Seattle
Seattle August 2023
Seattle…let me be honest with you, my husband was not looking forward to this trip. He wanted to be sitting on a Hawaiian beach with a nice cold drink in his hand relaxing poolside, but with the fires devastating Lahaina in Maui, we opted for Seattle and it did not disappoint. Now I will start off by saying, there are so many homeless people and crack heads there. I want to be blunt about this because coming from a small town like Santa Barbara, this was a bit of a shell shock for me. It has some pretty rough spots and I am not sure how comfortable I would feel cruising the city at night without my husband. My son even picked up a used needle walking down the street. But none-the-less, this trip was one for the books.
We spent 5 full days (7 including travel days) in Seattle and I definitely could have used about 3-5 more days to check out some of the near by national parks. The day we arrived we got in around 3pm to our hotel. I usually spend the first day trying not to squeeze anything in but getting a decent meal and walking the city a little to get our bearings. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in downtown/pioneer square. If you can, book a suite if you have kids. We booked a 1 bedroom suite with a living room with a pull out couch. With two rambunctious boys (ages 6 & 3), having the extra space was soooooo nice. Seattle is a pretty walkable city and the location was right in Pioneer Square. It was about a 10-15 min walk to Pikes Place Market. It would take a little longer to get to the space needle but if you utilize the monorail its not too bad. Something I was not expecting from Seattle was the hills. It was like San Francisco in some areas. It gave me a good workout when pushing the kids in the stroller.
NOTE: I was surprised that Seattle shuts down relatively early. By 8 or 9pm I could barely find a restaurant that was open and most the shops are closed or shutting down. Keep that in mind if you are like us and like to jam pack your days with fun stuff and eat late.
TIP: Get the City Pass if you plan to do some of the main attractions. The City Pass gets you in to 5 main attractions for the price of $119 per adult and $105 per child. This saved us about $100 per person. Most of the attractions need advanced reservations but we would book they on our ride/walk over and get in right away. You automatically can do the Space Needle and Sea Center and then you get to pick 3 out of 4 options of Argosy Harbor Cruise, Chihuly Gardens, Museum of Pop, and the Woodland Park Zoo.
*I did my best to make each place a clickable link for easy access to all our tours, stops and restaurants.
Day 1:
Space Needle, Chihuly Gardens, Children’s Museum, Pacific Science Center
TIP: Try to do this on a weekday to avoid the weekend crowds. We did a majority of these things on Wednesday and went back on Saturday and the crowds were much, much heavier.
First Stop….We started at the Chihuly Gardens. This does require a reservation if you have the city pass but I booked it while we were on the free shuttle about 15 min in advance. The Chihuly Glass gardens were pretty cool. Even my kids enjoyed them. We were there for about 45 min but could have easily stayed longer if our kids weren’t getting impatient. These beautiful glass sculptures are quite incredible.
Space Needle: Right next to the Chihuly Gardens is the space needle. It is easy to knock it off next. Also with he city pass you are allowed to go back 2 times in a 24 hour period. So either a morning visit and a night time visit in the same evening or a night visit and a morning visit the next morning. We enjoyed the 360 degree views and I loved getting my bearings as to where everything was located in the city. You could see all the way through downtown, to lake union and you could even see Mount Rainer in the distance on a nice day.
Seattle Children’s Museum: Let me say it was hard for us to locate this place. It is located on the bottom floor of the armory. The armory also has a little food court so you can make a stop inside if you or your little ones get hungry. My children loved this place. It was also nice for us to sit down and relax and let our boys run free for a while. The children museum consists of exhibits such as Amazing airways, The Mountain, Orca Cove, Transit, Tribal Tails, Twists and Turns and The Neighborhood which consists of a small world of make believe such as a fire station, theater, market, post office and theater.
“Artists at Play” Playground: This was a fun playground for my 5 year old. I think my 2 year old would have had a bit of a hard time climbing the ropes of this playground but it was pretty magical for my older son.
