April 2014
Day One - Saturday
We arrived in Seattle on a showery afternoon, but had already made plans to visit the Seattle Waterfront and Aquarium immediately after our departure from the airport in our rental car. I made the mistake of parking too soon in fear of not finding a parking garage later on (I'm used to hard-to-find parking downtown in my hometown), because there were garages and lots pretty much everywhere. Downtown Seattle is super hilly and reminiscent of what you might find in San Francisco, but it is still very walkable because everything worth seeing downtown is very close together.
The aquarium seems really small until you notice that it leads outside the pier enclosure for some bird, otter, and seal exhibits. I'm not sure the aquarium was really worth $22 a head, it needs some updating and is still fairly small, but the river and sea otters are worth visiting. There are a lot of deals to take advantage of that we didn't this time, like combination tickets with a harbor cruise tour or the great wheel, so the opportunity to save some money is there and make the trip more budget friendly.
Afterwards, we made our way to our hotel to wait for another friend to join us so we could eat out for dinner. We ended up walking to Black Bottle, a hip and trendy restaurant that serves food in a family style manner so that it's shared with your friends. They warned us about the "large plates" and people are often surprised by how "large" they are when they come out, but they really aren't. I guess I'm just used to Cheesecake Factory portions as "large". But I'd probably recommend ordering about 2 plates per person for sharing to feel full. Next, we made our way to Bathtub Gin & Co. for a drink before resting our eyes back at the hotel.
Day Two - Sunday
We woke up groggily to eat some breakfast at the hotel and drive to the Volunteer Park Conservatory. The park itself was very pretty, but the conservatory was cute and quaint with a glass enclosure over five different climate zones including tropical, moderate, and dry. There were a lot of cool plants with interesting colors and foliage, and the room with tulips made for great backdrops for portraits. The gift shop was adorable, too, and I ended up buying a necklace with a hand painted pendant of two koy fish.
We had a Savor Seattle food tour scheduled later that afternoon in Pike Place Market, so we decided to head that way early to explore on our own first. I shared a panini special at Sister's European Snacks to tie us over until the tour, bought some chocolate covered cherries from Chukar Cherries, waited for one of my friends to order a frappuccino from the "Original" Starbucks, and tried my very first European drinking chocolate from The Confectional, an amazing experience for chocolate lovers. Speaking of the "Original" Starbucks, it was explained to us that this was not in fact the very first Starbucks. The first Starbucks no longer exists. This Starbucks is the FOURTH Starbucks to exist, but is considered the second location of the first. I feel cheated.
Soon it was time to meet up at the Gum Wall for the start of our food tour. The gum wall was pretty gross! Apparently it started out a bit more sightly where people would use gum to stick coins up, like for wishes? But someone came by and grabbed all the coins so all that was left was gum and even with efforts to clean the wall, people kept putting gum there and so the city turned it into a gross tourist attraction and an accumulation of 30 years of used gum. Do you see our smiles? They are delicate smiles of disgust.
Our food tour was lead by a very informative, hilariously pun-filled, and charismatic guide named Santino whom we decided to call instead Sassy Santino after he alliterated all of our own names as well. Here we visited a number of locations for small bites that some might consider adding up to a meal, but over the course of two hours you don't really feel full.
- Daily Dozen Doughnuts for freshly made cinnamon sugar doughnut holes.
- Market Spice for its Market Spice tea, orange & cinnamon flavor that is surprisingly sweet on its own.
- Pike Place Fish for three types of smoked salmon and a fun fish toss in which one of our own got to participate.
- Pike Place Chowder for lobster bisque and award-winning clam chowder.
- Choice Produce for fresh, sweet grapes and apples.
- BB Ranch for charcuterie and stories inside their walk-in refridgerator.
- Beecher's Handmade Cheese for aged white cheddar on a cracker as well as mac & cheese famously praised by Oprah Winfrey.
- Pear Delicatessen & Shoppe for a small deli sandwich and time to purchase anything else from the store.
- Etta's for delicious crabcakes.
Feeling oh so satisfied, we walked over to the Seattle Great Wheel and enjoyed three rotations around the ferris wheel in enclosed capsules. The views offered up were picturesque and granted us decent backgrounds for selfies.
