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Read Thread: I get to visit Seattle!

I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Dec 30, 2013 9:52pm
Thread (disabled) Board
I'm coming to Seattle with my husband who has conferences Feb 18-21. I haven't really started planning yet, as I am hosting an event and my son's birthday this weekend....

But I was hoping to meet up with a few boxers and maybe grab some boxes and lunch together. I would really like to do a scenic hike, a few miles? I am free until around 5pm each day, I think! On the 18th, I think we will arrive in early afternoon, probably tired... so I imagine my best days will be Feb 19 and 20. We will leave late on the 21st, so that is also a good possibility. My husband might be game for dinner, but I am not sure yet. Most likely, it will just be me!

I have never been to Seattle so I will probably do one day of mostly sightseeing, museums, touristy stuff, etc, and would also love locals' "must do" tips and ideas.

I assume I will be renting a car, at least part of the stay.

Also any tips on where I might plant a box? :)

Thanks! Andrea
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822270 by FloridaFour
Dec 30, 2013 11:58pm
Thread (disabled) Board
It would be easiest to know what to recommend, if we know where you are staying. If your husband's conference is in Bellevue and you are staying over there, downtown Seattle stuff won't be easy to get to....Or if you are staying closer to the airport....different things could be recommended....

But that aside, for downtown Seattle: The Underground Tour in Pioneer Square, take a Ferry ride...either the water taxi to West Seattle (small boat) or the big ferries to Bainbridge Island or Bremerton. The Great Wheel (cool ferris wheel thingy like the London Eye) --The Duck Boat tours!! love them, they leave from the base of the space needle and you get to ride around Lake Union (see the houseboats from Sleepless in Seattle) Pike Place Market (buy some flowers and some fish) Don't waste your money going up in the Space Needle, go to Columbia Center and go up to their observation deck, then your view includes the Space Needle :-) Or go to the top of the Smith Tower in Pioneer Square district. It was the tallest building West of the Mississippi....when it was built :-)

Go to Milepost 31 in Pioneer Square and learn all about the "BIG DIG" that is going on RIGHT NOW in Seattle. They are digging a tunnel underneath downtown and then going to tear down the highway that runs across the downtown area right now!! Very interesting

I hope you like Seafood, we have some of the best Seafood in the country!! Have some local oysters, dungeness crab, salmon and halibut while you are here

there is more....but we can refine the ideas when we have a better idea of where you are staying ;-)

-Amanda from Seattle
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822281 by Amanda from Seattle
Dec 31, 2013 3:36am
Thread (disabled) Board
Thank you! We are staying at the Sheraton downtown. Your ideas are great!

And I love seafood! All of it!

I like anything unique to Seattle, as far as things to do. Pike Place for sure.

I like historic neighborhoods, artsy areas, art museums, and quirky places.
The Underground tour sounds good.

I am sure the letterboxes will take me to some neat areas, too...
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822289 by FloridaFour
Dec 31, 2013 10:57am
Thread (disabled) Board
I lived there for awhile, and when I go back in March I'm bringing a first time visitor with me. In addition to the things Amanda suggested, we are going to go into the Fremont neighborhood. It has all sorts of quirky street art- the troll being the most well known. Some of my other favorite places are Gasworks Park, and Kerry Park. Both have nice views of downtown. Transportation is needed to get to all of those from downtown though.
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822289 by FloridaFour
Dec 31, 2013 11:44am
Thread (disabled) Board
We are staying at the Sheraton downtown.

Too bad you'll have missed the gingerbread houses by then. Those are pretty darned cool. =)

And I love seafood! All of it!

Bleh. But give me a call if you decide to eat something good like Pegasus Pizza or the Old Spaghetti Factory. ;o)

My favorite tourist destination for first time visitors is the Underground Tour. So much fun! And for those who are tempted to go up in the Space Needle, I try to push them into the Columbia Tower or Smith Tower for a view of downtown instead. They're cheaper, less crowded, and in the case of the Columbia Tower, you're hundreds of feet higher than the Space Needle! And let's face it, the most iconic building in Seattle IS the Space Needle, and ironically, the one building you can't see it is FROM the Space Needle itself! =) So if you want a view, the Columbia Tower and/or Smith Tower are really better options. Of course, if you want bragging rights to being at the top of the Space Needle.... neither the Columbia Tower or Smith Tower can give you that. *shrug*

If you like coffee, there's also the first Starbucks at Pike Place Market you might be interested in. If you don't like coffee, you probably wouldn't care much. =)

My favorite out-of-town place to take visitors is the Boeing factory tour in Everett where you can watch them assembling some of the worlds largest planes. You get to see the actual factory floor and giant planes in varying degrees of assembly. Not a whole lot of places you can see stuff like this! =)

-- Ryan
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822341 by MysticzGal
Dec 31, 2013 6:08pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Quirky street art

That sounds really neat!

And those parks sound good, too.

Ryan, I may take you up on that pizza or spaghetti... (do they have wine?) I will get back to you on that...

Your suggestions are all great, and Starbucks, check! and I am bookmarking these. I think I will take the Underground tour for sure.

Glad I bought some cold weather gear from my DC trip last year!
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822417 by FloridaFour
Dec 31, 2013 6:51pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Ryan, I may take you up on that pizza or spaghetti... (do they have wine?)

I believe both of them do, actually. =)

Your suggestions are all great, and Starbucks, check! and I am bookmarking these. I think I will take the Underground tour for sure.

