Postcard from Seattle, Part 1

As you may remember, I spent a week in the Pacific Northwest a few weeks ago as part of my whirlwind seven week tour of the country for work.  Originally the trip was supposed to be two travel days (to get there and back) and one day each in Portland/Salem, Oregon, and Olympia, Washington, in various meetings. Since I was going all the way out there (after 6 weeks of travel for work) I decided I deserved the opportunity to see some of what the area had to offer. So I took a day off and spent it exploring Seattle.

Given the crazy schedule I had been leading up to my trip I did not have time to do my usual planning. All I did was print out Frommer’s suggested one day itinerary for seeing Seattle and hoped it would guide me well.  Armed with that and my Droid, I figured I’d be able to “wing it.”

That lasted all of 2 or so hours.

I ended up buying a Seattle guide in the Seattle Aquarium giftshop---one of my first stops of the day (more on that in a second). Oh well. You know what they say about old dogs and new tricks, right?! But I’m getting ahead of myself…

Still on something closer to East Coast time despite three days of being on the West Coast, I woke up early and was out the door of my hotel by 7:45am. The weather forecast also indicated that rain was going to move in around noon so I thought I should try and take advantage of not having to use an umbrella while I could. My first stop was going to be Pike Place Market—unfortunately I was a little early even for them. So I grabbed a coffee and a bagel and walked down to the Olympic Sculpture Park instead.

View of the city from the park

The park is part of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and consists of 9 acres of exhibits and walking trails all along the waterfront. On a clear day you can see the beautiful Olympic Mountains too. Unfortunately, the day was not that clear.

After a nice walk checking out the art and the view, I decided to walk back towards downtown along the waterfront. I like water and boats and pretty much anything that goes along with those things (I used to be obsessed with Deadliest Catch for goodness sakes) so I really enjoyed the walk, seeing commercial cargo ships, the big fishing boats, the cruise ships, the ferry boats….Seattle really is the place to be if you are in to all things maritime.  After my waterfront walk, I went to the Seattle Aquarium. Given my predilection for life aquatic, I also really like aquariums and can’t resist visiting them whenever I come across them.

The Aquarium

The Seattle Aquarium was nice...small but the real deal. It was very locally-focused which I enjoyed. And does not have any animal shows which I also appreciate. Besides, who needs trained animals when you have really adorable sea otters like these:

My marine life (in all its forms) desire satisfied, I decided to see if Pike Place Market was bustling yet. It was. It was also a foodie’s dream, albeit a bit touristy. Beautiful , fresh seafood and produce everywhere you looked. Gorgeous fresh flowers that were SUPER CHEAP….I walked around there for a good 45 minutes taking everything in and wondering if I could get any of it home with me. I settled for The Pike Place Market Cookbook instead.

Pike Place Market is also home to the very first Starbucks. I decided not to stop there because I wasn’t sure it would be all that different from any of the other Starbucks around the world. And besides, I was on the hunt for latte art! And I wasn’t sure Starbucks…even the Mothership…was going to get me there.

This is where it all began.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we check out some more art, waterfront views, cool little parks, and yes…latte art!