Probably one of the most important things about a road trip that my roommate, my brother and myself figured out is to know where you are sleeping before you get to your destination.

The key to an affordable bed and bathroom to utilize for a night is the app Airbnb. The app works exactly like any other hotel search engine, the only difference is it offers a stay at people’s homes and spare rooms.

On our straight shot from Sacramento to Seattle, the only thing we knew was that we were going to Seattle, and we were going to hit up as many breweries as we could, considering we are all amateur beer connoisseurs.

About three hours outside of Seattle I said, “Maybe we should figure out where to stay.”

“Do it,” came out almost simultaneously from my brother and roommate’s lips. So there I was, using Airbnb for the first time. There are filters to customize the search, first putting in the location, the amount of guests, the price range (starting at $10 and ending in the thousands) and whether or not you want a private or shared space.

In our case, three college students who would rather spend our hard-earned paycheck on sight seeing, beer and maybe food, we were not doing anything over $70 a night.

It just so happened that *Greg answered our prayers, giving us the sweetest deal, $140 for three nights (we think it’s because he liked us). He was a nice guy who had two other quirky roommates that were all very helpful. They lived in Tukwila, about a 20 minute drive into downtown Seattle.

We were supplied with clean towels and really only showered and slept there, spending most of our time sight-seeing, eating and drinking too many carbs and meeting countless locals.

On day one we explored Pike Place Market trying some of the best fish and chips and clam chowder, which is just as good as San Francisco chowder. Pike Brewing Company was another must try that was just down the street from Pike Place Market. There was also the first Starbucks to ever exist that was also down the street from Pike Market, which had a ridiculous line outside the door, as well as tourists constantly taking pictures of the building.

We were told to try King’s Hardware that’s located on Ballard Avenue, an area where you can go bar hopping and try some really good food. King’s Hardware was great. They offered some quality burgers with countless options of beers on tap and a lot of local breweries that we were hyped to try. However, be prepared to wait an hour for your food. On the plus side, they do have Jenga to keep you distracted from a rumbling stomach.

We were spoiled the first day with sunshine, the second day we experienced the usual Seattle rain. All being Californians, we were more than glad to see some rain for a change.

We rode the ferris wheel and saw some great views as well as went on a beer tour that took us to three breweries: Outlander Brewery and Pub, Hilliard’s Beer and Hale’s Brewery.

After the tour, we decided to go to Capitol Hill because almost every person we had met so far told us it was a cool bar scene, and thankfully nobody was lying.

I am officially convinced that Seattle is home to every nice person in America – even though we were the only Giants and Niner fans, for the most part – we did not meet one mean person.

The highlight of our trip fell on day three, when we checked out the notorious Space Needle and my brother tried to skateboard in the rain at the skate park near the popular tourist attraction.

We got an incredible view of Seattle and ate at a delicious local burger joint, Dick’s Drive-In.

After enjoying a night out on University Avenue, close to Washington University, we crashed and the next day went to Alki Beach and caught a ferry ride to the unknown. No really, we had to ask somebody on the ferry where we were going, which ended up being Bremerton where we headed out to Portland and stayed until Sunday, March 29.

To be continued online April 1.

*Last name omitted for privacy reasons