Let me know when you're bumming around downtown. I might go down there and play the tour guide for you. =) I'm told that I make a great tour guide! But.... I might make you walk a lot. Wear good walking shoes. =)

-- Ryan
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822270 by FloridaFour
Jan 1, 2014 3:03am
Thread (disabled) Board
When I visit Seattle (once a year about, like in May of 2014) I LOVE going downtown. I have eaten at some of the restaurants (like Pegasus Pizza (Alkai) and Flying Fish) and enjoyed both of them.

Also, I have done the underground tour. SO MUCH FUN! Highly recommend that. I have pictures from it and I still enjoy some of the things I learned from it. We did that a few years ago.

The aquarium is something to behold. I really enjoyed that. Also, Pikes place is fun, but only once maybe. I don't enjoy going because it's such a tourist trap, but it was fun to go once. If you do post crossing, load up here! The EMP was cool. It's an ugly building but don't let that dissuade you from going. It was enjoyable once, but shouldn't be on your list if you're only going to Seattle for a day or two.

If you enjoy funky cool areas of town, head up to Capitol Hill and have a look see at the gay area of town. Lots of cool shops up there too. I hear from a friend who lives in Seattle, goats are popular pets up there right now. Also, there is a Harry Potter themed letterbox in a 'wiccan' shop in Seattle. I can't remember the name of it, but that area of town has a lot of cool stuff, where that shop is located.

Highly recommend Gas Works park for carving or planting. :) On a sunny day, bring a blanket to sit on the grass (geese poop here).

As far as shopping goes, the places I went where I got cool stuff: The Sock Monster (delicious gelato shop nearby), Archie McPhee (cool postcards and goofy stuff), Uwajimaya (amazing asian market), Kinokunaya (LOVE this bookstore with cool stuff), (There is an AMAZING letterbox a few blocks away from here in a small beautiful park. Highly recommend it), check on Yelp!, it was a great help in finding cool places to eat and shop.

If you're staying in Bellevue (I think), head up north to Everett and catch the boxes in the large park there. You'll have several days worth of boxes to find. :D We went for 12 hours and didn't find but maybe half. I think it's Forest Park. Mt. Vernon has a nice park too where there are a bunch of boxes.

This is only my input as a regular visitor and tourist there. I can only offer what I've enjoyed. You might have better luck with other suggestions too, depending on how you like to visit places. :)
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822441 by KnottyKnitterDirtMonkey
Jan 1, 2014 7:39am
Thread (disabled) Board
Wow, all those little shops sound soooo neat!!!

I definitely want to actually see some of those neat places, as well as get some letterboxing in. So that is a good way for me to do it... find cool place... find the boxes near it.
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822421 by Green Tortuga
Jan 1, 2014 7:42am
Thread (disabled) Board
I make a great tour guide

Hmmm, whatever gave you that idea? I will AQ you as soon as I figure out my schedule. Sounds good. I have some good shoes!
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822464 by FloridaFour
Jan 1, 2014 11:12am
Thread (disabled) Board
> I make a great tour guide

Hmmm, whatever gave you that idea?

Amanda and I took a segway tour around West Seattle one time, and I corrected a couple of things our tour guide got wrong. Amanda said I should be taking him on the tour! =)

But really, the only thing people complain about when I take them around is that (apparently) I walk people "to death." (But I think they're exaggerating--everyone has had a pulse when I left them!)

-- Ryan
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822463 by FloridaFour
Jan 1, 2014 3:35pm
Thread (disabled) Board
There are so many boxes, wherever you go, there will be boxes. :D
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822508 by Green Tortuga
Jan 3, 2014 12:10pm
Thread (disabled) Board
ok, I live outside of Seattle,but now I think I need Ryan and Amanda to take ME on a tour! haha! Clearly I need to get out more!
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #823052 by Lady Morgannah
Jan 3, 2014 12:49pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Meet us there, Lady Morgannah. You can make sure Ryan doesn't walk me to death.

*takes up jogging this week*
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #823052 by Lady Morgannah
Jan 3, 2014 12:50pm
Thread (disabled) Board
I live outside of Seattle,but now I think I need Ryan and Amanda to take ME on a tour! haha!

I should start putting that on my business cards.

"Available for tours"

-- Ryan
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822289 by FloridaFour
Jan 3, 2014 9:26pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Have to go to Freemont. Artsy, Quirky and self proclaimed Center of the Universe.
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822289 by FloridaFour
Jan 14, 2014 8:03am
Thread (disabled) Board
You can take a short drive or catch a bus up to Discovery Park. It's one of our favorite parks in the area, with great hikes that loop the park and take you through a bunch of different environments (beach, dunes, forest, marsh, etc.). There are also several boxes out there! :)
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822463 by FloridaFour
Jan 14, 2014 8:14am
Thread (disabled) Board
On our first visit to Seattle, before we moved here, we just used letterboxes to help us see the city. We were staying at a hostel in Belltown, and our main objective was to see as much of the city and neighborhoods as we could. We were really able to get a wider sense of the city this way, and, as we letterboxers know, find some gems and secret little places along the way! After doing some boxing in Washington Park Arboretum, we stumbled across several cute and delicious cafes. We also really enjoyed the Kobe Terrace Park. A magical little oasis that you almost would never even notice otherwise.
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #822270 by FloridaFour
Jan 14, 2014 8:24am
Thread (disabled) Board
I am a teacher and we are on break that week. Let me know which day you will be boxing and I can show you some good boxes :)
Re: I get to visit Seattle!
Board: State: Washington
Reply to: #825221 by westside4
Jan 14, 2014 9:50am
Thread (disabled) Board
Thanks, getting my itinerary settled this week. We have our plane tickets and hotel.