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| mle Quote | Reply | | Seattle - Trip report posted on: 10/5/2005 12:20:36 PM This is going to be a maybe-not-that-coherent post on Seattle (and a few other little tidbits) put together from my stay there over the past week. I know it won't be nearly as fun as Monkey's Golluming posts, but I hope someone finds it useful and/or interesting. * The airport is surrounded by trees, and if it's not too cloudy, on your ascent you might pass RIGHT NEXT TO Mt Ranier. As in, you can look down on the top of the mountain with its snowcap gorgeousness. Sea-Tac isn't a huge airport and I had an easy enough time getting out of there and heading toward the city in my ugly Korean Tomatomobile. It's really only like 10-15 miles to downtown Seattle from the airport on Highway 5. I wouldn't recommend driving on 5 during rush hour but I didn't experience much traffic at other times. Speed limit: 60MPH, and trucks drive in the center lane at 45 or 50 and that can get kind of frustrating. I think there are both cabs and shuttles to downtown from the airport; hotel shuttles are generally cheap if you're staying in a particular hotel downtown. Cabs aren't so cheap. For the conference I attended, I stayed in the Seattle Renaissance hotel (a high-end Mariott property). It was wicked expensive, though I understand that just about any hotel is wicked expensive in the downtown area. I got free parking for my rental car there. After the conference was over and Hulk got there, we stayed in a cheap Red Lion Hotel near the Boeing plant/Museum of Flight. It was fine for a place to sleep, but you definitely need a car to stay in this area. It was between downtown and the airport. Next time, I think we might try to bid on a b&b or something like that in one of the neighborhoods we like. A Note About Parking: Parking isn't free anywhere downtown, and is often quite expensive. Even metered parking on the street is expensive. Hulk and I found a parking lot near the ballparks by the waterfront that was only $3 for 10 hours (but I’m sure during sports season it costs an arm and a leg to park there) It’s kind of a hike to most of the downtown stuff but we’d rather walk than pay through the nose to park close to tourist attractions. Downtown is easy to walk around. There are lots of shopping areas (from super high-end stores to Cross Dress for Less and Payless Shoe Source), historical sites (the Pike Place Market, Pioneer Square, etc.), and good restaurants/bars/pubs. There are several places to see music and at least one place to see Live Nude Girls. The downtown area caters to tourists and businesspeople, so food is priced accordingly ($$$). We walked around a lot (slightly up into Capitol Hill, through the International District, and through Belltown (just north of downtown) to get to the Seattle Center/Space Needle. Walking in those areas is easy. However, there are lots of other cool neighborhoods that you can't really walk to and will need a car. Unfortunately, Seattle has buses (free in downtown) but no light rail or rapid transit. I understand they're working on putting in a monorail, but it's still a long ways off. Report by Neighborhood or Tourist Destination Downtown - see above. Downtown is big, walkable, busable, and somewhat driveable, though very expensive to park. * Seattle Public Library – there’s a huge, extraordinarily cool public library between 4th and 5th and between Madison and Spring Streets. It’s definitely worth going inside and looking around. They have something like 10 stories of books and great mixed use space. Plus, it’s just really architecturally interesting. There’s a café in the library and free wireless. * Pike Place Market – TONS of stuff to look at and buy and eat. Don’t sit down in a restaurant; the food is really overpriced right in the market itself. There are at least 3 floors of little shops selling all kinds of things (magic shop, imports, lefty store, etc.), plus a somewhat-open marketplace with 3 fish/seafood stalls (one of which actually throws fish and is a lot of fun to watch), several produce stalls (I wept at the prices of cheap, good produce), about 10 flower stalls (the later in the day you go, the cheaper the bouquets, and by 4 PM you can get gigantic bouquets for like $5), stalls selling honey and jams and arts and crafts. Across from the main building are lots of little shops selling food (Greek, Italian, pastries, Chinese, flavored oils, etc.). We walked up into an alley just off the market and found a great little restaurant selling breakfast sandwiches on focaccia bread (and they also sell lunch) for a lot less than any of the restaurants in the main market building. The original Starbucks is also in that across-the-way area. I’m sure there are a lot of things that I didn’t see, even having gone there at least 5 times while I was in Seattle. There’s a good Irish pub called Kell’s in Post Alley just off the market; the food and service are both good and it didn’t seem terribly Oirish. From the market you can walk down a whole lot of stairs and end up down on the waterfront. * Pioneer Square – You can take an underground tour of downtown Seattle starting here. Apparently after a fire this part of the city was rebuilt one story up and you can still see the old storefronts underneath the street in this area. We didn’t take the tour; maybe next time. There’s a great bookstore (Elliot Bay Book Company, I think) with a coffee shop downstairs. A fabulous toy store called Magic Mouse. The Owl and Thistle, an even better Irish Pub (though I didn’t eat any food there, so I can’t vouch for that). A restaurant called New Orleans that serves Cajun/Creole food and has live jazz and blues several nights a week. Plus, this area is just cool in general. I bet Wendles would like it. * Waterfront – Seattle Aquarium, lots of touristy shops and restaurants. There was a pirate store (Arrr!) and Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, “world famous,” that sells all the typical touristy stuff, plus they have two actual mummies (a mummified cowboy from 18something and a mummified Spanish lady). They’re kind of gross. They have a 6-legged fetal pig in a jar, shrunken heads, all kinds of stuff like that. You can also catch cruise ships or ferries from this area. * International district – Just south of downtown. All kinds of Asian food (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, etc.), plus this gigantic awesome store called Uwajimaya that sells tons of fresh produce, including lots of fresh Asian vegetables, plus Asian food imports and Chinatown-type