Museum of Pop: I did not do the Museum of Pop because I opted to the argosy harbor cruise as my 3rd item instead of the museum of pop. However this building is quite beautiful and I am sure the inside would have been a fun experience. I looked at some pictures and it looked quite interesting.
TIP: Use the monorail from the Armory to get to 5th Ave and Pine St. It is about a 3 min ride to the Westlake Center and goes through by the Museum of Pop. It makes it a much easier walk to Pike Market or back to your hotel after.
Pacific Science Center: We actually did this on a different day because I made reservations for a food place at 3pm and we had to leave this area but I wish we could have stayed on the same day and knocked this out. My boys loved this space as well. So many different areas in this museum. Look up the show schedule ahead of time to see what shows you are interested in seeing in their IMax Theaters. We did the Laser Dome and my boys both loved it. Its a show of lasers dancing on the ceiling of the dome paired with Disney music. This show gave me a little bit of a head ache to be honest but it allowed us to close our eyes for about 30 min and take a nap.
Day 2:
Pike Place Market: I was surprised that when we went to Pikes on our first day, everything was shut down before 5pm. We got in, got settled and thought it would be a good dinner spot but it was all closed or closing up. Definitely explore pikes place during the day if you want things to be open. Even better, book a food tour through the market. We chose to do the 10:30am tour with Eat Seattle. They took us through the market and gave us a well rounded taste of what the market has to offer from tacos, to Beechers Mac N Cheese, to rock fish, salmon jerky, pizza and the truffle queen. Definitely worth booking a tour for the beginning of your trip so you will know what to venture back to before you leave. We made the mistake of booking this on our last day and we missed out on the affiliate 10% off which is good for 7 days and we definitely wished would could have gone back for Beechers Mac n Cheese.
TIP: Visit Pikes Market once everything has closed so you can get the best photo op without everyone being in your picture.
Gum Wall: If you visit the market then you better go visit the gum wall and leave your mark. I looked at the wall with wonder and disgust all at the same time.
Seattle Aquarium: I walked through this sea center at first and thought, ok this is fine I guess. It had the large walls of water and fish, touch tanks and some more fish tanks in the back. I thought, this is it, but I almost missed the whole second building. Once you have gone through the main building walk outside one of the side doors and enter to see a whole other building that includes a underwater dome, sea lions, otters, birds and so much more. My boys loved the sea center and could have stayed here for hours.
Wings over Washington: Just next to the sea center you will find the Great Wheel and Wings over Washington. If you have ever been to Disneyland’s California Adventure and gone on Soarin’ then you know just what to expect. Wings over Washington makes you feel like you are flying over all the best Washington areas. It was actually made by the same creator as the guy who did Soarin for Disneyland. There is a heigh requirement so keep that in mind. I took my 5 year old while my husband took my 2 year old on the carousel inside the Miners.
The Great Wheel: We opted to do this in the evening at sunset and man it did not disappoint. We did this because it was quite warm when we went in August and I thought it would probably be pretty hot up there in the middle of the day in a glass room. Visiting the Great Wheel at sunset ended up being a great decision because the lighting during that time was pretty stunning. Once you get on the Great Wheel, it will make 4 rotations really allowing you to take in the views before they start offloading everyone again. Definitely worth doing.
Argosy Harbor Cruise: We were suppose to do this in the same day but I ended up being so wiped out I had to go take a nap and I missed the boat. We ended up catching it on the last day of our trip and it was pretty great. This is also part of the City Pass. Simply book it on your app and if you missed it like we did, we just emailed them and rebooked for another time. The cruise has spectacular views of the city and has a great tour guide that talks the whole tour. My boys were quite antsy after spending 2 hours on a food tour so I didn’t get to listen to a whole lot of what the tour guide was saying but when I did it was quite interesting.
