Sommaire
Another trip, but this time with a side of smoke.
Another trip has come and gone, smoky Seattle. As you saw on my Instagram, I wasn’t 100% excited about going on this trip.
Let me explain: I just got back from Africa 2 days prior, we’re living with my parents for a month, I have clothes in boxes and my life is everywhere. Being a type A person, this was all not okey. I felt stressed, very unorganized and uncomfortable. BUT my husband convinced me and I am glad we went to Seattle!
I love sharing my diary for trips. It shows the the good, bad and helps me document my travels for myself and family. But also shares information on an unintentional itinerary and guides to many places.
Smoky Seattle
We got a great deal to fly out to Seattle, even after getting back from Africa 2 days ago. It was exhausting but when the price is right, I have to jump at it. Also it was the last trip for my husband and I together for the remaining of the year. School is starting for him this week and his breaks are slim throughout the year.
Smoky Seattle perfectly describes the sites we saw. Due to the fires of the Northwest, the visibility and even the air quality were poor. I was really hoping to get some great photos but not for the first few days. We were very lucky that the last day it did clear up a little bit.
Moving forward to our Seattle trip:
We landed in Settle early afternoon and I just love any airport that gives you an option of public “tram” transportation to get from the airport to downtown. Airports like Minneapolis, San Francisco, New York and now Seattle are just a few that allow you to take a light rail/train/tram from airport to downtown. The option is so much cheaper, less traffic and a convenient way to get to downtown.
After we arrived to our hotel, Belltown, we quickly set our stuff down and headed off to our Segway tour! As a new tourist in a new town we really like to take some kind of hop on hop off bus or city tour to see some of the big and small areas we need to visit. San Francisco we did hop on hop off bus, so Seattle we did Seattle Segway Tour.
We weren’t sure what to expect from our segway tour, but the tour was just okey. We would ride the segways around for a little bit, then stop, take some pictures, talk a little bit about the area and then move forward. I felt we didn’t get as much history of the sites and areas as we usually do while on the hop on hop off buses, but it was our first segway tour of a city. Don’t get me wrong though, I am still glad we did it.
So Hungry
Yes, I am constantly hungry. But when you’re on the plane during lunch time and only eat snacks and now it is 4:30pm and you aren’t eating dinner until 7:30pm you get ‘hangry’. So we went to Grab Pot ordered an appetizer and soup. But it is very well known for their sea feast. The big feast of all types of seafood, potatoes and corn dumped on your table and big enough for two to barely finish. In places like this I wish I loved seafood again.
After Grab Pot we walked towards Pike’s Market. Once here we walked through the market but it was starting to close, so we knew we would have to come back! We had to buy some bubble gum and visit the gum wall, I needed Starbucks to keep my eyes open and made our way to Cloudburst Brewery.
After a great cider and a cold brew we headed back to Pike’s Market to meet my dad for our first Seafood dinner. Lowell’s is in Pike’s Market and has a great view of the water. After dinner we headed to The Taproom at Pike Place. One beer and cider to top off a great first night.
Day 2 Excitement
Due to our last minute travel, I was able to get a great deal on an amazing hotel. Last Minute Travel is an online platform to book great deals last minute! So this morning we packed up our bags to move to another hotel. But early morning left at the front desk.
Right next to Belltown Hotel is Biscuit Bitch. This is a breakfast establishment known for their biscuits & yum. I had a breakfast sandwich and Jordan had the biscuits and gravy. The food was delicious and a place you need to go for breakfast or lunch.
After a hearty breakfast we headed to the Ballard neighborhood for a kayak adventure. Ballard Kayak & Paddle board offers different tours throughout the day. Today we took a tour from Ballard to the Ballard Locks. The Locks of Seattle of some of the busiest and take boats from one level of water to another. If in Seattle the Locks are a very popular visited area and seeing if from the kayak/boat perspective was really neat. Definitely not an activity for non-active individuals. The tour was 3 hours and after awhile your arms started to get sore.
Side Street Cuban Latino
For lunch we made our way to Un Bien, a Caribbean inspired restaurant. Great bowls or wraps and amazing food.
Before checking into Hotel Theodore, booked with Last Minute Travel, we had some downtime to explore some wonderful cider. Number 6 Cider is a taproom with a cider flight. Sometimes this is hard to come buy and beer flights are a lot more common. Being a non-beer drinker I really enjoyed this cider flight.
I am not sure what goes better with cider than donuts. But seriously, these donuts were so good. Top Pot Doughnuts was an amazing doughnut shop, coffee shop, comfortable sitting area and everything all in one. They had a section for people to study, be on their laptops and enjoy the environment. The place was huge and a place that would really get me in trouble if I lived near by.
Judge me if you think vacations should be all; go, go, go. This is the moment I am going to tell you I took a nap. I was tired. Exhausted. I needed a nap.