knickknacks and Asian beauty products. They have a whole aisle just for different types of noodles, for instance. Well worth a visit. Seattle Center – Seattle center, walkable from downtown, has the Space Needle, a carnival, the Pacific Science Center, and the Experience Music Project (EMP). Inside the EMP is the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and Museum. We walked over here just to go to the Sci-Fi Hall of Fame/Museum and it was definitely worthwhile for any sci-fi fan. Plus, it was after 4 PM so we got reduced admission. I think they’re closed Mondays so check to make sure about times they’re open before you go. We didn’t go into the EMP; maybe next time! One thing we noticed about the Seattle Center is that it’s not really well-marked, so ask someone at the Science Center kiosk for a map. Queen Anne I bet Maddy could talk a lot more about this area than I could. I only saw it at night when we had a drink at a nice little place here. It’s near the Seattle Center. Fremont Hulk and I both really liked this neighborhood. It’s artsy (there are at least 4 examples of outdoor public art), lots of galleries and restaurants and mixed living/commercial space. We walked around and found the Troll under the bridge (it’s holding a VW Bug), saw the statue of Lenin, the oft-decorated People Waiting for a Bus, and the Rocket Ship. Apparently, Fremont is the Center of the Universe (there are signs saying “Welcome to the Center of the Universe”  . There’s a directional sign in the main intersection with signs pointing to various points of interest, including Wall Drug. That cracked me up. Parking is easy during the day but not as easy as night. There’s a great inexpensive sushi restaurant here called Blue C Sushi that Maddy recommended. We second the recommendation. There’s a great used bookstore called Ophelia’s with two kitties and three floors of books.Capitol Hill You really have to drive to get to Capitol Hill. It’s the gay-friendly area of town and has a strip with stores and restaurants, but a lot of residential space as well. We found another great used bookstore (with two hugely fat kitties and three normal-sized ones). We were there on a Sunday during the farmer’s market time, so parking wasn’t super easy, but I bet at other times it would be. Ferries If you park somewhere else and walk on, you can get on a ferry to Bainbridge Island (across the Sound) for $6.10 for roundtrip (and I think it’s cheaper during non-tourist-season). It’s way cheaper than the cruise ships and you get to tool around on Bainbridge ‘til you want to go back. Seagulls followed the ferries; the water was gorgeous; we picked a great day to go because it wasn’t cloudy or rainy. We got a fantastic view of the city both leaving and returning. One thing we noticed about the skyline from this view was how round it is; there are lots of rounded buildings, domes, and curvy angles. Very cool view of the city. Also, if you stand on the upper deck of the ferry right at the front, there’s no wind and you kind of feel like you’re flying. Bainbridge Island I was reminded of Salem, Mass. The light was very much affected by the amount of water, plus the leaves were turning and the part of the island near the ferry terminal is a small town called Winslow. There are more little shops and restaurants, a walking trail, and a place where you can go down to the beach and skip rocks. I found a really cool rock here. Wild blackberries grow everywhere. The island has some interesting history and is actually pretty big. I think if we were to go again we’d rent bikes and bike around so we could see more than just that one little town. The owner of the wine shop is very helpful, though very talkative. Other things about Seattle: *“Go toward the water” is not a very good or helpful direction, as there’s the sound, plus a canal and lake coming up into town. *Drivers there are super aggressive, tend to pull out really far when waiting or trying to turn, and regularly run red lights. Maybe red lights here are suggestions, rather than hard-and-fast. They don’t really watch for pedestrians. *Signage is nearly nonexistent and what is there is hard to see, particularly in the dark, particularly when it’s raining, particularly when you’re looking for a particular restaurant using a really crappy map. Make sure you have a good map if you’re going to be driving around and be prepared to turn around several times before you actually get where you’re going. There are also a lot of one-way streets and a lot of no left turns when you want to turn left. * If you’re from a landlocked state, eat as much seafood and sushi as possible. You won’t find it better than this. Any questions? I’m sure Hulk will be along sometime to add to this. |
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mle
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Seattle - Trip report
replied on: 10/5/2005 2:19:22 PM Forgot some stuff under the heading of Bathrooms. Bathrooms You can't find a public bathroom anywhere in Capitol Hill, not even in the grocery store. You have to be a customer of whatever restaurant in order to use the bathroom. No public bathroom at all in the bookstore we browsed. There are public bathrooms in the Pike Place Market, surprisingly clean yet kind of strange. The doors on the stalls are super short so anyone walking by can see right in and watch you pee. It's just big enough to cover a person sitting on the toilet (so you can't see out when you're sitting), but when you're walking through you have to kind of avert your eyes so as not to have to watch other people. I thought that was weird. |
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Madchen
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Seattle - Trip report
replied on: 10/5/2005 8:10:23 PM Great report, mle. 
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Greatblu
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Seattle - Trip report
replied on: 10/12/2005 12:30:32 PM Good report. I love Seattle. We used to live on the Navy base in Bremerton or Bangor. We always took the ferry across. The prices of the ferries have sure gone up in price! |
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uktrail
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Seattle - Trip report
replied on: 10/12/2005 12:46:37 PM Very intersting Mle. Brings back memories. We lived in Seattle for 2 years in the 80s. We had a car and it was very useful, but we hardly ever used it to go Downtown. The buses and trolley-buses were excellent and fairly cheap. |
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