Sunday, August 16, 2015

The Seattle Tattle

In May, Tony and I took a getaway trip to Seattle and loved it! We stayed for about a week and did a lot of exploring and relaxing. We would set a sightseeing goal for the day and then be free with our schedule for the rest of the day. It was very restful and fun. 

I wanted to put up some pictures form the trip and give some tips and advice if you ever vacation to Seattle. I will say that expectations can destroy enjoying a trip sometimes so I had to let go of any vision or idea I had of the trip. Not everything goes perfectly all the time. For example, you may go to a restaurant and not like the food as much as you had hoped or try an activity and find you are disappointed in how it turned out. And that's okay. Because vacation is about spending time with the people you love. And this we did very well. :)


We stayed at the Cedarbrook Lodge in Seattle. It is right near the airport. It was AMAZING. We were able to get a military discount which helped with our cost for the week. It has a hot tub, a restaurant that focuses on farm to table specialities, an incredible complimentary breakfast with fresh fruit and new pastries every day, and a spa where we were able to get massages. I highly recommend the Cedarbrook. We throughly loved our stay.




This was the relaxation room in the spa. 


Of course we had to go to the Pike Place Market. Such a fun spot to walk around and see the fresh fish and flowers and vendors. 


Exploring the City



Pike Place Market





There is a place called the "Gum Wall" where an entire alleyway wall is covered with gum of those who have visited there. Of course I had to give it a try...



We tried the Pike Seattle Brewing Company Restaurant right above the market. We enjoyed the sampler tastings and also ordered dinner. The food was mediocre but we enjoyed the beer.


One of our favorite finds was the Italian Family Pizza restaurant just down the road from the Pike Place Market. The address is 1206 1st Ave, Seattle, WA, 98101. 

We have tried a lot of pizza and like it a specific way... this place was awesome. The crust was thin and just right, very flavorful pizza. If you sit outside, you can people watch and hear the busyness of the city. We enjoyed this place and the food!


Top Pot Doughnuts... if you haven't tried this place in Seattle you have to give it a go! The doughnuts and coffee were stellar.



I loved the atmosphere of this place too. 





We had to visit the famous landmark: Seattle Space Needle. The view did not disappoint. Very expensive entrance fee though even with a discount and it gets even pricier if you want to try it at sunrise or sunset. There are some packages you can get if you want to try the Space Needle, Pacific Science Center, or Chihuly Glass Museum. You can save money by buying the tickets together (we did not do this but it seemed like a good idea if you had a family with you). 



We did go to the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum that is located right next to the Space Needle. We chose to try it because we looked at places to visit and it was one of the most top rated and most visited sites. Looking back, I wish we would have spent our money on something else. It was very beautiful, but the tickets were very expensive, the exhibits were pretty small in number, and the activity as a whole was not very engaging and enjoyable for us. I think I would have rather tried the Museum of Flight or Seattle Aquarium. But there is always next time! (We enjoyed it so much we definitely want to visit Seattle again)

Just being honest here: they allow pictures in this museum so if you really want to, you could see pictures of every exhibit. Why pay $26.00 per ticket when you can see all the exhibits by not paying that much? Just keeping it real here.




But this flower exhibit was pretty amazing. There is an entire garden of glass flowers that is pretty breathtaking.


Pictures from the top of the Space Needle






We also explored Seattle Chinatown and International District. We enjoyed walking around in the area.


King Street Station




This is Pioneer Square.. an area with Renaissance architecture. Beautiful. We didn't get to try this but the area features First Thursday art walks, night life, and lunch spots. 




Hot Tub at the Cedarbrook... we loved exploring and then coming back to relax. We loved Seattle because it was full of life and action and lots to do. 


We had to go to a Mariners game. One of our favorite nights! It turned out to be 90s night and there were also fireworks at the end. We loved it!





The sunset was amazing.


Fireworks Night





The Cedarbrook 


One of our favorite things we tried was a food and drink tour that started at the Pike Place Market called the Booze N Bites Tour. It was a walking tour where we went to four or five restaurants or bars and tried a drink and an appetizer or part of an entree. We loved this so much! We had a lot of fun getting to know others who were touring the city and we got to experience a wide variety of foods. It also helped us get to know the area better and the restaurants we really enjoyed we got to go back and try again. I highly recommend it! There are other tours you can try as well including Chocolate Only, a walking tour of Pike Place Market, and Gourmet Food only. We wished we would have known about this tour earlier because we tried it on one of our last nights but you receive a card that allows you to get 10-15% certain vendors. I also recommend a water bottle and don't feel like you need to eat and drink every tasting... just enjoy the tastes!

The picture above was from our first stop which was a wine tasting at The Lost River Winery.



The next stop of our tour was at Cantina de San Patricio, a Mexican place we loved. We tried the tacos and margaritas... we loved it so much we went back later!



This was another stop at a Vietnamese Restaurant called the Long Provincial. We enjoyed this one too! It was fun to try different kinds of foods.


We enjoyed the food and drinks at the Can Can also. This was probably my favorite cocktail I tried.


The Can Can


The Cupcake Royale in Seattle... honest thoughts for ya: cupcakes were a little dry but the buttercream frosting was very well done and there a lot of flavors to choose from. 


When on vacation, go all out. Enjoy vacation!!


Tony wanted to try The Whiskey Bar in Seattle which features a huge variety of whiskeys. A good stop!



Back at the Cantina de San Patricio


Seattle, we love you!


"A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in." Robert Orben

Pin It

No comments:

Post a Comment