Our Alaskan cruise departed from Seattle, so we decided to
tack on a few days to our trip after the ship arrived back in port so we could
explore the city! We really loved Seattle… the weather was perfect, there were
so many interesting things to see, and we got to visit some sweet friends.
We arrived in Seattle on a Friday morning and went straight to
our hotel to drop off our stuff. We stayed at the Paramount Hotel, which was
absolutely lovely (despite the fact that we picked it for its reasonable price!).
We ended up in a big corner room with giant windows on two sides and lovely
views, and we felt so fancy! Haha.
The first place we visited was Pike Place Market. We walked
there from the hotel, and we stopped to see the beautiful Seattle Public Library
on the way.
What can I say about Pike Place Market? It was incredible.
Oh, the beautiful produce and flowers! I was oohing and aahhing the entire
time. There were sunflowers the size of dinner plates. There were giant bouquets of
absolutely gorgeous flowers for $10. I don’t see why every bride in Seattle
doesn’t just run to the market on the morning of her wedding and pick out
bouquets there. They were that pretty. Just look at these photos...
Of course, we also saw the famous stall where they throw
fish, and a lot of other fun veggies, etc.!
Right below the market is the most disgusting tourist
attraction ever – the Gum Wall. It’s a wall covered in chewed gum, and it’s
apparently been growing since the late 1990s. The alleyway smelled like mint
gum. It was totally gross, but still kind of fun to see.
We stumbled upon the most fascinating shop under the market,
Old Seattle Paperworks. The store is full of old posters, brochures, postcards,
prints, letters, etc., and it was so fun to
browse through! We stayed there for about an hour just flipping through all the
various things.
We had lunch at Beecher’s Cheese, a shop in the market that
makes their own cheese. We got a grilled cheese sandwich and some mac n’
cheese, and both were absolutely delightful. We even got to sample their cheese
curds and watch the cheese being made through a big glass window. So fun.
After lunch we went to see the iconic Space Needle. We
didn’t go up in it (more on that in a second), but we did take plenty of photos
from the ground.
There are quite a few touristy things right around the Space
Needle, one of which is Chihuly Garden & Glass. Chihuly is a blown glass
artist, and I’ve been a fan of his for some time, so the Chihuly museum was the
one thing in Seattle I was super excited
to do.
It definitely didn’t disappoint. The Chihuly sculptures are
all so unique and colorful and brilliant… the displays were like a buffet for
your eyes.
Also, they get the award for Best Museum Ever because there
are photographers that take your photo, and then you can e-mail the picture to
yourself from a kiosk for free!
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has a new visitors’
center nearby, so we stopped in there as well. It was actually really
interesting… lots of interactive displays and interesting information.
My favorite part of the Gates Foundation was the bathroom.
Every stall door has a photo of a “bathroom” in an undeveloped country. I think it's absolutely genius. There I was, in a public restroom (something I would normally take totally for
granted), but I was forced to think about how blessed I was to be there, in a
clean bathroom stall with a modern toilet. Awesome idea.
When we were flying from Houston to Seattle, we sat by a
guy on the plane who is from Seattle and it ended up being the best thing. First of all, he’s a wedding
photographer and he gave me some Lightroom tips and let me watch him edit
photos, but he also gave us some Seattle pointers. He strongly suggested that we not waste our money going up
in the Space Needle and instead go to the observation level in the Columbia Center (which is way higher than the Space Needle). We took his advice and were
so glad we did!
The Columbia Center is the second-tallest building on the west
coast and we were right at the top of it. There were 360-degree views of
all of Seattle and Puget Sound. Just beautiful!
Our hotel was attached to a restaurant called Dragonfish Café, and Jeff found some deal online that ended up getting us $80 in vouchers
to use at the restaurant, so we had dinner there on Friday.
On Saturday we used another meal voucher to have breakfast
at Dragonfish Café, and we rented a car so we could see some of the further-out
Seattle sights. We spent all morning and some of the afternoon at the giant
Museum of Flight. From NASA to butterflies to the Wright brothers to jetpacks,
this place had it all. There was a ton of space stuff…
Astronaut Sleeping Chamber
NASA Training Shuttle Simulator
The highlight was getting to walk through the Air Force One
plane used by Eisenhower and Kennedy. So cool.
Sleeping Bunk
Conference Room
Doggie Door in the Door to the President's Office
After the Museum, we drove around to a bunch of scenic
Seattle spots. The first was Gasworks Park, recommended by our friend on the
plane. It's an old gasification plant that's been turned into a park, but the ruins of much of the plant machinery remain. Beautiful views and a little quirky!
On our way to the next spot, we drove by the Fremont Troll,
which definitely falls under the “bizarre places in Seattle” category (along
with the aforementioned Gum Wall). Under this bridge, there’s just a giant
cement troll. So odd, but fun to see!
We also walked through the surrounding neighborhood of Queen
Anne and strolled through nearby Parsons Garden.
We went to Mass on Saturday night at Saint James Cathedral,
which is one of the most beautiful churches I’ve seen in the U.S. We loved it.
(Taken from Columbia Center)
I always feel irreverent pulling out my DSLR in churches, even if Mass is over, so all I've got is this discreetly-snapped iPhone photo!
Then we drove out to Snoqualmie to see Snoqualmie Falls! Snoqualmie
is a cute little town with a big waterfall (taller than Niagara Falls!).
Between this waterfall and all the ones we saw in Alaska/Canada, I've now more than tripled up on #23 from my 30 Before 30 list!
We met our friends Adam and Caitlin (and their adorable
daughter!) for brunch at an adorable hotel/restaurant that overlooks the falls.
Such a treat! Then we hung out at Adam and Caitlin’s super-cute apartment until
it was time to head to the airport, and our quick little Seattle vacay was
over!
Thanks for the memories, Seattle!
Looks like a great vacation. We def did a lot more touristy type things in Seattle like taking the Ducky tour, haha.
ReplyDeleteYou hit all of my favorite Seattle spots! And my husband LOVES Beecher's cheese...I'll have to tell him about the grilled cheese!
ReplyDeleteThis looks amazing!! I really want to visit Seattle, and when we finally get there I'm gonna steal your itinerary! :)
ReplyDeleteThis is crazy! My husband and I were just in Seattle too, at the same time as you! I have a post in the wings and it looks a whole lot like the first half of yours! I might have even taken a photo of your cruise ship?? Haha! I took a photo from the space needle of a ship coming in.
ReplyDeleteIt was SO great to see you guys! And I think y'all officially saw more touristy Seattle things in one weekend than we have in a whole year, ha!
ReplyDelete