It was about time I needed to charge my phone, so we tried to find a Starbucks in order to do so. We found one right next to Showbox, the venue featuring Young the Giant later that night. Unfortunately, the Starbucks here in Seattle apparently cover their outlets because they're either stingily rude or environmentally friendly. Meanwhile there was a huge line wrapping around the block to get in to Showbox before doors opening, but knowing that my friend is a seasoned concert goer who knows how to get close to the stage, we saved our feet by hanging out in the Starbucks for an extra hour until the opening band would show.
Day Three - Monday
I woke up slowly and groggily from the sleep aid I used (I didn't sleep well without it the night before), as well as sore as shit from all the walking we've done. One of our friends was leaving town this day, so we had to sneak in a trip up the Space Needle before he went. There were hardly any lines, probably because it was a Monday morning, and we were blessed with good fortune in the form of sunshine and a clear view of Mount Rainier to the south and the Olympic Mountains to the northwest.
We had originally intended to eat at the restaurant within the Space Needle, as I have heard that it is supposedly superb, but at our entry before 11am the restaurant was not yet open. We settled on the cafe there instead and I consumed the only hot dog we ever managed to get our hands on before leaving the city. On the way to the airport, our friend leaving us wanted to take an emergency detour to a souvenir shop. While we were trying to guide him back to the car over the phone, he asked us to describe our surroundings. This is when we saw an old man running shirtless down the street with a Jamaican flag cape tied around his neck, and it was legit, the funniest thing that had ever happened on the entire trip.
Next thing on our list of things to do was take a harbor cruise with Argosy Harbor Cruise Tours. By the time we arrived at the counter, we were an hour late for the one we had initially planned on attending, so we settled for one two hours later and walked around downtown a bit more. Feeling in the mood for something cold and sweet, we worked our way up four blocks of steep sidewalks to Gelatiamo. I ordered four flavors: lemon sorbet, blackberry sorbet, peanut butter cup gelato, and chocolate hazelnut gelato. The gelato is the most delicious gelato I've ever had. Other "gelato" I've tried have been reminiscent of ice cream, but this here, THIS, was unquestionably gelato. I was in heaven.After failing to find a hot dog stand anywhere, we begrudgingly made our way back to the Seattle Waterfront. Upon discovering a small arcade, I whooped some ass playing air hockey. A ten year old boy boasting lightening reflexes challenged me to a duel, and I felt bad about beating him so I gave him all of the tickets I won. All 36 of them.
Lining up for our Locks Tour Harbor Cruise, my friend started making a fuss pointing at someone she claimed to be SAMEER GADHIA departing his own cruise tour. Remember that guy? The guy we saw belting on stage the night before? Yeah, I wasn't sure it was him for a while, because he was tying his shoe and all I could see was his butt. Which was fine. He was wearing sunglasses when he stood up, but his look and style lead me to agree that she was right and it was indeed the lead singer of Young the Giant before my eyes, walking off down the street away from us. And I had just taken off my Young the Giant sweatshirt. And we could have been on the same boat as him. I almost died inside.
As for our harbor cruise tour, it was really fun and relaxing. I'm glad we took the longer tour because our feet were killing us. The trip was commentated over the intercom with history and facts about Seattle and Puget Sound. We got some pretty great views of the skyline and that made me and my iPhone camera very happy.
This particular tour took us up and over Seattle through a locks canal and Lake Union. It was really neat seeing the locks in action. They're meant to separate the higher freshwater levels from the lower seawater levels. There were a lot of cool ships and houseboats along the way. Supposedly, we passed the houseboat used in the movie Sleepless In Seattle, as well as the ship used in the show The Deadliest Catch, but none of us saw what the commentator saw. He may have been lying.
Once we docked in Lake Union, a bus took us back to our original location and it was about time we headed towards Kerry Park for some iconic sunset shots of the Seattle skyline.
Our last day in Seattle happened to be the start of Restaurant Week, when even upscale restaurants have affordable 3 course menus. We took the chance to fine dine at Dahlia Lounge where we enjoyed the most delicious bites of food yet. Can't you tell by our empty plates?
It was then declared as a toast that we would continue to discover new cities together every year! ...And hopefully during Restuarant Weeks.
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