Days Ten, Eleven and Twelve Seattle
On our last morning in SF we had a tasty breakfast at the patisserie wed spotted the night before, I had a chocolate croissant and coffee, which was the perfect start to the day.
After breakfast we drove to the airport to drop off our much loved rental car and catch our flight to Seattle. We had originally considered driving, but it would have added at least 2 days to our trip, whereas its a short flight, and was probably cheaper to fly in the end as well..
By the end of our trip we became old hands at the US domestic airport security routine, but found it a bit confusing this first time (taking our shoes, scarves and belts off etc.). We had an uneventful flight and landed in Seattle around mid-afternoon.
Our hotel in Seattle was in the historic Pioneer Square district and we were fortunate enough to have our hotel room upgraded to a pretty big suite.
We walked everywhere in Seattle, which worked out well for us, but those not so enthusiastic about long walks might want to look at other options, because it ended up being quite a long way to the Space Needle for example. We bought our first City Pass in Seattle (book of tickets to several local attractions at a discount price). We didnt end up making it to the zoo, but we still saved overall, and it was great not having to line up everywhere.
We experienced the stereotypical Seattle weather during our stay and it was overcast the whole time, as below:
It didnt rain as heavily as we were expecting though and we rarely got too wet when we were out walking, but we did take an umbrella everywhere. I dont remember it being freezing cold, probably because of the cloud cover, although I did wear my down jacket most of the time we were outdoors.
We took it pretty easy on our first evening; we had a wander around the Pioneer Square district, which has some really lovely shops and restaurants. We also discovered the underground city. In the 1800s a fire destroyed a large part of the city, and the new city was rebuilt above the old one, so there are lots of cool tunnels to explore now. If we go back to Seattle I would love to do a tour and explore more. We had sandwiches at a place called Jimmy Johns for dinner, which we chose because it smelt so good from the street. These sandwiches were so tasty; I think it was my first proper hot sandwich. I usually hate mayonnaise but it tasted so good from here! After dinner we tried to do some washing in our hotel bathtub, which was a bit of a disaster, and then had an early night.
The next morning after a nice breakfast which was included with our accommodation (including Belgian waffles mmm!) we decided to start using our City Pass vouchers and head over to the Space Needle area. Along the way we walked past the famous Pike Place markets. I was very disappointed that the famous fish throwing stall was closed but seeing the first Starbucks store (I love my coffee!) made up for this! We didnt spend too long here as we knew wed be back.
Once we reached our destination we used our first voucher to visit the EMP (Experience Music Project) which is a rock and roll museum. Its worth a visit to check out the building alone!
The museum was really cool; there were lots of interactive exhibitions and a special Jimi Hendrix exhibit. You could easily spend a full day here. Attached to the EMP is the Science Fiction Museum (entry includes both museums), which I was super excited about being a massive sci-fi fan, although it was a bit smaller than I had hoped. They had a special Battlestar Gallactica exhibit when we were there and I think I squealed out loud with excitement when I realised this. It was also very exciting to see the bridge of the original Enterprise from Star Trek, R2D2 and one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There was a great gift shop outside the sci-fi museum too with some pretty hard to find collectibles, particularly from shows that have now finished.
After the museums we used our next voucher to take a trip up the famous, and beautiful, Space Needle! Our voucher was for 2 visits in 24 hours (one during the day and one at night). We spent quite a while on the observation deck enjoying the view, and really loved learning about the history of the Space Needle.
The next voucher to be used was at the Pacific Science Centre (the museums, space needle and science centre are all next to each other and part of the Seattle Centre). The science centre has lots of hands on things to do and was really fun. They had lots of different exhibits including space, the human body, measurement, water and a butterfly house. The City Pass voucher also includes an IMAX movie.
However all of this was overshadowed when we realised there was a special (for an additional fee) exhibit; Harry Potter! We are massive Harry Potter fans so had to buy tickets for this. The exhibit was really well themed with lots of props, costumes etc. from the movies. They admitted small groups at a time and we were sorted with the sorting hat before we were allowed in. Unfortunately we werent allowed to take photos inside so youll have to take my word that it was great!
After we left the Science Centre it was well past lunch time and we felt like some fresh air, so we grabbed some food (I cant remember where though?) and then just had a wander around, checked out a few shops etc. We basically wanted to pass the time until sun set as we needed to use our second Space Needle voucher, and didnt want to walk all the way back and forth to our hotel again! We came across a really lovely courtyard garden with a waterfall along the way.
Eventually we headed back to the Space Needle for our second night-time trip. It was a clear night so we had a great view of the lights of Seattle. We were lucky enough to score a table next to the window, and enjoyed a few drinks (there is a bar up there) while watching the view at sunset and then the city lights.
We had initially planned to eat in a restaurant tonight, particularly to try some of the famous Pacific Northwest seafood, but we were just too tired after such a full day, and still had a long walk ahead of us back to the hotel. So we ended up getting hot sandwiches again, which we took back to the hotel, and had another early night.
Continued next post
I must say those fireworks looked awesome
You'll see how big the elephant seals really are in my next post because there's a picture of me standing next to a statue of one. I can't believe idiotic people approach them in the wild (sadly we saw it happen, which is just stupid when you consider how good the view is from the safety of the lookout) they are massive and could probably do a bit of damage!).
I did the same thing with emails to family and it's great now I can look back and remember all the little details I would have otherwise forgotten.
(unless I come across a day that I forgot what we did!)
And I thought $30 at Harry Potter World was a little steep! (Now I'm glad DH decided to ignore me and bought 2 different wands home!)
