Since Cal is doing it...
I'll be in Seattle the second week of September. Wife's business trip and I'm coming along. Staying downtown and no car. At least not planning to have one. Obviously, she'll be working and I get lots of time by myself. Suggestions?
Your mission should you choose to accept it - track down Camper
OMG YOU DONT PLAN STUFF OUT FAR ENOUGH IN ADVANCE
No but seriously, Princesca and I are doing something similar in October, except it's my business trip and I'm going to Orange County. Should be fun and it'll only cost me one day of PTO. :cool:
Pikes Peak Market and the Space Needle. Rent a car for a day and make a trip up to Vancouver. Or maybe take a ferry. Eat a shitload of salmon. I went to an Indian powwow that was marginally cool. Find the most hipster bar you can and hang out there for a night, researching the subculture.
Hail to the chief.
Good timing...early September is often the best time of year in Seattle for weather.
No car limits a lot of the cool, outdoorsy stuff that are an easy, day-trip away, but...
- Try this place out and tell me what you think...
http://lunchboxlaboratory.com/
- It's meant for cars, but you can walk onto the Ferry over to Bainbridge Island/Winslow, and walk around a bit. I am sure they have shuttles to the Indian casino, but then you're from Nevada, so not much appeal there. Maybe Bremerton too, but I dunno how accessible the mothballed ships are anymore (hell, last time I visited those, they still had the USS Missouri)
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/
- See if you can take the wife here for dinner one night...
http://www.argosycruises.com/tillicum-village/
- The above too pricey? Ivar's Seafood is a local institution, and they have a cool Native American-themed restaurant as well...
http://www.ivars.com/locations/salmon-house
...which is also close to Fremont, one of the more colorful areas of town (home to the Fremont Troll, and a statue of Lenin should be around there somewhere.
- Pike Place Market, of course. The waterfront and Aquarium can be pretty cool too, check out Ye Olde Curiosity Shop.
- Space Needle! Experience Music project, and all the other Seattle Center stuff. Take the monorail to get there, for the full Elvis, "It happened at the World's Fair" experience.
- Seattle Art Museum might have something going on...
http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/
- I am guessing she might be going out to Bellevue/Redmond for her business stuff? You could probably kill a day hanging around downtown Bellevue. Get some donuts here (also available in the city)...
http://www.toppotdoughnuts.com/
Another Seattle food institution...
http://www.ddir.com/
Will the wife have a car? If so, I can expand the recommendations to include short drives to really cool food locations for dinners and such.
Also, looks like the Mariners will have a couple games going (vs. the Astros) that week. Safeco Field and stadium area is pretty cool if the weather is nice. Even if the M's suck this year. :P
Quote from: Admiral Yi on August 22, 2013, 04:22:54 PM
Pikes Peak Market
Good one Yi. :face:
I was going to recommend a Mariner's game as well, but with Ichiro gone to the Evil Empire, I figured they've lost their funky Nipponese vibe.
If you did want to cram in a Victoria, BC day trip...
http://www.clippervacations.com/schedules-fares/
And the quicker alternative....
http://www.kenmoreair.com/
...though that one will set you back about $300
For both, day trip looks pretty fleeting (especially with Customs). Maybe if an overnight is doable.
If you do opt for the "rent a car and do a day trip to some of the cool natural wonders" option, these are all hittable inside one day (from personal experience), though best for very nice weather, of course.
- Get on an early ferry, and head west over through Bainbridge Island and over to the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park to Port Angeles and Hurricane Ridge. If you don't dawdle, you can even do a quick jaunt over to the Hoh Rainforest, hike out to the falls...
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-EDeWl7jc0-s%2FUFdcu_7GmOI%2FAAAAAAAAEWQ%2FI1Kk_XHQ1Us%2Fs640%2FSol%2BDuc%2BFalls%2Bby%2BSteve.jpg&hash=416d8a4232676cc950c550107f5658154af14f84)
...and make it back to Seattle in one day. Make a quick stop on the way in Poulsbo for donuts at Sluy's Bakery (the maple bars are amazing).
- Drive up past Bellingham and head up the Mount Baker Highway to Artist's Point. The views of Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan are simply awesome.
