One Day in Seattle, Washington

Welcome Back! I'm excited to share more about one of my favorite cities with you, Seattle, Washington. As I've mentioned in a previous post, it's a major port for Alaskan cruises, so it fits perfect for this month, National Plan a Cruise Month. This time, instead of sharing just highlights from my two trips there, I wanted to share my experience spending just one day in the city. My first trip to Seattle was only for a couple of days, and one of those was spent at Mt. Rainier, so I only had one day to see as much as I could of Seattle. I'd say I did a pretty good job of that! We might have ended up walking nearly 10 miles that day #notexaggerating but it was worth it! This was such an incredible city, and we had such a fun day!

If you'll recall my husband was at a 45 day training near Seattle, so that's how this whole trip came about. Aside from flight and car museums, he hadn't explored Seattle, much less the city center, at all. We started our day with about a 20 minute drive from Renton to Seattle. The drive was nice, and we had great views of the Boeing Plant & the Port of Seattle, which is pretty spectacular! I wasn't able to get pictures, but seeing all of the huge train cars coming off of ships filled with goods from all over the world was amazing and amazing to think about how many miles they'd traveled and how far they still had to go. The cars were loaded off of the ships, then onto trains, off to their next destination. Once we arrived to the downtown area, we parked, and found a Starbucks, of course, for breakfast.

We intended to go to Pike Place Market first, but we were drawn to the water. We landed at Pier 57, home of The Great Wheel. Nothing there was open yet, so we just enjoyed our coffee and taking in the sights. From there, we made our way up, heading towards the market.

We found ourselves at the disgustingly cool Gum Wall in Post Alley.

We didn't leave our mark, but since going, I've heard it's bad luck not to leave your own gum!

This alley way circles up and around right to the grand entrance of Pike Place Market.

This is one of THE most amazing places I've ever been! I LOVED everything about the market.

I took photos galore here, and will share more in a detailed post later. 

For now, when you gobe sure you check out Pike Place Fish Market (right under the neon sign in the photo), all of the amazing floral arrangements, the unusual fruits and vegetables, and the amazing bakeries with cookies as big as your face (located on the side of the street opposite the sign)!!

After the market, we headed back down to the waterfront. We hopped a ride around The Great Wheel, perfect for water views, and checked out the different restaurants and shops there.

It wasn't quite lunch time, so we went to the Seattle Aquarium, right next door, in the meantime.

This is such an amazing place!! There are tide pools made to look like real life, and you can actually touch the little creatures⌐starfish, sea cucumbers, sea anemones, and more, super cool!

We particularly enjoyed the seals, otters, and views from the back pier. 

About the time we finished up at the aquarium, we were ready for lunch.

We chose The Crab Pot at Pier 57, and it was delicious!!!

Lovely ordered The Alaskan Seafeast. I had the Wild Alaskan Salmon Filet.

Ummmm, can I fly there now just to eat that!!? It was THAT delicious!

After lunch, we headed to Pioneer Square. It seemed like a terribly long walk,

but in actuality it was less than a mile. Maybe it was because I was so full.

Anyway, the walk was worth it because we passed the most beautiful old buildings.

My favorites were the ones where ivies covered every inch, so dreamy!

Our destination was equally beautiful, with an ornate iron pergola (built in 1909),

intricate totem pole from Alaska, and cobblestone as far as the eye could see.

 I will say, this area as home to many panhandlers & homeless, so be prepared for that.

We weren't approached, but I want to make folks aware of the good & bad.

We hadn't planned on doing anything in this area,

but while we were there, we decided to do The Underground Tour.

The Underground came to be from a fire in the early 1900s, and it's so hard to even explain, but it's like a city under the city! This was COOL!!! I highly recommend this to anyone visiting.

You'll learn a lot of history about not only "The Underground," but the entire area. 

 

From our walking tour of The Underground, we headed back towards the market area.

This time going a few blocks further inland to Seattle Center to catch the Seattle Monorail.

This took us, round trip, to The Space Needle for less than 5 bucks each.

This was a great way to get to the Needle, and see come quick views of more of the city.

Once we departed the monorail, we spent sometime walking through the area around the Space Needle. There are some museums, Chihuly Glass Gardens
(which we visited on my second trip there, very cool), and some shopping.

We didn't go into any of the museums as we had dinner reservations,

 and wanted to make sure we had plenty of time for the Needle. 

We bought our tickets through the Space Needle App (rather than waiting in the long line), 

then we were able to get in line to go up soon after. We couldn't have picked a better day for this!

The views were AMAZING! We could even see Mt. Rainier,

a real treat from what I understand as the weather is usually dreary.

We spent quite a bit of time here, taking in the views and grabbing a snack.

The weather was chilly, but not unbearable so we had to pry ourselves away. 

We didn't notice it this time, but there is a neat computerized map inside at the top where you can enter where you are from, see people who have done the same from where you live,

and real life photos taken at the Needle. Very much worth checking out.

From the Needle, we headed back to catch the monorail. We walked back down to Pike Place Market to waste some time before our dinner reservation at 6pm. The market was still bustling even though many of the shops had already closed, but it was great to see more

and spend our time taking more photos. Our dinner reservations were at The Can Can Kitchen & Cabaret right by the market. It offers a burlesque style show along with dinner. We had SO much fun!

We laughed so much! I can't say the dinner was to-die-for, but the show made up for it!

(Be mindful this is burlesque style, so it is suitable for adults only.)

Our dinner & show ended around 8, still light out. We could have done more, like another trip to the Needle for night views, but we had to be up at 5am for a trip to Mt. Rainier. But as you can see, we accomplished SOO much in just one day! With all of these activities being very close to one another, you can easily see them all in one day. We even took our time, and didn't rush. So this is an easy "plan" anyone could do, even more so if you drove or took a taxi. I LOVED every bit of this day, and thoroughly enjoyed Seattle. I hope this "mini itinerary" helps you plan a trip, or helps you decide what to see before boarding a ship to Alaska! Feel free to comment with any questions, thoughts, and your tips for seeing Seattle. See you back soon!

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