
The dock on Penn Cove has a mid size boat tied to the end and an upside down red canoe tied to the dock with a nautical blue and white striped rope. The water is a light blue and clouds obscure the horizon which leads to a light blue sky.
The entrance to Captain Whidbey Inn has a bright red door with a sign painted on brown wood that reads "Welcome." There are orange pumpkins lining the three steps up from the road to the greenish blue decking that is part of the wrap around porch. The side of the budding is log cabin style with a blue sky above and next to a madrone tree.
A man looks out a window with nine panes and green trim. The room is on the second floor of the main building of Captain Whidbey inn. The walls of the loge are a series of logs patched together with cement.
No travel to the Pacific Northwest is complete without a ride across the Salish Sea. Here ferry passengers look out toward Downtown Seattle as the ferry prepares to navigate it's way to a destination on the other side of the Puget Sound. The benches are painted green and another ferry is in the background, just in front of Seattle's Big Wheel attraction downtown.
Iconic Smith Tower in Downtown Seattle is the focal point of this photo, taken from inside a Washington State Ferry, with cars lined up facing the disembarking point at the dock. The sky is a light dusk color of blue and there are construction cranes in the distance.
Two men stand beside a fire pit in front of a historic looking wood framed hotel. The fire is bright and crackling yellow and reflects on the faces of the two men. In the background, the hotel commands the skyline, ablaze with lights shining from within all under a blue dusk sky.
The Wallowa Lake Tramway ascends 3600 feet in about fifteen minutes, and this photo is taken from the green railing of the Summit Pub at the top of the mountain. Crescent shaped Wallowa Lake is in the background as well as the town of Joseph, Oregon. A gondola makes its way to the final summit.
The shining orange wood color of cedar that makes up the inside of a pavilion made to replicate the cedar hats worn by local Salish tribes. Pacific Northwest travel offers many ways to learn about the Indians.
Matthew Kessi ponders Pacific Northwest travel while outside his vehicle which is tucked into a bright green fir forest.
Pacific Northwest travel offers many ways to learn more about the people who inhabited this land for millennia before the first settlers. Here is a bronze statue of Sacagaweja, known for being instrumental in assisting the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Pacific Northwest travel is all about the water. Here, foamy waves wash up on a pebble beach of the Salish Sea, while islands pop up on the horizon.
A large sea going vessel floats underneath the Astoria Bridge on the way out to sea. The ship is carrying grain and has a blue hull with white upper decks. The Astoria Bridge rises high up into the blue sky. Pacific Northwest travel always involves water.

Pacific Northwest travel offers the magic of Oregon and Washington States in the USA and the province of British Columbia in Canada. Beautiful landscapes vary from angry waves crashing against Pacific Ocean rock stacks to rolling hills of grapes heavy on the vines awaiting their fate to become celebrated local wines. Although I’ve traveled all over the world, my heart always expands when the plane flies over the Cascade Mountains on the way home.

I was born in Portland, Oregon and grew up on a dairy farm in nearby Scappoose. While I eventually settled in Seattle, Washington, my family still lives in this area of Oregon and ties remain strong to the Beaver State. To learn more, check out the About Me page.

No matter your fancy, there is a little nugget of gold for everyone visiting (or living in) the Pacific Northwest. This website focuses on the best ways to connect a desire to see and experience all the beauty offered in this peaceful corner of the planet while also delving a little deeper into meaningful and respectful connections with the land and people. My ideas might involve a little more work and creative vision — but you’ll find the reward is worth diving a little deeper.

There are a few different ways to access just the right information for you.

Pacific Northwest travel — destinations heading

Since many of you have something particular in mind for Pacific Northwest travel, I’ve organized all the articles featured on the website according to destination. From here you can fan out to just the right information designed to inspire wanderlust — whether from the comfort of your own home or actually showing up to walk the earth. You’ll find this in the main menu on top of the page, but can also click Destinations, right here.

Pacific Northwest maps

Since I love maps you’ll find them on almost every page of Kessi World. I encourage you to take a look at the master list, titled Pacific Northwest Maps. I’m constantly updating these with new finds, including fun road trip itineraries, restaurants, and great places to stay.

Explore the freshest Pacific Northwest travel content

Exploring this great land is a true love of mine and I’m passionate about bringing you detailed, complete, and freshly updated information. My articles are published weekly, so check back for the newest offering of Pacific Northwest goodness via words and photos. To get you started, I’ve rounded up the newest pieces of work, curated below. Click on one of them to start your own personalized journey through Kessi World.

A Washington State Ferry crosses a channel of the Puget Sound, en route to the Olympic Peninsula. The snow capped mountains shine in front of a blue sky and layers of evergreen trees are seen closer to the ferry, which glides through lightly rolling Pacific Northwest waters.
A Washington State Ferry makes way across the Puget Sound from Seattle to the Olympic Peninsula