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17/11/2016 0 Comments Long weekend in seattle
Can you believe I had never been to Seattle before? I also never thought I would go to Seattle, because I thought there was nothing there that would be worth a $600 flight from Quebec. Well I was wrong! Not only was it worth the visit, but a 4 day weekend was NOT long enough!
The view from Kerry park
Day 1 On the ferry to Port Angeles
The drive from Comox to Seattle is quite long, especially when you don’t make a reservation for the 10:30 AM ferry and you have to wait for the 4 PM one! It did give us a chance to have a bite to eat and visit Victoria for a couple of hours. Apparently, you have to be at the ferry terminal 90 minutes before departure just for customs, which by the way take about 5 minutes. We got to our motel at SeaTac at about 8:30, just in time to have something to eat and go to bed to be up early in the morning.
Day 2
We had researched the popular attractions in Seattle before our trip, but we probably should have researched parking spots, traffic, buses and other things that are useful when you visit a city for the first time. We paid so much in parking the first day because we had no idea that some parking spaces are more expensive then others or are only for limited amounts of time. We should have known, but when you are not used to paying for parking, it comes as quite a surprise. In the morning, we visited Pike Place Market, which is a huge public market with restaurants, fresh produce and tourist shops. It is two levels high and goes on forever. I would love to live close to a market like this and go for a walk to get fresh fruits and veggies everyday. After visiting the market, we walked in the streets of Downtown Seattle, looking at the shops and enjoying the decorations. The weather was awful. We had to stop walking at some points as the wind was pushing us sideways or we could not walk forward, but the good thing is, it pushed all the angry clouds away and we got a sunny afternoon.
In the afternoon, we visited Kerry park, a little neighbourhood park in the best location. It is on the north side of the city and so high up a hill that you get a view of the whole city and the bay. You can also see Mount Rainier on a clear day, but it was too cloudy still for us to see it. After looking at the city for a while, we made our way to the Space Needle! It was the only thing I knew about Seattle before I started to research its attractions. We bought our tickets for the earliest time available, 5:30, and took the time to have dinner and explore the area for other attractions and cute souvenir shops. We did a tour on the monorail and shopped at the mall for a while. We also had the chance to see an anti-Trump rally in front of the Space Needle. I think I forgot the mention this was the first weekend after the election and the state of Washington voted for Clinton so this was to be expected. When we finally went up the Space Needle, it was dark out, but the lights of the city were quite a sight from up there. I loved that they had signs explaining the history of the Seattle World Fair and the construction of the Space Needle while we waited for the elevator. It is very impressive that they managed to build such a high tower with the technologies they had at the time. It definitely ended our day on high note (literally).
Day 3
Our third day started with of few hits on the snooze button. We had walked so much on the last day that we were both exhausted, but we had the EMP the visit and a big wheel to go on. We made a stop at Starbucks for breakfast and made it to the EMP pretty early. For those who have no idea what the EMP is, it is a museum about science-fiction, rock n’ roll and pop culture. There is an exposition on Nirvana, Hendrix, video games, fantasy, wearable art and pop music. My favourite was without a doubt the one on fantasy. Everyone who knows me knows that I love reading, and seeing all these props and pictures of my favourite stories was incredible. We spent at least 5 hours reading all the boards, looking at the different exhibits and even trying our hand at a few instruments (spoiler: I can’t play music to save my life).
When we finally got to the end of our last exhibit, it was late afternoon. We went shopping for a while and then drove to the pier to spend the night. We had fish and chips at a restaurant on the pier (the name escapes me at the moment) and then rode the big wheel. It’s kind of weird that we chose to do both the big wheel and the Space Needle at night since the view is limited to the city lights, but it was still worth it. After all this fun it was time go back to our hotel and get ready to leave the city in the morning.
Wearable Art exposition at the EMP
Day 4
The last day is never very interesting. The ferry was at 2 PM and we had reservations for that one! We left early to drive to Port Angeles, where the ferry terminal is. For those of you who were big fans of Twilight, you might remember the name as that was the city where Bella, Jessica and Angela go to buy dresses in the first movie, but Bella ends up on a date with Edward at an Italian restaurant. I am not a big Twilight fan and the city meant nothing to me, but my friend Amy who was traveling with me really enjoyed the few hours that we got to walk around the city and see the Twilight sights. After the hour and a half ferry ride, we got stuck in traffic in Victoria and had to rush back to Comox so Amy could catch her ferry back to Powell River.
Now that I am back at work, everyone is asking me if I went to the first Starbuck (which was apparently in Seattle) and did the tour under the city (which I had no idea we could do). This really teaches me a lesson: you should always research a city thoroughly before going or else you miss some exciting attractions! More articles that might interest you
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