Foo - Going to Seattle this weekend with Wife. Looking for things to do

My wife is in Seattle on business and I'm going to join her for the weekend. We've both never been there before. What should we do? (We're from the mid-west currently living on the East Coast if that matters.) She's not into biking. Any ideas/suggestions would be great. Apparently, our hotel is downtown. So far Pike's Market and the Space Needle look interesting. Also the underground tours sound neat. Any other ideas? Thanks so much.

we'll only be walking around/taking public transit if that makes a difference.

Try and get a reservation for a view table here: http://www.maximilienrestaurant.com/

The Underground Tour is pretty fun, if a little hokey. If you like music you can check out the Experience Music Project (http://www.empsfm.org/). If you get a chance, you should eat at Ivar's Salmon House - it's been a while so I can't remember if you can get there by public transit, but if you like seafood it may be worth the trip.

"The Pike Place Market." Locals usually just call it "the market." "Pike's Market" (the term) is strictly reserved for tourist use. It is located on Pike Place @ First Ave. and Pike St. Excellent attraction. Get a curry beef hombow (hom+bow [as in bow of a boat]) at Mee Sum Pastry on Pike Place. Put some soy sauce and a little hot oil in it. To die for.

Pike is not an owner, it's a location. Pike Street is named after a man named Pike. The market is located on Pike Place. Ex cabby here (Broadway Cab Co.) I lived in Seattle and played music there for twenty years between '81 and '01.

Here's their page. (http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/frameset.asp?flash=true)

You have to go to the Space Needle and Pike. As previously stated, the Underground Tour and EMP are cool. Lunch at Salumi is worth the wait. My friends took me to see the locks (I think in Ballard), which was cooler than it sounds. I usually take a trip out to the Redhook Brewery in Woodenville. There is a winery next to the brewery, if that is your thing.

Go check out the SAM's Olympic Park. Seattlites hate it but it's pretty cool. Lot's of really amazing art.

Thanks for the advice all. Now I just need to figure out how to fit it into 2 days...

Spend a little time in the Fremont district, too. Back in the '60's it was wall-to-wall hippies. It's just across the ship canal, slightly north of downtown.

sounds like there really isn't anything to do in Seattle.

I usually take a trip out to the Redhook Brewery in Woodenville. There is a winery next to the brewery, if that is your thing.

With a solid beer option and several win options, that's not a bad neighborhood to spend a half to whole day in.

You can take a ferry from downtown to Bainbridge or Vashon Islands. I haven't actually done that yet in the short time I've lived in the Seattle area, so I don't know what there is to explore out there, but I gather they get a decent number of weekend riders.

If you and the wife are into technology stuff, I can definitely recommend either Boeing Museum of Flight south of downtown, or a tour of Boeing's jumbo jet factory (unfortunately, 45 minutes north of Seattle in Everett).


Don't worry about seeing everything in two days. Take it easy and enjoy yourself. If you really think you missed something then it's all the more reason to take a longer vacation sometime.

sounds like there really isn't anything to do in Seattle.

It's a little slower with the Lusty Lady closing (http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_lusty_lady.html)and all

Don't get caught in the rain!!! Bring a umbrella!

If I had the weekend free, I'd hit up the Ballard Jazz Fest (http://www.ballardjazzfestival.com/). And a buncha other stuff, too. There's always something to do in Seattle!

One of my favorite bands, Girl Trouble (http://www.myspace.com/girltrouble) is playing the Biff Bang Pow film and music festival Saturday night.

It's a little slower with the Lusty Lady closing (http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_lusty_lady.html)and all
Strip joint connoisseurs go to Portland for that kind of entertainment; the ones in Washington state are lame with a capital L!

