Seattle
Soaring to Seattle
So we took a mini vacation to Seattle for my birthday last week. It was awesome; to get out of town, not be working and see a new place. Amazingly Seattle is only a 1hr 30 min flight from our nearest International Airport. Calling our hotel ahead of time they recommended the $18 per person one way ticket on a shuttle from the airport to their hotel downtown. BS! There is a light rail train that any one can take for $2.50 per person, takes you right down town, 2 minutes walk from our hotel. Alaskan Airlines were really good, yep even they know they are better than the competition (they get told all the time). Friendly, polite...dang it, they were just nice! Sea-Tac airport is fantastic, lots to see and do, plus free wifi.
Everyone in Seattle, by the way, were really polite, their customer service was excellent, really every store, hotel etc was quite fantastic, my only gripe would be the people working at the Space Needle. We had a great time and got to rest!
Sunny in Seattle
Everyone told me the weather would be horrible, but we left behind grumpy Californian customers and thunderstorms for clear skies and no rain for 21/2 days. It did start to rain on our last day there, but we had planned to be indoors most of that day anyhow so it worked for us. Our view of the city may have been quite different had it rained consistently for the whole trip.
Sleeping in Seattle
Our hotel, the Seattle Westin, booked through priceline.com (best rate), had an amazing view of the Space Needle and Puget Sound, for a $10 upgrade we got this amazing view and it really was fantastic. Our room neighbors the first night were very quiet, the second night we had some partying young men who were obnoxiously loud and several other guests called the concierge to get them to quieten down. They did eventually, but all I can say is, the walls are paper thin, so you get an amazing view and killer location but thin thin walls. the hotel seemed very family and business traveler friendly. Only down side was there were a million kids, (not just one or two families) in the pool area at 10pm at night, so it wasn't really a couple retreat type of hotel. We were thankfully busy sightseeing to care about that, and noted it as a plus for traveling families.
Sightseeing Seattle
There is a lot to do and see as a first time tourist in Seattle. There are several museums, parks, the Space Needle and other look out towers, Puget Sound and many nearby national parks and islands. You can tour these by car or take a guided tour for under $200. We like many people were on a tight budget and only had 2 1/2 days, so we chose a couple things we really wanted to do and then relaxed and enjoyed being in the city the rest of the time.
Day One: The Space Needle
We took the easy monorail $5 return trip to the Seattle Center. Spending three or more hours up the Space Needle as the April sun beamed down on us. It was so relaxing after our travel day to just look out over the city and see the mountains. It was a great moment despite the only poor customer service we received during the whole trip. The Space Needle staff were super lame...the elevator man let the power go to his head a little.... and the woman taking our complimentary photograph was impatient to take it before we'd even walked into the building...it wasn't at all busy. Our ticket scanner was a jackass. The security guard at the top took his job very seriously, but was the least obnoxious. We didn't eat in the revolving restaurant because they never told us that the restaurant ticket included the sky platform view, so we bought just the sky platform view ticket (thankfully I had a couple coupons)...also the restaurant, which although it did have a million dollar view looked lame, full of pretentious annoying people.
There are several other museums at this location and there is a city pass ticket that means you can access several of these during your stay. We opted out as we didn't want to go to the aquarium and a few other places listed.. That night we walked around the city looking at all the hole in the wall food joints...we found some Thai food that worked out to be a secret gem and of course one of the hundreds of Starbucks stores scattered around the city.
Day Two: Pikes Place Market, Bainbridge Island
On our second day we got up early and headed out by foot to Pikes Place, the home of the first Starbucks and a lively food, flowers and crafts market. Both artwork and produce was exceptional here and I enjoyed it more than San Francisco's Fisherman's wharf. Again, the locals were exceptionally polite and accommodating of the tourists. It definitely has the feeling of being an international hub (I felt quite at home). We continued our walking tour of the city and took a ferry across to a local Island from the nearby ferry dock. On our return we headed back to the hotel to rest and called up about making dinner reservations, the place we were going to didn't take reservations and there was a huge show crowd that was going to be dining so the server suggested we hurry in. He was right, the place was packed and bustling, we were seated within 20 minutes.
Day Three: We requested a free late check out time at our hotel. We then walked around the shopping district for an hour before we packed up and put our luggage in complimentary storage so we could enjoy the afternoon bag free before we flew home that same evening. We received a coupon from the hotel that we used on breakfast sandwiches in the hotel lobby(very tasty), and used the free lobby wifi to skype home, check mail etc...We were torn between the EMP museum and going to see Noah as we knew it was going to start raining and I had wanted to see the film...to actually have some thing to say about it, not just hearsay or rumor. We chose Noah after our par excellence experience at the Seattle Center on our first day.