Day 3:
Woodland Park Zoo & Whale Watching
Woodland Park Zoo: Get here early. I suggest if you want to stick to my itinerary then go at opening. The zoo is really beautiful and has some really well laid out enclosures and habitats for the animals. What I loved was they had so many different viewing options for all the enclosures and you really got to get up close to so many of the animals. My boys got some close encounters with the tigers, hippos, and the bear. One thing I didn’t like is that I felt like you had to back track a bit through some of the areas. I would plan on about 2-3 hours at least at the zoo. We spent about 2 hours there but could have stayed longer if we didn’t have something booked at 2:30.
Whale Watching with Puget Sound Express: You have to travel to Edmonds to get on this boat but I will tell you, this was the highlight of my trip. We boarded the swiftsure and this boat was really beautiful and man did it go pretty fast. They also sell food and beverage on board (definitely try their homemade Blueberry Buckle) but I was glad to have a decent meal (*See tip below) after spending a few hours at the zoo. The boat took us all the way up passed the San Juan Islands, almost to Canada. We came across a family of 2 Orca Whales, a mother and a son. I literally had tears in my eyes when I first saw them. We really got to take our time following these beautiful and graceful creatures as they searched the shoreline for harbor seals. After a while someone came over the intercom and said they had just heard that there were a pod of 10-15 whales about 15 miles north. We went looking for them and got the most incredible experience. The boat is only allowed to get within 200 meter of the whales before they have to cut the engines but we just happened to get right in the path of where the whales were going and we got to watch this pod of 13 whales go right in front of our boat. The experience was absolutely incredible. This is a MUST DO! The whole trip is about 5 hours.
TIP: Call ahead and do a pick up at Anthonys Beach Cafe so you have a decent meal on board with you.
Day 4:
Fremont, Gas works Park and Union Lake
Gas Works Park: I never actually made it over to the park but I wish we would have. If you have ever seen 10 things I hate about you, this is the park that Julia Styles and Heath Ledger have that paint war. I saw tons of people gathering there at sunset. It has some pretty awesome city views from the park.
Fremont Troll: You cant make it to Fremont without getting your picture with the Fremont troll. I wish this wasn’t such a tourist spot because my boys would have loved just climbing all over the troll for a while, but there was a line to get your picture and scram.
Fremont Drawbridge: Now this might not be everyones thing but I have always loved bridges (fun fact: I got engaged on the Brooklyn Bridge). I don’t know why exactly but I just do. Fremont draw bridge is a bright blue and orange draw bridge that is pretty cool. It is one of the old drawbridges in the city and definitely worth a quick stop if you like bridges like me.
Hot Tub Boats: Call ahead of time and book one of these boat at Union Lake. My boys absolutely loved this and it was such a nice relaxing way to ease your muscles and tired legs after days of walking. The boat is self operated by your party and can hold 6 people. We got the boat for 2 hours for $400 which was a bit pricey but such a unique experience. The views from Union Lake of the city were beautiful. We actually tried to book this ahead of time but they were already booked out so I called and got on their cancellation list. They called me back in 24 hours and had something available. We had the 5pm boat and it was a really perfect time. The lighting was beautiful, it wasn’t too hot out anymore and it gave the boys a perfect wind down before bed. If you plan ahead of time, pick up some snacks and drinks to bring on the boat for an even better time.
Note: We had dinner after our boat ride at Daniel Broilers. It was delicious but on the expensive side. I had a Filet that was delicious. Their mashed potatoes were bomb also!
Day 5:
Snoqualmie Falls & Fall City Wallaby Ranch ( 35 min outside of Seattle)
If you are going to make your way out to Snoqualmie Falls then you mine as well make a stop at the Fall City Wallaby Ranch.
Rex the owner of Fall city Ranch can come off like a bit of an asshole according to the reviews I read about this place but you have to understand him in order to realize he is just really passionate about what he does and is really passionate about educating people about Kangaroos. These kangaroos and wallabies are like his babies and teaching people about some of the discoveries he made about the development of the joey inside of their mothers pouch is so important to him. This experience consist of a 45 min educational video followed by 45 min of petting and interacting with the kangaroos and wallabies. If you are coming to just see the animals then you are coming for the wrong reasons. The educational piece is actually very interesting and super informative. It taught me things I never knew about the development of a kangaroo. Female Kangaroos are like the ultimate rock star mom. So come to learn and get the bonus of interacting with these animals up close and personal.
