Friday, May 5, 2017

Seattle Part 2: What We Did

Hi all!  Are you ready for the next installment in my Seattle series?  I hope so because that's what I'm writing!  Keep in mind that we were only in Seattle for 3 days and 2 nights.  There are tons of things I wish I had time for but isn't that how vacation goes?  If you haven't read about Pack Up + Go and how we ended up in Seattle, you can read that post HERE.  Keep in mind, we had NO idea where we were going until we were at the airport so there was literally no time to place activities however they did give us an itinerary of things they thought we would enjoy.

Pike Place Market
This place was on my bucket list.  I've always wanted to go here.  However, I don't know why but in my mind it was just one long hallway with stalls on both sides.  I was not prepared for it to be so spread out with staircases going down and ramps going up and twists and turns and BILLIONS of stalls.  Honestly, it was extremely overwhelming and I wish we hadn't gone here first.  We literally landed in Seattle, checked into our hotel, and walked to Pike Place.  (PS How did I not know that Seattle is SO hilly like San Fransisco?  I'm pretty sure I almost died walking at least 84 times.)

We walked around the market and didn't know what to do.  We were hungry so we stopped for lunch. (I'm going to do a separate post about all the food we ate because I'm weird and that sounds like a great idea.)  Then we walked about looking for Ellenos Yogurt which at least 3 people told me to try when I mentioned I was going to the market.  We found a place to sit with an ocean view to eat our yogurt which was SO good!  We walked around the market some more, we sampled one piece of fruit, and we noticed that a lot of the vendors were packing up for the day.  It was almost 5pm at this point so we headed out.  I'm really disappointed that we didn't buy anything to take home or any fruit to keep at the hotel to snack on.

Starbucks Roastery
The next day after brunch, we headed to the Starbucks Roastery on Capitol Hill.  It was a huge beautiful building.  There was an area with a little gift shop with merchandise, an area for a cafe with food, an area with an experience bar where you could order drinks and talk to the baristas, and an area where you can see coffee beans being roasted.  There's even a place where you can go up some stairs and see the roasting equipment from a higher level.  It was gorgeous to walk around and take it in!  I saw a guy doing pour overs in the area with the merchandise but didn't really stop to check it out.

My favorite part was going to the experience bar and sitting at it!  They have an entire exclusive menu at this location including Shakerato (espresso shaken with ice), affogato (espresso over ice cream), coffee and espresso flights, Nitro coffee, etc... Dustin and I split the Shakerato Affogato (because you might as well get 2 things you can't have at other Starbucks together) and Dustin's cousin Kim (who was our tour guide for the day) got an Undertow.  The Undertow is a layered drink with syrup, then cold half and half, and an espresso shot on top that you drink like a shot of alcohol.  You can order these are regular Starbucks locations even though they are not on the menu.  It's a real jolt, I do them when I have to pull a late night for fundraising.  The Shakerato Affograto was made with Mora ice cream which is local to them, shaken espresso, and finished with vanilla syrup and a mint sprig.  We started eating it as is and it was good.  Then I was sad that I couldn't taste the mint (though it might have been there for decoration) so I started mashing it with the spoon to release some of the flavor and that took the dessert to a whole new level and I highly recommend doing that!

While sitting at the bar we discovered that the barista working right in front of us (Kevin) is from Sacramento!  He was super friendly!  While we enjoyed our coffee, we watched him do the Siphon Brewing.  That was SO so so cool!  It looks like a science experiment.  If you come to the Roastery, you HAVE to go watch them do this!

Ferry Ride
After the Roastery, we walked literally FOREVER to get the the Ferry.  I don't remember ever going on a ferry so I decided that I need to experience it.  It was such a fun experience!  We sat near a side window on the way there it was so nice to look out over the water.  Plus it was nice to sit down after all the walking.  The ferry took about 20 minutes.  On the way back, we sat up at the front so we could see the Seattle skyline over the water.  It started raining part way back but it let up and there was a rainbow!  Honestly, even if you didn't go to Bainbridge Island and just took the ferry there and back it was a fun experience.  And they had a snack bar with all sorts of food and drinks that you can enjoy on the ferry.  It was crazy!  It was so big!  You could even take your car to the island and back on the ferry.  (Photos courtesy of my husband.)

Bainbridge Island
We didn't have any transportation when we got to Bainbridge and I was told that they don't have Uber/Lyft out there so we just did things that were pretty close to the ferry building.  First, we went to the grocery store so I could get some bottled water.  (I know, the excitement is killing you!)  The market was actually really awesome!  They have a saute station where you can buy prepped veggies and stir fry sauces.  They had yummy samples in their deli section.  There was a place where you could fill your own growlers of local beer.  It was amazing!  We went to Mora Ice Cream.  More on that tomorrow and yes I had Mora twice in one day, I was ON VACATION.  We went to the cutest toy store ever Calico Toy Shoppe and spent WAY too much time looking at toys since we were 3 adults.  We ended our time on Bainbridge with some wine tasting at Island Tasting Room where I learned how ridiculously spoiled I am to live in California since our wine tasting is so generous and always comes with a pallet cleanser.  The town was super cute and I'm really glad we went to Bainbridge just because in my everyday life I can't just whisk off to an island.

