Guest post by karenj
Map tips: each color represents a different day. Click a marker to learn more about the spot, and click the star in the map header to save the entire map under Your Places in Google Maps.
Day 1
Arrived in Seattle in the early evening and took the subway from the airport to downtown. We stayed at Hotel Monaco which I recommend! You can request to have a goldfish in your room for your stay. What’s not to like about that!? Not much happened on day 1 other than finding some dinner at a restaurant on the water.
Day 2
- Pike Place Market
- Starbucks
- Seattle Aquarium
- Savor Seattle Food Tours
- The Gum Wall
On our first full day in Seattle we got up bright and early and hit the Public Market (Pike Place Market). It’s fun watching the vendors prep in the morning, and it wasn’t too busy! We, of course, grabbed some coffee at the original Starbucks and some delicious breakfast at a bakery. We bought a tourist attraction pass which we found to be worth the money. Our first stop was the Aquarium (worth it to see the otters). We then took a boat cruise of the harbor. It was cool to see the Space Needle from a different perspective and also the Real World house. After the boat tour was my favorite part of our trip: the food tour of the market. If you go to Seattle you MUST do this. We got to sample so many great places, and experience the flying fish! The chowder and cheese were to die for. Afterwards we made a quick stop at the gum wall. Gross, but cool, I suppose. We also went to the Space Needle to see it at night.
Day 3
- Space Needle
- Experience Music Project
- Pacific Science Center
- Cedarbrook Lodge
We continued to use our attraction pass the next day by going to the top of the Space Needle and visiting the Experience Music Project. To be honest, the Space Needle was a bit of a let-down. It’s more fun to look AT than to look FROM. I did, however, enjoy the Experience Music Project exhibits. (Sidenote: there’s a tram that runs from the main downtown area to the Space Needle which is quick and cheap!). To complete the usage of our passes, we stopped at the Pacific Science Center – walked around the exhibits a bit, and saw an IMAX movie. Day three we left our hotel in Seattle and took the subway to the Cedarbrook Lodge. In 2011 this was listed as the #1 rated hotel on TripAdvisor (and it’s close to the airport) so we had to try it out! It was phenomenal. Great restaurant, lots of grounds to wander around, perfect room, and lots of freebies (they had a kitchen fully stocked with free Haagen-Daas ice cream)! Flew home the next morning.
Traveled in September 2011
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