Seattle, Washington
Part 1: Life in the City
Last Summer my husband and I traveled to Seattle, Washington to visit his parents over Fourth of July Week. You have to weigh the pros and cons of traveling during a Holiday. Flights are likely more expensive, roads and airports can be more crowded, but we get to use less “vacation days” when asking off work because our offices are already closed. Usually the need for using less vacation days wins out. We can take a 5 day vacation and only use 4 of our banked vacation days or, if traveling over a weekend, only use one or two vacation days for the same amount of time. In this case we flew out on a Saturday and flew back the next Saturday. Each Saturday was a full day of flying from one coast to the other and we had 6 full days of enjoying Seattle (and Canada!), so 8 total days of vacation and we only had to use 4 vacation days. Traveling math can be complicated but it’s necessary when traveling on a budget! You may hear people say it’s more expensive to fly on weekends and that is generally true however when we played around with flight dates for this specific trip we never saw a significant amount of savings that would justify the need for using more vacation days. We were also lucky enough to be able to stay with my husband's parents instead of needing a hotel, which made it easier to afford the plane tickets.
Seattle Mariner's Baseball
We arrived in Seattle late Saturday night and headed straight to his parents place for some much needed sleep. The next day my mother-in-law and I took a speed trip to Victoria, Canada (there will be a full post on that later). On Monday the two of us returned to the states and our “official” Seattle vacation began. With all the traveling and changing of time zones it took me nearly 3 whole days for my sleep cycle to adjust, so I was very tired in the beginning of our trip. For the Fourth of July we thought there would be no better activity than to attend a Seattle Mariners Baseball game. The tickets were surprisingly cheap ($25/each) when compared to the Atlanta Braves, our closest MLB team. It was a fun day that of course ended with a fireworks display.
FUN FACT: One year my little league softball team name was the "Mariners" so I've always had an affinity for the actual MLB team.
Pike Place Market
Now that we had gotten settled in, and checked off America’s favorite past-time off our list, it was finally time to visit Pike Place Market. If you’ve ever looked into traveling to Seattle the number one recommendation for travelers is to visit the Market. It is three stories of fish market, meets farmers market, meets flea market, though it is self-described simply as a farmer's market. You really get to experience the local culture here. Fish is fresh from the ocean daily! You may even get a chance to see local shop owners “throw the fish,” which is very entertaining for visitors. I found the main floor of the Market to be the most interesting. There was all kinds of fresh seafood and produce and my personal favorite: homemade pasta. There were rows and rows of different dry pastas. Some standouts that I remember are lavender pasta and garlic & chive pasta. The Garlic & Chive made it back with me to Alabama. Once cooked the pasta was so flavorful you really only needed a little bit of oil and whatever other toppings you like. We added oil, shrimp and Parmesan cheese. We also bought some delicious smoked salmon. The lower level of the market is very much a flea market. It is interesting to walk through but there was nothing that I needed to purchase. There was also many booths of local craft artists.
Starbucks
For those of you who don’t know Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks, so of course we made a pit stop at the longest running location. It’s just across the street from the Pike Place Market and the line was out the door and down the street all day long. Pro travel tip: there is another Starbucks location down the street that is not nearly as crowded. You can buy a drink there and walk down to this location for the classic "original Starbucks picture." We saw lots of people using this method.
FUN FACT: This is not the original Starbucks location but it is the longest running.
After opening in the market they later moved into this location and closed the original.
Derby Dash
Last summer we were really into running 5K’s so we had done some research pre-trip and registered for one in a nearby city. Since we live very near sea level we found one near the end of our trip that allowed us time to adjust to the difference in elevation. We live approximately 240 feet above sea level and the Washington area we were in is closer to 400 feet above sea level. The difference in elevation isn’t something we really noticed during most of our trip but it can be more noticeable when exercising. At the Derby Dash 5K there was also a fair set-up complete with carnival rides and food trucks. We did a race nearly every weekend last summer and this was definitely the largest attended. It was an easy course with a great view. After the race I had an order of maple bacon mini doughnuts, they were delicious and well worth the calories!
On our Honeymoon in Pigeon Forge, TN we inadvertently started a vacation tradition of playing arcade games. Now it seems no vacation is complete without a trip to Chuck E. Cheese or some other local arcade. One trip we came away with a T-shirt on this trip we got some cotton candy and donated the rest of our tickets to someone else in the arcade.
Next time in Traveling Newlyweds I’ll talk all about experiencing Washington's great outdoors!