Seafaring Seattle
One of our favorite parts of our journey was traveling on all the various public transportation and the opportunity to walk around and not drive for three days. The ferry system to the various local islands is very straight forward. We chose the closest island that is home to 200 published authors. Bainbridge Island is very quaint, well maintained and has both a fabulous bookshop Eagle Harbour Books and several and cosy coffee shops, but my favorite was Pegasus Coffee House. Even on this island the customer service was great, it was refreshing. everything about this island journey refreshed us and righted the wrongs. For those living in the bustling city it is an amazing tranquil escape, like stepping back in time but not actually loosing any of the modernity we actually enjoy. It was very non-corporate America.
Sustenance in Seattle
Seattle has a lot of eateries, but mostly Starbucks. Seattle Center has a few restaurants; pizza, kebabs and BBQ and McDonald's. Downtown has more options, there are a few fast food joints, a bunch of drugstores that stock pre-made salads and sandwiches, Ralph's a higher end grocery store that has pre-made dinners and hot soups. We found a hole in the wall Thai food place called Mae Phim Thai that had decent prices and really good Thai food. The kitchen area didn't look amazingly clean, they were using scotch tape to hold their cash register together and I always worry that the workers might be being exploited, however the food tasted great. The Starbucks offered the less food adventurous person the basic chicken sandwich or cheese and fruit platter box. Pikes Place from 8-6pm has several food markets and eateries to enjoy and we tried seafood, French pastries, Greek food and fresh fruit all at the market. It could be advised that eating a large breakfast and lunch and skimping on dinner would be the best way to visit this city.
As it was my birthday we did go out as I mentioned earlier to The Cheesecake Factory, although extremely busy, our waiters were super professional and friendly. We watched them deal with the most annoying customers next to us, who basically wanted to get their meals for free, tipped water all over us amongst other things (the women didn't know how it happened)...we giggled 'your big butt happened'. The servers sang me happy birthday and my dinner was unexpectedly delicious. I think because it was a corporate American chain we didn't have high expectations and also we had originally thought it just sold cheesecake. It was in fact really a tasty and budget friendly dinner. By the way the cheesecake which we took one piece back to the hotel was amazing and it was a huge piece of cake!!!
I didn't see as many organic or vegetarian options in Seattle as expected. Perhaps in the suburbs of the city, but it was very corporate America as far as food was concerned. In that sense I was glad to get home to the mom and pop food joints here in Cali.
So we took a mini vacation to Seattle for my birthday last week. It was awesome; to get out of town, not be working and see a new place. Amazingly Seattle is only a 1hr 30 min flight from our nearest International Airport. Calling our hotel ahead of time they recommended the $18 per person one way ticket on a shuttle from the airport to their hotel downtown. BS! There is a light rail train that any one can take for $2.50 per person, takes you right down town, 2 minutes walk from our hotel. Alaskan Airlines were really good, yep even they know they are better than the competition (they get told all the time). Friendly, polite...dang it, they were just nice! Sea-Tac airport is fantastic, lots to see and do, plus free wifi.
Everyone in Seattle, by the way, were really polite, their customer service was excellent, really every store, hotel etc was quite fantastic, my only gripe would be the people working at the Space Needle. We had a great time and got to rest!
Sunny in Seattle
Everyone told me the weather would be horrible, but we left behind grumpy Californian customers and thunderstorms for clear skies and no rain for 21/2 days. It did start to rain on our last day there, but we had planned to be indoors most of that day anyhow so it worked for us. Our view of the city may have been quite different had it rained consistently for the whole trip.
Sleeping in Seattle
 |
| Our Hotel Room |
Our hotel, the Seattle Westin, booked through priceline.com (best rate), had an amazing view of the Space Needle and Puget Sound, for a $10 upgrade we got this amazing view and it really was fantastic. Our room neighbors the first night were very quiet, the second night we had some partying young men who were obnoxiously loud and several other guests called the concierge to get them to quieten down. They did eventually, but all I can say is, the walls are paper thin, so you get an amazing view and killer location but thin thin walls. the hotel seemed very family and business traveler friendly. Only down side was there were a million kids, (not just one or two families) in the pool area at 10pm at night, so it wasn't really a couple retreat type of hotel. We were thankfully busy sightseeing to care about that, and noted it as a plus for traveling families.
Sightseeing Seattle
There is a lot to do and see as a first time tourist in Seattle. There are several museums, parks, the Space Needle and other look out towers, Puget Sound and many nearby national parks and islands. You can tour these by car or take a guided tour for under $200. We like many people were on a tight budget and only had 2 1/2 days, so we chose a couple things we really wanted to do and then relaxed and enjoyed being in the city the rest of the time.
