The First 24 Hours in Seattle

We went to Washington State a couple weeks ago, a trip to celebrate our upcoming silver wedding anniversary. Our time there was stellar, with busy bucket-listing in Seattle and serene unwinding in a little coastal town.

Wanna go with me on a 24-hour whirlwind tour of Seattle? Maybe just a little more than that; we'll cover our first evening and the next full day.

2 pm - land at SeaTac airport

I saw lots of familiar styles of luggage at this baggage-claim display. So now my old suitcases are art.

3 pm - light rail into downtown

4 pm - steep hilly streets that rival San Francisco, at least the first few blocks up from the water

We took in the waterfront views, browsed some shops, including Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe, and reveled in the knowledge that we are on vacation! (This doesn't happen every single year, ya know.)

6 pm - Decided to have our "anniversary dinner" at Ivar's Restaurant. Waterfront view, yummy food (their famous "acres of clams" for Richard and surf and turf for me), and again, amazed to be on vacation. It's really here.

7 pm - Half price harbor cruise; a deal-seeker like me jumped on that one! We were very glad we hadn't taken the full-price event before dinner. 

All of this, on our travel day. We were so exhausted, we took a taxi the 10 blocks (uphill!) to our condominium. Check out this cute place:

We were on the seventh floor of a high-rise condo. After coming down the long hallway in the building, we came into this private hall with the map and artwork on the walls and laundry closet on the left.

The unique layout gave us access to our bedroom (on the right) and bath (on the left) with the owner's entrance to her full apartment through the door to the left of the light. 

Our cozy (definition: small) space provided a perfect place to land each evening after seeing the sights. What it lacked was a lounge spot to spend time talking, playing games, or snacking. So we just did all of our activities away from our condo and enjoyed our evening and morning times here in this pretty location.

Our kitchen closet - literally! -- the clothes closet is directly to the right

Our little morning coffee bar

Rooftop view

Waking our first day in Seattle, we had big plans: much to see! We had fruit and muffins at our condo and started off by renting Pronto bikes and we rode to Pike Place Market.

9:00 am - toured the fish, flowers, and fruit, all in abundance

10:00 am - joined a Shutter van tour, which was one of the best things we indulged in during this trip. During the next four hours, we were escorted to several places we had heard about and wanted to see, but we wouldn't have had any idea how to get it all done.

11:00 am - Snoqualmie Falls

12:00 pm - Fremont Bridge Troll

12:30 pm - Ballard Locks and Fish Ladder

Here, there is a line of boats off to the right, in water that is rapidly draining in order to lower them 26 feet so they can pass through from the Puget Sound to Lake Washington

Endless salmon swimming upstream, seeking fresh water to spawn

1:30 pm - Kerry Park for some of the best views of Seattle's distinctive skyline

2:30 pm - Our first "real" meal of the day, we fueled up on carbs and fat at Cafe Lieto for amazing smothered biscuits. Oh, my!

Please pay no attention to the crude sign. These are known as the "Biscuit B----"

By now, it was close to 4 pm and we were feeling like we had experienced a full day, but we still had places to go. We checked out our bikes again and rode to Pioneer Square, taking in the Beneath the Streets underground tour.

This is a glass skylight that provided sunshine into the storefronts that still operated for years after the city was rebuilt one level higher. This fixed sewage problems but created access problems until the sidewalks and streets were all completed and the previous second floor of each building became the normal street level. 

And then we were hot and exhausted! Our first 24 hours in Seattle, and we saw so much. We continued on and got refreshed at The Crab Pot by sharing an appetizer (the best crab cakes ever) and getting hydrated.

7:00 pm - Biking again, we rode through Olympic Sculpture Park and up to the Space Needle.

8:00 pm - Rode the monorail back to Westport Center and made another uphill ascent to our condo. Day is done!