Railways and Road Food in the Cascade Foothills

Snoqualamie is about half an hour’s drive east of Seattle – it’s right where the Cascade Range starts draw a line between the Puget Sound area and the rest of Washington State. Snoqaulamie, sadly, has been overrun with McMansions and shopping malls and wide parkways that go from one cookie cutter housing development to the next, but the downtown is still darned cute. It’s home to a terrific little hardware store, a micro brewery, and the Northwest Railway Museum.

The former depot now houses exhibits about railway history and there are a lot of rusting but very appealing old rail cars standing on the siding that runs parallel to main street. We were there to provide entertainment for the Day Out with Thomas the Tank Engine, an event that brings the kid’s book train engine and loads of excited kids to extract money from indulgent parents. On non-event days you can take the train from Snoqualamie to North Bend and back again. The whistle blows about every half hour or so, the cars fill up, and there’s the low rumble of the engine – it’s pretty grand.

After our set, we headed a few miles west to another suburbanized foothill town for chow. The Issaquah hillsides are littered with little boxes made of ticky tacky and they all look just the same, but just off the freeway there’s an old school diner that serves up the biggest milkshakes I’ve ever laid eyes on, along with some serious burgers and fries type grub. You could probably share a burger and not be sorry, though eating an entire one on your own, along with crunchy breaded onion rings and/or the excellent fries may also find you apologizing to your arteries.

On Saturday evening, the parking lot of the XXX fills up with classic roadsters. With the 50s music pouring out over the patio, the rumble of a 57 Chevy, and the unbelievable amount of kitch packed in and around the XXX, it’s an American fantasy, complete with high calorie delicious junk food. I am not a food snob, I will eat the trashiest of food as long as it’s tasty and the XXX delivers. It’s getting added to the out of town guest rotations – a sunny afternoon with junk food and classic cars is going to perfectly fulfill a high number of American cliches – and why not.

Heads up, it’s not cheap to eat there – they have a burger on the menu that’s 12.50 and the big shake is 6.99. Forget about any kind of dietary restraint. That 6.99 chocolate shake probably contains the caloric allotment for a family of four for a week. Big food, big cars, big fun.