- Down to Mount Rainier up to Paradise is always a winner.
Too much nature there. :yucky:
Gracias. I do have friends there and a cousin who may want to drive someplace. One of my good buddies just moved there for his wife's job and probably still has free time. I assume he's still unemployed, it's only been a couple weeks since he left. I'm not against renting a car for a little bit, but I'd want to do that on the weekend when she's not going to be working. We'll be there both weekends (before and after) so maybe.
An entire weekend?
Then consider this...
http://www.cascadeloop.com/
Skip the Whidbey Island portion and focus/aim for staying overnight near Lake Chelan, or in Leavenworth.
Just make sure the North Cascades Highway, which is an awesome scenic drive, is not closed by a rockslide first (I believe this happened just recently).
Or Portland is only about 3 hours down the road. Hit up Fahdizzle (and stop at a Burgerville...and Waffle Window...and Voodoo Donuts), and drive up a bit along the Columbia Gorge for some multiple waterfall action (though I dunno how impressive they'll be in Sept).
If you go to the Voodoo Donuts go to the one across the river. So much more reasonable. :D
:cry:
I wanna go! :weep:
I wouldnt try to get to Victoria or Vancouver in the limited time you have. Those are really separate trips in themselves. You will have a lot of great things to do in closer proximity that you will miss if you spend the travel time to come north. Now if you had a couple weeks that would be different.
Quote from: Tonitrus on August 22, 2013, 09:07:41 PM
Or Portland is only about 3 hours down the road. Hit up Fahdizzle (and stop at a Burgerville...and Waffle Window...and Voodoo Donuts), and drive up a bit along the Columbia Gorge for some multiple waterfall action (though I dunno how impressive they'll be in Sept).
I thoroughly endorse this plan.
So far, we did half the stuff on Toni's list. There is a museum called the EMP (http://www.empmuseum.org/) next to the space needle. Apparently, Paul Allen made it happen. Anyway, we were going by and weren't going to go in, but the screen outside flashed that they had a sci-fi exhibit in there. They had a Dalek. Mrs. MIM had to go in. :P
It was cool. Another exhibit just for Nirvana. The scifi part had uniforms from Data and Sheridan (that was the only B5 thing in there) and an Alien. Some lightsabers, and yeah a Dalek. The fantasy exhibit had some cool props too. Outfits and swords from the Princess Bride and the sword Connor gets from Sean Connery in the first Highlander. Bowie's costume from Labyrinth.
People here can't decide about their weather. Half of them are wearing coats and the other half are in shorts and t-shirts. The weather is nice though. It's been sunny since a couple hours after we landed. Until now that is. This is my third time here, and never have I seen a sunny day here before. :p
Mrs. MIM is at the Evil Empire atm. I think I'll wander around a bit.
Here's yesterday from my hotel window.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F6li653A.jpg&hash=a245ea32b2567390bcef802d55a629e912268d07)
Here's right now.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FKRb9dwY.jpg&hash=14a23fe98ef7e6d252023cbd44b85982a0e742b2)
:P
Turns out you should have come north. Nothing but blue skies and temperatures from 26-30 forecast for all week in Vancouver.
Quote from: crazy canuck on September 09, 2013, 02:23:09 PM
Turns out you should have come north. Nothing but blue skies and temperatures from 26-30 forecast for all week in Vancouver.
Seattle 1 Vancouver 0
Quote from: Maximus on September 09, 2013, 02:29:42 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on September 09, 2013, 02:23:09 PM
Turns out you should have come north. Nothing but blue skies and temperatures from 26-30 forecast for all week in Vancouver.
Seattle 1 Vancouver 0
Its that kind of backward thinking that got you where you are now. ;)
Well all that has burned off and it's crystal clear out there now. Maybe the trick to the Pacific Northwest is just don't go outside before noon...
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FiR0G3fo.jpg&hash=83aa8c3e1007c75bd9c999858447ea2edcee9c61)
:thumbsdown:
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on September 09, 2013, 02:45:34 PM
Well all that has burned off and it's crystal clear out there now. Maybe the trick to the Pacific Northwest is just don't go outside before noon...