Day One: The Space Needle
 |
| Space Needle |
We took the easy monorail $5 return trip to the Seattle Center. Spending three or more hours up the Space Needle as the April sun beamed down on us. It was so relaxing after our travel day to just look out over the city and see the mountains. It was a great moment despite the only poor customer service we received during the whole trip. The Space Needle staff were super lame...the elevator man let the power go to his head a little.... and the woman taking our complimentary photograph was impatient to take it before we'd even walked into the building...it wasn't at all busy. Our ticket scanner was a jackass. The security guard at the top took his job very seriously, but was the least obnoxious. We didn't eat in the revolving restaurant because they never told us that the restaurant ticket included the sky platform view, so we bought just the sky platform view ticket (thankfully I had a couple coupons)...also the restaurant, which although it did have a million dollar view looked lame, full of pretentious annoying people.
There are several other museums at this location and there is a city pass ticket that means you can access several of these during your stay. We opted out as we didn't want to go to the aquarium and a few other places listed.. That night we walked around the city looking at all the hole in the wall food joints...we found some Thai food that worked out to be a secret gem and of course one of the hundreds of Starbucks stores scattered around the city.
Day Two: Pikes Place Market, Bainbridge Island
 |
| First Starbucks |
On our second day we got up early and headed out by foot to Pikes Place, the home of the first Starbucks and a lively food, flowers and crafts market. Both artwork and produce was exceptional here and I enjoyed it more than San Francisco's Fisherman's wharf. Again, the locals were exceptionally polite and accommodating of the tourists. It definitely has the feeling of being an international hub (I felt quite at home). We continued our walking tour of the city and took a ferry across to a local Island from the nearby ferry dock. On our return we headed back to the hotel to rest and called up about making dinner reservations, the place we were going to didn't take reservations and there was a huge show crowd that was going to be dining so the server suggested we hurry in. He was right, the place was packed and bustling, we were seated within 20 minutes.
Day Three: We requested a free late check out time at our hotel. We then walked around the shopping district for an hour before we packed up and put our luggage in complimentary storage so we could enjoy the afternoon bag free before we flew home that same evening. We received a coupon from the hotel that we used on breakfast sandwiches in the hotel lobby(very tasty), and used the free lobby wifi to skype home, check mail etc...We were torn between the EMP museum and going to see Noah as we knew it was going to start raining and I had wanted to see the film...to actually have some thing to say about it, not just hearsay or rumor. We chose Noah after our par excellence experience at the Seattle Center on our first day.
Seafaring Seattle
 |
| Sailing the Puget Sound |
One of our favorite parts of our journey was traveling on all the various public transportation and the opportunity to walk around and not drive for three days. The ferry system to the various local islands is very straight forward. We chose the closest island that is home to 200 published authors. Bainbridge Island is very quaint, well maintained and has both a fabulous bookshop Eagle Harbour Books and several and cosy coffee shops, but my favorite was Pegasus Coffee House. Even on this island the customer service was great, it was refreshing. everything about this island journey refreshed us and righted the wrongs. For those living in the bustling city it is an amazing tranquil escape, like stepping back in time but not actually loosing any of the modernity we actually enjoy. It was very non-corporate America.
Sustenance in Seattle
 |
| Pike's Place Market |
Seattle has a lot of eateries, but mostly Starbucks. Seattle Center has a few restaurants; pizza, kebabs and BBQ and McDonald's. Downtown has more options, there are a few fast food joints, a bunch of drugstores that stock pre-made salads and sandwiches, Ralph's a higher end grocery store that has pre-made dinners and hot soups. We found a hole in the wall Thai food place called Mae Phim Thai that had decent prices and really good Thai food. The kitchen area didn't look amazingly clean, they were using scotch tape to hold their cash register together and I always worry that the workers might be being exploited, however the food tasted great. The Starbucks offered the less food adventurous person the basic chicken sandwich or cheese and fruit platter box. Pikes Place from 8-6pm has several food markets and eateries to enjoy and we tried seafood, French pastries, Greek food and fresh fruit all at the market. It could be advised that eating a large breakfast and lunch and skimping on dinner would be the best way to visit this city.
As it was my birthday we did go out as I mentioned earlier to The Cheesecake Factory, although extremely busy, our waiters were super professional and friendly. We watched them deal with the most annoying customers next to us, who basically wanted to get their meals for free, tipped water all over us amongst other things (the women didn't know how it happened)...we giggled 'your big butt happened'. The servers sang me happy birthday and my dinner was unexpectedly delicious. I think because it was a corporate American chain we didn't have high expectations and also we had originally thought it just sold cheesecake. It was in fact really a tasty and budget friendly dinner. By the way the cheesecake which we took one piece back to the hotel was amazing and it was a huge piece of cake!!!
I didn't see as many organic or vegetarian options in Seattle as expected. Perhaps in the suburbs of the city, but it was very corporate America as far as food was concerned. In that sense I was glad to get home to the mom and pop food joints here in Cali.
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