But after an hour nap I was ready to meet my dad again, this time at Sitka and Spruce for a fancy dinner. Not a place that I would usually find myself going, but we were with one of my dad’s friends and this is where he took up. It was family style food and even though I didn’t know what half the food was, it was very good.
Phantom of the Opera
As much as I love adventure on trips I also love broadways. My family, while growing up, has been to a bunch of broadways. Now I drag Jordan with me and while in Seattle; Phantom of the Opera was there.
I had never seen Phantom of the Opera, didn’t know what to expect or the story line. But surprisingly it was a wonderful broadway. I am still convinced every theater could increase their leg room, but the show was wonderful. Highly recommend.
Day 3 Looking forward to this
Breakfast started with bagels at Cherry Street Bagels; bagels and apple cider.
Afterwards we made our way the airport for our rental car. Going to Mount Rainier was a day trip I was really looking forward too. I picked at 5 mile hike and another small hike to do. The weather was a little misty right away and heated up a bit to a great temperature.
I loved Mount Rainier, the views are stunning and there are so many trails for a ton of different levels and lengths. This makes it great for families, small children and even wheel chairs. After the 6 hours of hiking, I was starving and I knew exactly where we will be going.
All Aboard
On the way to Mount Rainier I saw this converted rail train and I knew this was it. It was about an hour from hiking so you could imagine how many times I wanted to stop elsewhere but we knew this was where we had to go.
Such a neat idea to convert an old rail train into a restaurant and hotel! Yes, there were actual hotel rooms as well to stay the night. How cool is that! Mt. Rainer Railroad Dining Co. was delicious and exactly what we needed today after a long hike.
Time to go back to the city, Seattle
Tonight is our last full night in Seattle and we didn’t really have a ton of plans. After a much needed shower we headed out to explore a little of Amazon.
The spheres are much talked about. They are a glass sphere on what workplace should look like; open space, greenery, and no walls. The concept is very neat and interesting to see. After this we headed to the exciting Amazon Go. This is where you scan your phone, walk into the store, pull what you want off the shelf and out you go. There isn’t a check out line but a notification on your phone about what you bought. The feeling was really weird walking out with out checking out with a person, but quite interesting.
Next we headed to Starbucks Roastery. Jordan nor I are coffee fans, but it was neat to see and we watched a guy dump the beans in the processor. I was hoping for possibly a tea station or tea cup or something for tea but didn’t find anything. It was a beautiful building, a place to do tastings and plenty of snacks. If you like coffee or not I say go visit.
Due to lunch being late we weren’t starving (weird, since I have been starving all trip). So we went to McMenamins Six Arms for some delicious appetizers. Leave some room for dessert we headed to Salt and Straw. I love a good ice cream and their salted caramel was delicious!
Day 4 Jordan’s Favorite Day
Today is the day to do things we missed or wanted to see more of. We started out with breakfast at Midtown Espresso, can’t go wrong with a great breakfast sandwich.
After which we headed to the Space Needle. We had bought tickets the night before and the sky was looking a little clearer so we were hoping to get some good views.
The space needle was very neat. They just recently opened up their revolving glass floor as well. Jordan loved this part of the trip. I think it does say a lot when you’re able to see a birds eye view of cities. Before going to the top there is a ton of history on the space needle that I loved. The process of making, how many men, women, what was happening in America or worldwide at the time. I love these facts about a historical site.
After the space needle we headed towards Pike Place. But before we arrived we stopped at Starbucks. Truthfully, are you really enjoying Seattle if you don’t have a Starbucks in hand? But in all honesty I am not a coffee lover but I love their refreshers and tea, so had to get one.
Pike Place
This morning and afternoon we spent about 3 hours really exploring the area. There was so much happening, shops, food, fish market, flowers, more food. I loved this area. It was packed with people but so neat. We even got to see iconic fish flying, “the first Starbucks”, tried a piroshky, and had some famous Clam Chowder. I think my favorite part of seeing them throw fish around, haha.
We love renting bikes or scooters to get around a city, so that is what we did next. We rented Lime Bikes and drove 2 miles to the Holy Mountain Brewery. This brewery was suggested by my dads work friend. It was just okey, again I don’t beer so had their guest cider, but my husband and I both like Cloudburst Brewery better.
After a drink we walked up to Kerry Park for a full view of Seattle. Possibly a little smoky, but nonetheless, one of the best places in Seattle to get the best view of the city. I do hear when it is less smoky you can see Mount Rainier on the other side of the tall buildings.
Breathtaking.
Smoky Seattle
As exhausting traveling has been I am glad my husband and I went on this last trip together! Seattle is beautiful and a place everyone should visit. We would love to make another trip back out to Washington in the direction of Spokane again sometime. Cheers to another wonderful trip!
