Seattle, Washington! What a fun day trip. I was really excited to finally get to Seattle after having a 10 hour layover in the city, about 6 months ago (but overnight no less). I had taken a Bolt Bus from Portland to Seattle and arrived in the Emerald City around 11 in the morning.
The bus stop was in the International District (a.k.a. Chinatown, Japantown, etc). I decided to walk around there first before making my way into the downtown core. I walked into a Japanese food market and was overwhelmed by its sized and all the goodies it had. I decided to have lunch here. I was also able to purchase a little bag of my favorite Hawaiian chocolates, Hawaiian Host, that made me happy. After finishing up a lunch of onigiri, I walked into my first ever Daiso store. I've always heard so many good things about Daiso so I was pretty thrilled to finally get to see what it was all about. It reminded me a lot of One's, a similar concept store we have in Canada, however things are not as cheap as Daiso. I had to keep myself from buying everything because I brought a tiny suitcase with me and was worried that I'd have to ship things back. I resisted all temptation and walked out empty-handed. Gasp. I know.
I then made my way back to the bus stop station to purchase an Orca card, which is like Seattle's version of the Presto card that we have in Toronto, except a million times better. It's basically your bus ticket for the day. After picking that up, I took a tram into the city, where my first stop was the Pike Market Place.
It's a massive indoor market with produce, fish, sweets, snacks, crafts, and more. Although I will be honest, I was there to be able to say that I got to visit the first ever Starbucks store.
I didn't care to purchase a drink there, but I did pick up 2 of the You Are Here mugs specific to the Pike Market Place for my collection and a fellow coworker's.
Did I mention that Seattle has steep streets?? Because I had no idea that they did! It wasn't all that bad and I don't mind the mini workout, I just wasn't expecting it. The surrounding area of the market place is really quaint and nice. It has a nice character to it that reminds me a lot of our St. Lawrence Market in Toronto.
I eventually made my way up the steep streets and onto another tram towards the infamous Space Needle.
On recommendation of a friend, I visited the Chihuly Glass Garden which is right beside the Space Needle. I purchased a packaged ticket for both the museum/garden and an elevator ride to the top of the needle.
Needless to say, the garden/museum was absolutely gorgeous. I have never seen anything life it before and I would highly recommend it as somewhere to visit if you find yourself in Seattle.
The Space Needle was my next stop, naturally.
There were some really nice views from up there, especially of the mountains, including Mount Rainier. I took my time at the top to relax and just take it all in and figure out what to do next as I still had a few hours to kill before heading back on the bus back to Portland.
I really wanted to go and visit the famous "Haunted Coke Machine" that I heard about a few weeks prior to my trip, but it was too out of the way to make the trip, just for a pop. Instead, I decided to slowly make my way back towards the stop while making stops along the way, along the Pier to be specific. I ended up eating dinner at a Red Robin because it was convenient and familiar. I have a tendency to forget to eat while on vacations (oops).
After my meal, I decided to take a ride on the Great Wheel! I love ferris wheels and carousels alike.
Seattle reminds me a lot of Vancouver, but just a lot more older and worn down a bit. After the ride on the wheel, I walked along the Pier some more and discovered Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, which sold some pretty cool wares.
By this point I was fairly exhausted so I decided to find a Starbucks and park myself in it until the bus came. I mean, it's Seattle, the Starbucks capital of the world, there's got to be a bunch of them around, right? While yes, that holds true, the one I found closed so early! Thankfully it was fairly close to my departure time so I didn't have to wait long to be on the bus again and back to Portland.
In all, Seattle was a fun city to be in. It's definitely a lot bigger than Portland, but still not quite the same as Toronto. I was able to see quite a bit and it's a good city to walk in if you want a nice workout. There were some places that I definitely missed out on and had to exclude because of timing and just lack of energy. I would definitely need more than a day to conquer Seattle, but I was pretty content with everything that I did end up seeing during those few hours.
If you'd like to see more photos from my Seattle trip, you can find them here.
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