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The Best Seattle Trip Ever: A Cannabis Cookie Tale

Overview

Overview

Overview

Canals, culture, and cannabis are just a few of the reasons Amsterdam, the capital of the Dutch Golden Age, remains one of Europe’s most popular cities. Two of the must-visit Amsterdam museums include the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum. After visiting one or both, step into one of the hundreds of coffee shops—legal marijuana dispensaries—with the more well-known ones located in the Red Light District.

Since 1862, fresh flowers and plants have arrived by barge from the Dutch countryside to Amsterdam. While this assemblage of flora still shows up daily, it comes by van, not boat, to the Bloemenmarkt, the world’s only floating flower market. Here, you can browse 15 fragrant stalls on houseboats permanently moored on the Singel. Now the best-known flower market in Holland, this colorful attraction is packed with tourists on sunny weekends. Still, it’s a great place to pick up Dutch tulip bulbs in a plethora of shades and varieties, as well as many other types of bulbs, seeds, cut blooms, and houseplants. Ship a bag of bulbs home, or grab a souvenir at one of several shops hawking T-shirts, mugs, clogs, Dutch cheese, and other fun and inexpensive gifts.

Denver-based Primal Wellness is one of the very first day spas to use oils infused with cannabis, a natural anti-inflammatory that won’t get you high, for massages. Go for broke with a cannabis facials and cannabis-friendly yoga classes.

Call it what you like—weed, pot, reefer, cannabis—marijuana is legal and accessible in Colorado. There are roughly 30 retail licenses registered in the state offering a variety of bud with names like Death Star and Headband, edibles, and old-school “joints.” All you need is an ID proving you’re 21+, Colorado residents can buy up to an ounce per visit; out-of-staters, a quarter ounce. It’s as easy as shopping in a liquor store. Denver Kush Club on Welton Street in the heart of Five Points even lets you use your credit card. You may feel like you’re going to get in trouble, but you’re not. It’s LEGAL. Party on, Wayne.

Think of My 420 Tours as your gateway to the new Denver marijuana-scape. Tour local dispensaries or take a cooking class, where you’ll learn how to make and cook with cannabis oils—and yes, you’ll walk away with goodies.

Navigating the dunes of the Namib Sand Sea is a true test of a skilled driver. Harry Kirchner, the owner of the Windhoek-based outfitter Offroad Tours & Safaris, offers both guided and self-drive 4x4 safari options in the area. Our group opted for a guided five-night camping adventure and were lucky enough to have Harry as one of our drivers, as well as his two larger-than-life friends, Cannabis and O.J. As Harry would say, the only “proper” way to experience the desert is “bushman” style which means plenty of whiskey, schnapps, and sleeping under the stars. Reaching each night’s camp site was a true adventure as our 4x4 sped, full throttle, over skyscraper-sized sand dunes. It was inevitable that one or more trucks didn’t make it all the way over so another truck would have to hook up a rope and tow it up and over. Going downhill was more thrilling than riding a roller coaster.

Attached to the hip, retro Calistoga Motor Lodge, MoonAcre Spa & Bath welcomes hotel guests and non-guests over 16 years of age to experience its fun and funky spa. If you’re looking for a soak in one of the area’s natural geothermal hot springs, there are three pools to choose from at MoonAcre, as well as facials, scrubs, and massages galore. The Perfectly Muddled treatment takes the town’s famous mud baths—which typically call for spa-goers to submerge themselves in warm, sticky mud—and instead allow guests to apply the exfoliating mud themselves or have the spa attendant do so, making the mud “bath” a more personalized and, honestly, slightly more comfortable experience. For ultra relaxation, try a CBD massage featuring cannabidiol, an extract derived from cannabis. Stop by for Happy Spa Hour between 4-6 p.m. on Wednesdays, or, for frequent visitors, check out the newly launched Spa Club Memberships. MoonAcre is great for groups, too, with plenty of room to enjoy a friends’ getaway weekend. Treatments start at $70.

This is the best way to explore Portland’s budding dispensary scene. At Serra Modern Druggist’s flagship downtown location, you’ll get a one-on-one walkthrough of edibles, flower, and every other form of cannabis product imaginable. The space screams high-end retail: glass, white oak, marble, white walls, succulents and plenty of branded items. Entry is limited so that customers receive one-on-one service when they enter the store. Snag a set of “feel all the feelings” matches and prepare for a learning session with a knowledgeable docent. The overall effect is calming, as well as a fascinating window into what legalized cannabis stores will look like as they spread to other parts of the United States.

The Afrocentric faith called Rastafari, which was founded on Jamaica in the 1930s, goes beyond just dreadlocks and cannabis. The religious and social movement is about a lifestyle that includes a strict vegetarian diet, the eschewing of materialism and a belief in a second coming of sorts. (And yes, cannabis is involved—it is said to enhance spirituality and cleanse the mind and body.) Although the village is a bit touristy, a visit here gives an in-depth look at the daily lives of Rastas. There are farm tours, craft demos, music classes and plenty of photo ops.