1. While you're visiting Pike Place Market, you MUST visit Elliot Bay Cycles -- vintage bikes, and home of Davidson Handbuilt Bicycles.
2. Take the ferry over to Bainbridge Island. Great, cheap way to see views of Seattle from the bay. Once you get to Bainbridge, walk up the hill to the main drag and you'll run into Classic Cycles. They, too, have a vintage bike museum inside. See the bikes, then stop in Blackbird Bakery (about 3 blocks away) for a bite. Then walk back to ferry for return to Seattle.
3. International District/Chinatown - have a dim sum lunch. Visit Uwajimaya Japanese grocery; get Japanese candy for the folks back home.
4. Ballard - see the Chittenden Locks.
5. While downtown, go to Westlake Center, ride the streetcar to the Wooden Boat Center on Lake Union. Nice place to poke around.
6. If you're into music, definitely visit EMP (Experience Music Project). Pricey, but fun.

Skip the Space Needle. Trust me on this.

Don't get caught in the rain!!! Bring a umbrella!

Do NOT bring an umbrella. Only tourists use umbrellas in Seattle.

Weather forecast:


Saturday: A 50 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 55. South southwest wind between 15 and 21 mph.

Saturday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers before 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 44. Southwest wind between 8 and 13 mph.

Sunday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 60.

Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 47.

so what do locals do? just htfu and get wet?

so what do locals do? just htfu and get wet?
This.

http://www.ozarkextreme.com/thenorthface_venturejk_h500.jpg

Going to Seattle this weekend with Wife. Looking for things to do


the wife.

1. While you're visiting Pike Place Market, you MUST visit Elliot Bay Cycles -- vintage bikes, and home of Davidson Handbuilt Bicycles.

+1

This.

http://www.ozarkextreme.com/thenorthface_venturejk_h500.jpgThat's sort of the plan. My umbrella doesn't travel, so I raided my panniers for my cycling rain jacket and rain pants. So, if you happen to be downtown and see a lost looking big tourist in a high vis jacket and a camera around his neck, take pity on me...

so what do locals do? just htfu and get wet?

They wait for the non-tourist season, then head for Alaskan Way and fish & chips.

I like to hit up the library whenever I'm in Seattle. It's an amazing building.

If you or the wife are into science fiction, Paul Allen's science fiction museum is right next to the EMP, and you can get a joint ticket that gets you into both. The flagship REI store is within walking distance of downtown.

If the weather's nice and you like the water, kayak or sailboat rental on Lake Union is a nice way to spend the day.

What ever you do make sure it's in Flannel.

Oh whoops, I forgot to pack any flannel. :roflmao2: I'm sure they must sell some out there, right?:p

Also, know that Seattleites would rather die before being seen with an umbrella. ;)

Bruce Lee's grave is in the Lakeview Cemetery, about 2 miles outside of downtown.

Supposed to have some great strip bars. Oh wait. That's Vancouver.

so what do locals do? just htfu and get wet?

Pretty much. The no-umbrella thing is a holdover from the days when everybody wore hats, I'm told by people who were old enough to remember when everybody wore hats.

If the weather's nice and you like the water, kayak or sailboat rental on Lake Union is a nice way to spend the day.

AguaVerde (http://www.aguaverde.com/)has the best fish tacos ever (and rents kayaks):

so what do locals do? just htfu and get wet?

Fenders. Booties. Helmet. Not just for cycling any more.

Bruce Lee's grave is in the Lakeview Cemetery, about 2 miles outside of downtown.

Jimi Hendrix's grave is in Renton, about 10 miles outside of downtown*


*not worth the trip.

so what do locals do? just htfu and get wet?

What do we do about what?

Oh...were you talking about rain? I hadn't really thought about it.

I've never been there (yet), but the two sets of friends who went there on vacations ended up moving there they liked it so much.

