All About Seattle

Today we left the car in the garage and head out on foot. Our first stop was to Ride the Ducks of Seattle. This ride in a WWII-vintage amphibious duck took about an hour and a half through downtown Seattle and then into the water in Lake Union for a quick dip. Our captain, Cal Zone, was a great addition and made the trip well worth our while.

Next we strolled over to the Seattle Center, where we checked out the International Fountain (unfortunately no shows were underway) and then took the 40-odd second elevator ride to the Sky City Restaurant in the Space Needle.

While the food is pricey in Sky City, you do get a free ride to the observation deck (normally $13 per adult), the food is good, and the view is awesome, rotating completely around the needle while you eat (the full rotation takes 47 minutes). The view included Mt. Rainier, which disappeared into the clouds slowly during the day, and even Mt. Baker to the north. Awesome!

After lunch, we made a quick trip to the Seattle Monorail station just across the plaza and took a quick ride to the rather massive Westlake Center Mall in downtown Seattle. A quick stop in Nordstrom and we were on the street. Just a few blocks later we found our way to the Bank of America Tower, an all-black architectural marvel further South. The tower has an open-to-the-public observation deck on the 73rd floor (the highest in the city). The cost is $5 to get in, but the elevator ride is quick and the view is incredible.

Just down the hill we made our way to the Smith Tower, previously the largest in the city (a whole lot of years ago). Their observation deck was closed, however, so we didn’t make it there. Good thing, too – at $6, it was overpriced, even with the “Save $1” rain check we received since it was closed. At about half the height of the Bank of America observation deck, it’s just not worth it in our opinion.

Luckily, just around the corner is Pioneer Square, the heart of Seattle and the oldest of its neighborhoods. Here we found some most excellent Cow Chip Cookies. A few blocks more took us back to the piers and Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, a curiosity of mummies, taxidermy and all sorts of shlock. Not to be missed.

We then walked a few blocks up the docks and took the hillclimb to Pike Place Market, home of the famous flying fish of the Pike Place Fish Market (as well of dozens of other funky merchants). About this time we were getting hungry, so we had some excellent Mac & Cheese at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, just a block or so down from the fish market. It wasn’t cheap, but it was as good as my Granny’s, so it’s well worth the price.

Update: As we are obviously not coffee drinkers, I forgot to mention that we stopped by to visit the first Starbucks store in the market. Nice to check it off the list, but not much different from every other one of their stores.