A Few Short Days in Seattle

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“ex-Marine” (husband, Steve) and I love to travel but, somehow, had never visited Seattle. Saw a good e-fare from Chicago and hopped on it for a long weekend. It is important to maximize my travel budget and finding inexpensive air was the first step. The next decision was what else could we possibly skimp on.

Hotel? A luxury or moderate hotel would have been nice but I was looking for “cheap” and found it with the Moore Hotel at $69.00/night for a double. (It’s almost impossible to find anything for less than that.) From the outside, the Moore looked like a skid-row flophouse and “ex-Marine” gave me some very nasty looks as we pulled up. It is old, the rooms are less than spacious, there is no ambiance, but…location, location, location! Only three blocks from the vibrant waterfront. It was clean and, astonishingly, every room was full. Lots of Europeans and other cost-conscious travelers like us had found the Moore. A room is the easiest part of a vacation to economize on. After all, you are planning to spend your days outside sightseeing.

We found an infinite amount of information on Seattle from the Seattle Tourist Bureau. A great site that will tell you everything you want to know about Seattle including links to transport from Sea-Tac Airport.

Three beautiful, sunny days in Seattle (brought an umbrella with in anticipation of rain) were spent by: taking the ferry over to Bainbridge Island; walking along the beautiful waterfront; wandering around Pike Place Market (it covers nine acres!) and drooling over all the delicious food being sold; heading over to Union Lake where Tom Hank’s houseboat was in “Sleepless in Seattle”; moseying through REI’s flagship store with one of the tallest freestanding climbing walls in the world; and eyeballing the mansions in Queen Anne and Capital Hill (14th Avenue was Millionaires’ Row). No museums…the weather was too nice to stay inside….

And, eating! Whether it was a fast sandwich on the waterfront or a more upscale dinner in a restaurant (always in casual clothes), it came as no surprise how uniformly excellent the food was. Wonderful dinners at Etta’s, Bell Street Diner and Pike Place Market.

Three days just whetted our appetite for more Seattle. Next time, I’d like to take the Boeing tour, do a little hiking in the Cascades (a snowy backdrop during our stay), and ferry over to Victoria or Vancouver. Actually, two weeks in the Seattle area would be perfect but a long weekend was still fun and enjoyable!