This.

http://www.ozarkextreme.com/thenorthface_venturejk_h500.jpg

We call this a "Seattle Tuxedo": the ubiquitous GoreTex parka.

read this: Seattlest (http://seattlest.com/) lots of options are cataloged there.
go visit the Market (the first starbucks, beecher's cheese shop, men throwing fish, other stuff), the EMP & the Science museum are good, the Ballard Jazz festival is this weekend (and ballard is a great walkable neighborhood)
Swing through Fremont, but it is more hit-or-miss. (I live between fremont & ballard)
Eat great Thai food, read Yelp.com for suggestions about anything you might want to do, eat at the best food cart in the US (http://www.marinationmobile.com/), take the water-taxi from downtown across the harbour to Alki beach, walk about, take the water taxi back (amazing boat ride, super cheap).
Seattle is a laid-back town, get into it :)

Thanks all for all the ideas. Here's what we ended up doing. First we hit a Starbucks for breakfast (neither of us drink coffee, but how could we go to Seattle without stopping by?), then went to Pike Place Market for some shopping. Got some pastries at Piroshky, Piroshky, then on to the Space Needle. After lunch, we went on to the Experience Music Project and the Sci Fi Museum. Then we did the Underground Tour and had some pretty good Indian for dinner. The next day, we stopped by the Wooden Boat Center to sign up for the free sailing trip, then went to the international district to look around and have dimsum for lunch, then stopped by the Seattle glassblowing studio, and then went for our sailboat ride. We then went back down to take a ferry (yep, there must have been a more efficient way to do it than we did with all our going back and forth over the place) over to Bainbridge Island to look around and have dinner and stuff. Oh and I got to see the really cool main library on the way back.

Overall, it was a really fun trip and, while there was a lot I would have liked to have seen (including the Freemont Troll and apparently there was a Trapeze class that would have been awesome), I got to see a lot thanks to all your suggestions, so thanks to everyone. Probably the one downside, other than the scary hotel, was all the people I saw riding on the sidewalks (including a couple of guys in full lycra on CF bikes - what's up with that?) just as I'm trying to convince my wife that the only place to ride is the road.

Glad to hear you had a good time. About the only thing you didn't do that I would have recommended is a visit to the Smith Tower - almost as tall as the Space Needle, much cheaper, and historically very interesting. I'm sure it was pointed out to you as you were on the Underground Tour.

And you're right about the cyclists on the sidewalk. It's annoying. I especially hate it when the bike cops and Metropolitan Improvement District rent-a-cops do it.

What "scary hotel" did you stay at?

Yeah, they did point out the Smith Tower and mentioned how it was cheaper to go up in (that tour was a lot of fun by the way, but all the modern junk down there was annoying), but as we'd already hit the Space Needle and got some good views of the city the next day from the ferry, it seemed like a bit overkill to hit that tower too.

I'm not sure how much of my negative experience with the hotel was due to the fact that the first night I spent in the very swanky hotel my wife had been staying in for the conference she was in town for before we had to downgrade to a hotel we could afford when it was on our dime for the last two nights. It was more dingy and shabby (rude employees who were never around when you needed them, lamps missing bulbs, threadbare carpet and chairs, strange puddles on the bathroom floor that appeared overnight [seeping from the tub?], broken tv remote, stained bed all seemed less than the 2-star rating which it advertised) than outright scary. I have to say, though, that it was quite an experience the first morning at the continental breakfast when I saw the employee take the dirty plates and used plastic knives (from the common cream cheese tub) into the employee bathroom, rinse them off, blow his nose on the paper towel he used to dry them, and then put them back on the continental breakfast counter for other guests to use. Needless to say, we hit the Top Pot donuts the next morning rather than risk eating off dirty plates/knives again.

Unfortunately, the two hotels we stayed at (the one for my wife's conference that her work paid for and the downscale one we paid for) had very similar names and I'd hate to impugn the name of the wrong one. It's a shame that I can't remember which was which though, because the one my wife's work paid for was crazy nice. Sliding wooden doors next to the tub so you could open them and look across the room and out the great view from a bath if you so desired (I didn't).

the wife.

This.

The best part is you'd never have to leave the hotel room...though you may still get wet. :innocent:

.

glad to hear you had a good time, come back and bring a bike :-)
I'd throw a BF ride if anyone else comes to visit?

You know, I was remarking to my wife while I was there, that a rental bike (and specifically a guided bike tour) would be a great way to see your (or most any other) city.