Gum Wall
Before heading to dinner at The Alibi Room, we checked out the gum wall.  There was a guy there with a pressure washer cleaning it off.  He was talking to another guy and I'm pretty sure he said he just cleaned all the gum off a month earlier.  I only felt a tiny bit guilty sticking new gum to it because job security... obviously.  Also, we stuck our gum in a place he hadn't cleaned yet and would have had to clean anyway, we aren't monsters.

Bill Speidel's Underground Tour
By Sunday, my feet and knees were killing me so of course we took an underground walking tour...  It actually wasn't too much walking.  A couple of my friends recommended this and Kim even suggested it and she's a local.  I think we lucked out, we came on a day with a bit of ran and it was Sunday so it wasn't very crowded.  Our tour guide Dean was awesome!  He was so funny and personable.  He did warn all sorts of torment if you used your phone which is off putting since I'm a blogger and an Instagrammer (is that a thing?) but I did use my phone during the tour to take photos and no one said anything.  We found the tour to be really interesting and enjoyed learning about the history of Seattle.  It was interesting to see the underground but the highlight is definitely the tour guide and the humor, think of it as a walking comedy show.  The tour ended up in a gift shop which was convenient for us because I needed to buy a few things for gifts.  The prices weren't horrible.  We didn't buy the photo they took of us because it was like $30 plus the price of the tour plus the guide mentioning that he worked for tips.  It was definitely worth doing once.

Sky View Observatory at Columbia Center
We had heard from various people to stay away from the Space Needle since it would be crowded and expensive and not worth it.  People said if we wanted a great view that wasn't too expensive to check out the Sky View.  It was nice!  It was about $15 a person and you got to see a great view.  It's the tallest skyscraper in downtown Seattle and second tallest on the west coast.  Part of it was blocked off when we went, I'm not sure if they are doing construction to open it up more or if they are just renovating but I didn't get to go all the way around and see a 360 view.  What I did see was gorgeous!  Your admission is good for a whole day so you could see morning, sunset, and evening if you so pleased.  I wish I had the time to do that because the night pictures I've seen are breathtaking!  But this is what happens when you don't really plan your trip.  Opps, but we still got to see a gorgeous view and sit and relax up there.  Also, they have a small snack bar but the prices are crazy!  It was $3 for a bottle of water but I was thirsty so it was a must!

Seattle Public Library - missed opportunity
After leaving the observatory, I needed some coffee and Seattle is SO weird and there were CLOSED coffee shops at like 3pm.  Dustin found a coffee shop called Chocolati Cafe and we walked there.  We didn't realize it was in the library.  The library is huge and awesome!  I didn't explore it very much.  While we were sitting in the coffee shop, an announcement came on that at 4pm the Seattle Philharmonic would be performing in one of the rooms in a FREE concert.  Sadly, we just got our drinks and weren't ready to leave the coffee shop area.  But the time we got to the door where they were performing, the concert was in full swing and the door was right by where they were playing so we didn't want to disturb them.  I thought it was such an amazing opportunity to hear free music.  If you are going to Seattle, I would suggest checking out the schedule at the library to see if they are doing anything amazing.

I really pushed myself on this trip to go out and do things and see things.  Three days in Seattle was definitely not enough time!  There are so many more things on my list of places I wanted to go but we were just out of time and energy.  I hope that we are able to go back to Seattle soon!  My last Seattle post will be what we ate and it will include a video of our whole experience, check back next week for that one!

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  1. I have a friend who just visited Seattle, and she, too, was overwhelmed by the market. I love travel but it's best to plan trips during less touristy times/seasons, that way you're not fighting crowds every step of the way ;) But it seemed like you experienced so much!

  2. It looks like such a fun trip! I've been to Washington only once, but didn't make it to Seattle. I'd love to go one day! It looks like there are lots of things to do and see!

  3. Nice! I will have to bookmark this post. I haven't done many of these things yet! LOL.

  4. I LOVE Seattle! Only been there once, spent a week and it wasn't enough. I'll definitely try the library and underground tour next time. If you go again, they gave an amazing Science museum!

  5. WOW! You jam packed a ton in 3 days! Looks like you hit all the popular spots :)

  6. I'd like to visit Seattle someday! It seems like you had a lot of fun in the short time you were there!

  7. I'm so glad you guys had a great time! I haven't been in Seattle in forever, I do think I did the Space Needle but like I said, it was a long time ago. I love Pike Place Market and I've always wanted to do one of the underground tours!

  8. Aw, fun! My sister lives in Seattle. I need to go back soon! ;)

  9. So much fun! I was in Seattle once for a short time and I think the only thing I did was Pike Place Market. I'd love to do the Starbucks and the ferry - I love the photos from the ferry! So cool you saw a rainbow!

  10. I love Seattle! I went for the first time a few years ago and loved it! After reading this, I really want to go back!