Seattle -- Please tell me about it.

[Bearcat]

I'm thinking about spending the week of Labor Day there. I'm looking at hotels.com right now and there's a hotel in the downtown/needle area for $100/night, so that's cool.

Bumbershoot is that weekend.

I've been up several things, like the Sears/Willis Tower, Eiffel Tower, St. Louis Arch, etc; so I guess I'll go up the Space Needle since I'm getting pretty good at that.

Ferry rides? The Aquarium (I'm pretty spoiled with aquariums though)? The Underground tour thing? Nightlife? Food?

I tend to knock out any touristy stuff pretty quickly when I travel, so any suggestions on non-touristy/off-the-beaten-path/hidden treasure stuff would be cool, too.

tia

[Pants]

Originally Posted by The_Wiz

Seattle. You know: fish, pines, cup 'o coffee, bad food, worse weather, Ichiro F%$king Suzuki... SEATTLE.






Name that (altered) movie.

Snatch

[38yrsfan]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Looks like the CityPASS covers the Needle, Aquarium, Pacific Science Center, and EMS/SFM... along with a harbor cruise, museum of flight, and the zoo...... for $60.

I've used it before, good deal and you can skip the ticket lines and go straight to the ticket takers, look for the signs, you get a good deal and treated nice. It went up since they added the Space Needle, but still a savings - I'm getting more when I take the family over at the end of August. The drive through Leavenworth and over the Cascades is great, not as quick as using the highway and going through Vantage (great views) though.

The Museum of Flight is worth it, IMO, been there quite a few times and it is on the City Pass as well.

[Brock]

You'll be close to the 5 Point Cafe. Be sure to go eat some breakfast food there and be treated like shit by the staff. It's great.

[Bearcat]

Thanks for all the suggestions, good stuff. I'm definitely not much of a planner (I booked everything for my last trip to Chicago 12 hours before leaving)... I normally research things to do at a high level and look at transportation options if I'm not driving, but I might have to start making a list so I can knockout as much as possible in 5.5 days.

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP

I was in Seattle for a couple days last summer while on a road trip.

A few tips:
- Do the Space Needle & eat lunch there. Our group loved the food and, although the food is pricey (I think it was $25 minimum per person), included in the price is an elevator ticket which is $18 on its own.
- Pike's Place is Awesome. Stop by the original Starbucks on your way there. Lowell's had good breakfast.
- Take a trip out to Redhook Brewery (located in Woodinville). Their tour is Awesome and you get lots of samples.
- If you make it out to Redhook, some good wineries are right in that area (some directly across the street). After the lunch and the brewery tour we went to Chateau Ste. Michelle and Januik. Columbia is located right there too.
- The Ducks of Seattle tour was cool, but corny and a little too lengthy.
- Cafe Bengodi was an Awesome Italian restaurant. We got there as they were closing and convinced the owner/chef (who is Luigi's son - Luigi owns Denunzio's, Al Boccalino, Pastiamo, and Cafe Bengodi) to stay open for us. He did, and drank/joked/cooked for us and the food was outstanding. We stayed at Hotel Max and were able to walk everywhere.

The Redhook area sounds nice, but it looks like it's 3 hours of bus rides roundtrip... maybe I'll find another way to get out there if I have some time.

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I was just there last month. Had one of the best meals of my life there at a little Thai place called Mae Phim (on Pike, there are two of them): http://www.maephimpike.com/. Pineapple crispy chicken. Ohmygodwow. It was amazing. I would consider moving to Seattle just so I could have it more often.

I also went to Olympic National Park (very cool) and Rainier National Park (cool, but probably less so than Olympic, though the mountain is amazing). Visited the Glass Museum in Tacoma, which was meh and the Pike Market. The Pike market is fine, and you can get good cherries there, but it's just a big market. I don't quite see the appeal of it or the gum wall that's directly beneath one of the entrances. I did a harbor tour, which was fine.

I think Flopnuts has mentioned the Thai food before as being very good... there's only one place here that's even remotely close to the real stuff, and I would have actually considered going to Bangkok if it wasn't for the 3 days of flying. I'll definitely try it.

I've never been a big on national parks and what not, but like you and Flopnuts have alluded to, there's a bit more to see than what you would see on a road trip from KC to Omaha.

Originally Posted by 38yrsfan

I've used it before, good deal and you can skip the ticket lines and go straight to the ticket takers, look for the signs, you get a good deal and treated nice. It went up since they added the Space Needle, but still a savings - I'm getting more when I take the family over at the end of August. The drive through Leavenworth and over the Cascades is great, not as quick as using the highway and going through Vantage (great views) though.

The Museum of Flight is worth it, IMO, been there quite a few times and it is on the City Pass as well.

It's the first time I've seen it... I've done 4/6 things for Chicago and it would cut the price in half and might have helped with the huge lines (especially the Sears Tower).

[38yrsfan]

If you are staying downtown mostly here is a link to the free bus area downtown between 6 AM and 7PM.

http://metro.kingcounty.gov/tops/bus...attle-rfa.html

Have fun!