More like it. There was probably just fog because we had some rain last week and now that it has warmed up again it should be blue skies for you for the rest of the time you are here.
And why doesnt Max like good weather?
It looks like great Seattle fall weather...though it also looks like it's going to cram in one last heat wave before the real Fall sets in next week.
And I just figured out what hotel he is at. They set him up with some nice digs there. :P
Quote from: Tonitrus on September 09, 2013, 03:19:04 PM
And I just figured out what hotel he is at. They set him up with some nice digs there. :P
Yeah, he is easly walking distance to a number of things and some great places to eat. The question is what the heck is he doing sitting in his room performing manual time lapse photography?
Now all this thread needs is an AAR. :mad:
Ok fine, you internet detectives. :lol:
I was staying at the Pan Pacific, but you knew that.
Last weekend, we hit the list Toni gave me and did nearly all of it. While the missus was working, I basically went around trying all the different restaurants and stuff I could find. This is a common theme on our vacations. MSFT sends her to X city, I try all of X city's pubs while she works. It's a winning formula I guess. :P
There is a guy named Tom Douglas who apparently owns most of the restaurants in Seattle. I went to several of these and they were all pretty good so I guess that's cool. The space needle is kinda expensive and only the seventh or eighth tallest building in town. I don't regret going up there, but now that I've done it I probably won't want to the next time I'm in town. The monorail is all but worthless unless your itinerary includes specifically the stuff at the space needle and then shopping at Macy's. At no point did I make any use of the public transit setup there. I did, however use the Uber service a couple times. Apparently the cabbies hate that thing, and it's easy to tell why. It's awesome and not more expensive than a cab.
I learned that people in Washington really support their teams. Sounders games sell 40k tickets and they set some crowd noise records this weekend at the Seahawks-49ers game. Bill Gates might be all over Africa but Paul Allen owns Seattle. I think he's a hero there. He also owns the Highlander sword, which is pretty awesome. That's a guy who knows what to do with money.
I went to Pike Place Market twice--unfortunately the second time was yesterday and the place was full of SF fans killing time before the game. They were not good ambassadors for San Francisco. The first time I went there was Tuesday or Wednesday by myself and it was much more pleasant then.
On my birthday I met my buddy and we went to Pyramid brewery. Almost went to a Mariners game across the street but wound up not doing that. We were waiting for women. (His wife works for MSFT too.) So we just had a bunch of beer.
The rain came yesterday as we were getting on the plane, so I guess our timing was pretty good.
Oh, I bought a powerball ticket. Can't do that back home.
One scary thing happened. When we were at the park where the space needle is and all the WTO protests you see on tv, there was a Hawaiian cultural festival. I don't have to tell you how dangerous that can be. All kinds of dudes in grass skirts and shit just ready to spill your blood. I did notice that the hula girls were either elderly or in third grade. I wonder if that's a dying art. Polynesian food has too much sugar. I can't be the only one who has noticed that. The third graders danced to "Aloha means I love you" while the adults tried to hide their shivs and bats from the tourists.
I wanna go to Seattle. :cry:
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on September 16, 2013, 07:12:44 PM
Ok fine, you internet detectives. :lol:
The monorail is all but worthless unless your itinerary includes specifically the stuff at the space needle and then shopping at Macy's.
I use to use it everyday for work, but yeah otherwise it's just quaint leftover from the World's fair 50 years ago.
Quote
One scary thing happened. When we were at the park where the space needle is and all the WTO protests you see on tv
My old stomping grounds! Use to work in sports bar in the Seattle Center, busiest time was Sonic's games or Concerts. Oh the good old days.
Quote from: katmai on September 17, 2013, 08:06:05 AM
My old stomping grounds! Use to work in sports bar in the Seattle Center, busiest time was Sonic's games or Concerts. Oh the good old days.
I miss the Sonics :cry:
Quote from: crazy canuck on September 17, 2013, 11:39:49 AM
Quote from: katmai on September 17, 2013, 08:06:05 AM
My old stomping grounds! Use to work in sports bar in the Seattle Center, busiest time was Sonic's games or Concerts. Oh the good old days.
I miss the Sonics :cry:
Me too....but really, the Sonics died after being killed by Dikembe Mutumbo in 1994. :(