This is a response to FALLing Into Nostalgia.

Growing up in Texas, I never experienced the fall season in the traditional sense. Yes, the air got crisper. We put on our sweaters and switched from iced coffee to hot. But I never really saw the leaves changing in Houston- at least, not on more than a few trees at a time.

There were no orchards to pick apples, no sprawling pumpkin patches, no roadside cider stands. As a kid (and let's be honest, still as an adult) I yearned for the misty, leaf-covered fall season I pictured happening on the East Coast. I wanted to wander through streets lined with red and orange trees, munching on an apple cider donut and feeling the cool breeze through my hair.

I still haven't experienced fall on the East Coast (but it's on my bucket list!). But this October, I had the chance to experience a different kind of autumn in Washington state.

In Seattle and the surrounding areas, the air was wet and the skies were gray. But the leaves on the towering trees were some of the most vibrant shades of red and orange I'd ever seen. The air was crisp and the mornings were shrouded in mist. In grassy fields on the side of highways, huge pumpkin patches and corn mazes beckoned.

I stayed in the Queen Anne neighborhood in Seattle, aka the Halloween neighborhood of my childhood dreams. Most houses were a lovely Victorian style, painted in deep shades of red, brown, and black. They had carved pumpkins out front and cute decorations draped over their porch railings. Each morning, I walked to a nearby bake shop and bought some of the best pastries and coffee I've ever had. I found myself desperately wishing I could extend my trip and stay for Halloween- just to see the walkable streets filled with kids in their costumes.

A part of me doesn't want to write this and let others in on the secret, but an experience that nice deserves to be shared. So, if you're ever in need of some fall scenery, don't neglect the Pacific Northwest.