Seattle, WA

Life on the Road - Short Excursion

Time spent: 3 weeks

Lodging: Stayed with friends in Fremont and Redmond. Shout out @phinneypoppy

Transportation: Alaska Airlines BOS direct to > SEATAC

Hertz Rental Car - pickup and drop off at SEATAC

Must See: A Ferry Ride to the islands! We did Vashon and Bainbridge, but all of them are beautiful!

Following Boston, we flew across the country to Seattle! We immediately fell in love with the beauty of the Pacific North West and wanted to take in everything it had to offer. Luckily, we had some great friends out there who gave us not only a tour of the town, but also a place to stay!

We spent the work week trying to keep up with east coast business hours so we would have the afternoons to explore, and ultimately found that we love the idea of being off our computers around 2 o’clock everyday! We used this time to explore the Fremont, Phinney Ridge, and Green Lake areas. The hills between 36th street in Fremont and Green Lake provided quite a good workout which was necessary given the fantastic coffee shops, breweries, and bars we wanted to check out! We enjoyed Fremont Coffee Co. in the mornings and Outlander Brewery and Pub in the afternoon. We made sure to check out The George & Dragon Pub to watch the quarter finals of the UEFA European Championship. We made sure to check out Theo Chocolate and enjoyed the amazing treats as we walked along the canal toward the Aurora Bridge. And while we wouldn’t recommend the walk from Fremont, we also made our way to Gas Works Park for some amazing views of downtown!

A little further east of Fremont and Gas Works Park are a number of marinas servicing Lake Union. At one of these Marina’s was Lake Union Hot Tub Boats, where you can cruise around Lake Union in your very own Hot Tub! This was easily one of the highlights of our travels

As shopping is my favorite past time, we searched for and found some pretty amazing shops during our stay in Fremont. ShowPony, a small boutique, had a fantastic collection of unique dresses and casual wear. I enjoyed the selection here so much, I still order their dresses through instagram even after we’ve left Seattle!

Once the weekend hit we were able to do more exploring, and took a trip downtown to check out Pike Place Market. While it was awesome to see all of the fresh fish stands and watch the ferries head out to the islands, we classify Pike Place Market as a must see once. Unless we are with other first timers, we probably won’t be making a second trip. Instead, The Nest Rooftop Bar atop the Thompson hotel offered similar views without the crowds, and cocktails!

Moving away from the water, we headed down the hill towards the Amazon Spheres. Unfortunately with COVID protocols still in full swing, they were not offering entrance to the general public. Instead, we stopped at a close by Rachel’s Ginger Beer and enjoyed the view of the Spheres from the outside.

The walk between Pike Place and the Spheres is filled with amazing shops. Including a huge Nordstrom because Nordstrom HQ is based in Seattle! We also came across another wonderful consignment shop, Alexandra’s Designer Consignment. For those that love vintage and second hand goods, Alexandra’s had a great selection!

The Pacific Northwest has no shortage of fantastic beer, and the Ballard neighborhood is a hotbed for breweries and cideries. Beer drinkers or not, we highly recommend spending an afternoon exploring this area, for the the outdoor atmosphere with games, entertainment, and libations!

Our favorite activity by fair was taking a ferry to Bainbridge Island. Bainbridge is one of the more populated islands outside the city, and the small town can be a little busy, but other areas on the island felt more isolated with some great walking trails and water views.

In 2022 we made a return trip to Seattle, this time staying outside of the city in Redmond. Redmond, Kirkland, and Bellevue are the major neighborhoods east of the city on the opposite side of Lake Washington.

Bellevue is known for having high end shops and restaurants. Here we enjoyed the west coast favorite, Din Thai Fung to try their world famous Xiao Long Bao. This is a must do for dumpling and shumai fans out there! Just north of Bellevue is the town of Kirkland. A picturesque small town with waterfront houses that will remind some of California! This is another great area to eat check out the small shops, eat local foods, and hang out by the waterfront.

Instead of only eating and shopping, this visit was filled more with hikes and outdoor activities! (However, we did make a return trip to both George and the Dragon and ShowPony when we had the chance!) Our favorite adventures included hiking to Poo Poo Point and walking Bridle Trails. Poo Poo Point, on top of Tiger Mountain, was certainly not an easy hike, but once to the top we were able to enjoy awesome views and is well known as the launching point for local parasailers. Many of the parasailers were in the air far longer than it took us to hike back down, and we could watch them land from our car. For the Grey's Anatomy lovers, the view from the hike will look familiar to as this is the exact spot that Meredith and McDreamy build their house. Following the 4 mile hike we were sure to stop at Triple XXX Root beer in Issaquah to enjoy their famous root beer floats and awesome shakes. We would highly recommend making a stop here if you get the chance, but don’t expect to find anything healthy!

Bridle Trails is a little closer to home, not more than 10 minutes from downtown Redmond. This trail is shared with equestrian riders so you have to watch out for horse droppings, but the low impact trail had the feel of being in the middle of the forest, even if you can see the road at different points. Very cool!

Of course, we once again jumped on the ferry and made our way west. This time we checked out Vashon island. The ferry was only about 10 minutes, but the island is less trafficked than Bainbridge and includes some fantastic views of Mount Rainier and hiking trails to the beaches! On the island we enjoyed a fantastic lunch at Snapdragon Bakery and Cafe. The pastries here are to die for, especially the cinnamon roll!

We hope to include more time on the islands during our next trip, but for those with minimal time, Bainbridge and Vashon are really great options!

Regrets: Not spending more time exploring the islands. We could have also gone out to the mountains (Cascades or Olympics) more.