Seattle Wrap Up

I've just gotten home from a 10-day trip to Seattle with my college roommate, Liney, and man, did we have a great trip. While we were planning, people kept telling us that 10 day was too long, and that we needed to rent a car to be able to see anything, but lucky for us, we found that neither of those thoughts were true.

We stayed at the Green Tortoise Hostel, which has possibly the best location in Seattle. It is literally right across the street from the Pike Place Market (where we went almost every day), and it provided easy access to Pioneer Square to the south, Seattle Center to the north, and to all the bus lines for transportation outside the downtown area. At first, we felt a little too old for the whole hostel thing, but the great thing was that the Green Tortoise is not a "youth" hostel - it was filled with people of all ages, and there were even a couple of families there as well.

And like I said, we didn't find the city difficult to navigate without a car at all. The buses were easy enough to figure out, and the city really is a small place and is easy to walk... except for all those damn hills. But hey, when you eat as much as we did, trying to sample so many different foods, you kind of need those hills to keep you in check.

We did tons of touristy things, but lots of less touristy things as well. We visited the Seattle Art Museum, the Central Library, took an Underground tour, walked through the International District including the Uwajimaya Market, enjoyed the view from Kerry Park in the Queen Anne neighborhood, took the monorail to the Space Needle, geeked out at the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum, were confused by Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, enjoyed the aquarium, geeked out again at the Pacific Science Center, picnicked in Volunteer Park where we saw an outdoor art exhibit and explored the Conservatory, walked down to the Japanese Tea Garden, got spooked on the Market Ghost Tour (I got an orb in one of my pictures!), took in an improv show, took the SubSeattle Tour, saw tons of animals at Woodland Park Zoo, wandered around Fremont and saw the Fremont Troll.

And man did we eat. I knew Seattle had lots of good food, but I didn't know there was this much! We ate at Local Color Coffee, Lowell's Seafood, the Chocolate Box, Guamaya Cantina, Pike Place Bakery, Cherry Street Coffee House, Saigon Bistro, Oasis Tea Zone, Hilltop Ale House, Daily Dozen Donuts, Piroshy Piroshky, Revolution Bar and Grill, Black Bottle, Cafe Umbria, Market Grill, Virginia Inn, Mae Phim, Seattle Coffee Works, Palace Kitchen, Mama's Mexican Kitchen, Le Panier, the original Starbucks, Pink Door, Pike Place Brewery, Tully's, Triple Door, Three Girls Bakery, Red Door, Fremont Coffee Company, Seattle's Best Coffee, Matt's in the Market, and Beecher's Cheese. Yeah, a lot of great places, and there will be a few individual reviews coming up. The only place we missed, due to their short hours, was Salumi, but I guess that just means I'll have to take a trip back, right?