Here is what we did with our 24 hours in Seattle!
We flew up to Seattle for the weekend to see a concert and we didn’t have a lot of time for sightseeing, but we used the time we had to see some off the beaten path Seattle sights!
We got in pretty late so we took a cab to our hotel which was stupid expensive compared to the Link Light Rail ($50 vs $3) but it was about 1 in the morning so we decided to put safety first.
We stayed at The Maxwell Hotel which we ended up loving! They had free bicycles that we used all day and they were so convenient. See our view from the hotel below!
The hotel is in a chain of hotels call StayPineapple so everything is pineapple themed. I was a little nervous of an aggressive theme at first but it got great reviews so we gave it a try. So glad we tried it because this hotel was great and we would absolutely stay again! I loved the pineapple cupcake afternoon snack and the pineapple infused water in the lobby, the bikes were a huge time saver, there was a free shuttle you could reserve, and the entire staff was really helpful.
We woke up on Saturday and biked to breakfast at Citizen Coffee around 9:30. It was close to our hotel with good food and I would definitely go back! We got a standard eggs and bacon breakfast and then a strawberry, nutella, banana crepe, all amazing.
Next we biked to Lake Union Park and looked at the boats there. There was a boat festival the weekend we went but we didn’t stay for long. We continued north taking in the lake views and looking at the cool house boat neighborhoods that reminded me of Sleepless in Seattle. 🙂
Made a quick pit-stop to pet this little Corger!
We kept biking north and headed torwards the Theo Chocolate Factory which is in a really cool neighborhood. They do $10 tours that you can reserve ahead of time but we didn’t know that. When we got there we were told we could try waitlist so we did that and ended up getting into the 11:30 tour just fine. The tour was really fun! We tried so much chocolate on it though that we didn’t end up getting hungry for lunch until 3 pm.
My favorites were the chocolate bar with raspberry pieces and the chocolate caramel with Himalayan sea salt! So good! It was also really neat to learn about where they get all the ingredients and then how they make the chocolate bars, but mostly the chocolate tastings were the best part. Obviously.
Then back on the bike!
Next we stopped at the Freemont Troll (it was in the movie 10 things I hate about you) and took some quick pics there!
From there we biked to Gas Works park (also featured in the movie 10 Things I Hate About You) and ended up sitting down and resting for about 30 minutes because it was pretty and I was tired! There were seaplanes constantly landing and taking off and tons of kayakers and boats out on the lake that were fun to watch too.
Such a hideous view!
Then we went to the University of Washington campus to see the Suzzalo Library reading room because we were told it looked like Hogwarts. The campus was beautiful and was covered in roses!!
The Suzallo reading room in the library really was like real life Hogwarts! So magical!
Then we walked around the campus a little bit more and then decided to bike to lunch.
We ended up going to a sandwich shop called Mammoth with amazing bread! I got a roast beef sandwich and an iced coffee. The sandwich had a bit too much sauce on it for my taste but I would go back and eat here again! I also got an iced coffee which mostly tasted like chocolate milk, probably wouldn’t get that again.
My favorite part was all the puns going on, a tip jar that says “Triceritips”, now that is funny.
After that we biked around the lake back to our hotel and then relaxed for a little bit. We were exhausted after biking and sightseeing for 6 hours! Luckily our swanky hotel’s tv had built in chromecast so we got to watch Netflix, my favorite!
I had been pretty nervous about biking because I am not the best bike rider and this ended up being a 10 mile loop. The bike trip was amazing though! The bikes were really easy to ride and there was always a bike path so we weren’t in danger of cars or hurting pedestrians. It was a great way to get around the city and so nice that we didn’t have to worry about figuring out the bus system, or getting an uber, or parking a rental car. I would definitely bike around here again if we came back to Seattle.
Before the concert we walked and got some great Greek food at a counter service restaurant called The Golden Olive. Neither of us were super hungry but knew we wouldn’t have another good opportunity to eat the rest of the night so we shared a gyro plate. I would absolutely go back to this restaurant, I thought it was so good! It was probably my favorite meal we had in Seattle.
After that we walked to the concert and then walked back to our cute hotel and went to sleep utterly exhausted!
The next day we woke up and went to Pike’s Place Market. Big Al loves biking so he couldn’t wait to bike again. This was a mistake. We should have just taken an Uber. It was much harder to bike near the market because there aren’t bike lanes, it is pretty hilly, and there are tons of people!! I wasn’t a fan.
Pike Place Market was really cool to see but we didn’t stay long because it was so crowded even at 9 am. There were giant lines for almost every good food stall and the line for the original Starbucks had about a fifty people in it. We aren’t about the line life. I did really love seeing the flower stalls and the fish stalls though!
We ended up walking to a waffle place called Sweet Iron that sold fancy waffles. The waffle itself was excellent and much denser than any other waffle I have had. I got the brie, bacon and basil waffle and it was pretty tasty.
Even though it was good, this was my least favorite meal in Seattle. It took a really long time to get our waffles, the store was really small so there was no where to stand and wait, there were only 12 chairs in the place so there was no where to sit when we did get our food, the bacon was very obviously microwaved, and it was $10 for the small waffle which I thought was overpriced. We took our breakfast to go and ate while walking, not really the relaxing breakfast I had in mind. Really not a great experience to be honest and I doubt I would got back or recommend it to a friend.
I would however make that waffle at home though because the flavors were really good and they were really easy to make! Also I could use real bacon!
We ended up seeing a bunch of cute breakfast places on the corner of Western and Virginia that were close to the water and I wish we had eaten there instead.
After that we biked back to our hotel and headed to the airport. To get to the airport we took an Uber to Westlake Station ($7) and then took the Link light rail to the airport ($3 per person) which took about an hour. We could have saved the Uber cost if we had planned ahead because the hotel has a free shuttle that you can reserve to take you anywhere within three miles. Still, this was much cheaper than the taxi we took into the city and it was more fun!
Once we got to the airport we had some time before our 6 hour flight and decided this was probably our last good chance to eat for the day. I usually wouldn’t put airport food in a blog post but I thought Pallino Pizza was actually really good!! We inhaled it. The airport table area also had live music so it was probably the best airport meal experience I’ve ever had! Not sure if things are always this rosy in Seattle or if it was just because of the holiday weekend but well done Seattle!
All in all a great trip and we enjoyed every second of it and were utterly exhausted by the time we got home! Success!
Happy Travels!