Snoqualmie falls is a beautiful waterfall about 35 min outside the city of Seattle. The surrounding area is simply stunning,. Once you get there, its a short walk to see the top of the falls. If you want to walk to the base of the falls its a little bit more of a hike.
Things I wish I had more time to do:
-Do the Beneath the Streets Tour: We tried to do this tour but my kids just couldn’t keep quiet so we walked out because I didn’t want to bother the other people trying to listen to the tour. Basically after a fire burnt down Seattle, they decided to build Seattle above the original streets to create a sewage system and infastructure. If you stay at the Courtyard Marriott in Pioneer Square this tour is just one block away.
-Olympic National Park: I really wish I would have done more research and planned a few days to drive along Olympic National park with some nightly stops so that we could really enjoy the beauty of this National Park. We just didn’t have time to do this. Some of the stops I would have made would have been: Deer Park and Hurricane Ridge, Forks, Port Angeles, Rialto Beach, Stair Case, Ruby Beach, Kalaloch Beach, Hoh River
-Stadium High School: My husband had no interest in seeing this but if you grew up watching the movie 10 Things I hate about You, then I know you would want to see this iconic high school too.
-Discovery Park: The views from here looking back at the city and Mt Rainer looked stunning. I wish. we could have added this to our trip.
-Go See a Seattle Seahawks game
-Day trip to Mount Raineer: About 2 hours away from Seattle. The scenery in the PNW is so beautiful and I know I would have loved to see this National Park if I had time. The photos i have seen are absolutely stunning.
-Take a Sea Plane
-Kerry Park: Another place for great view of the city. I really love that this city has stunning views from all sides of it.
-Museum of Flight
-Alki Beach
Eats:
The Pink Door: This was a pretty popular restaurant. I would suggest trying to make a reservation because they were booked out except for late lunch when I went. They normally accept walk-ins but at the time I was there, it was really hot and they had closed their patio which meant they were not accepting walk ins at this time. The ambiance is beautiful here and I really love the little story behind this restaurant. Read it HERE! I had the Pappardelle Al Ragu Bolognese and it was sooooo good. I am a sucker for a good Bolognese and this one was excellent. I also had the grilled figs, prosciutto and goat cheese and that was delicious as well. Definitely make a stop at the Pink Door for an all around great dinner or lunch spot. Check out their menu here:
Vonn’s 1000 spirit gusto bistro: We stumbled upon this restaurant later in the evening. As I mentioned before, everything seemed to close down early. I had the Macho Salad and it was delicious. It had a good spread of food and I was dying to try their Carrot cake but I was watching my sugar intake at this time and opted to be good. Check out the menu here:
Beechers Handmade Cheese—Mac N Cheese: This is conveniently located near…well its technically in Pikes market I guess. This was actually a stop on our food tour which is why I recommend doing the food tour in the first day because OMG the Mac N Cheese from Beechers is so good we wished we would have been able to get it more than just once. Every morning they pump in gallons and gallons of milk and make their cheese and cheese curds right there in the window in front of your eyes. They also serve grill cheses and paninis. Im cant stress enough that I wish I went here day one so I had enough time to try everything I wanted. Do not miss this! I also read that you should get their Mac n Cheese then head over to the truffle queen and get a little truffle on your mac n cheese to put it over the top! Here is their menu!
Shug’s Soda Fountain and Ice Cream: We stumbled upon this place walking home one night. It had a line out the door so we knew it had to be good (or just the only thing open lol) I got the Smore Sundae. YUM! Remember how I said I was trying not to eat sugar during my trip….well I broke that for this sundae…need I say more. Here is their menu.
Take a look at the Seattle Map I created with all my points of interest!
