So we arrived off the Empire Builder into a very hot Seattle. We actually disembarked in the town of Edmonds, which is on the coast about 30 minutes outside Seattle. My cousin and family were waiting to meet us off the train which was fantastic.
First things first, we headed to a diner for a late breakfast as it was almost 11:00 a.m. – the train got in about an hour and a half late. Interesting note, any time our trains ran late, it was blamed on freight trains which seems odd. However, my cousin informed us that the freight companies, own pretty much the entire US rail network and Amtrak rent from them – who would have known!
After the desperately bad food on the train, the offerings in the diner were, while still American, much better. Both of us went with the classic fried eggs over-easy with bacon, served with hash browns, coffee and toast. The bacon was actually Canadian and very tasty.
After eating, we headed to my cousin’s house, dropped the bags and then went for a walk around the town of Edmonds. Edmonds is not too big but also not too small, it’s one of the more affluent towns surrounding the Seattle area, so everything is that bit more high-end. There are plenty of small stores selling everything and anything you could need. As it was Saturday, there was a farmers market so there was a great atmosphere. After visiting the town centre, we headed back to the house and over several cups of coffee had a great catch-up, reminiscing about when we were younger and remembering different things about when my cousin visited Ireland and I visited the U.S.
For dinner, my cousin suggested Japanese, I then added let’s do hibachi. It turned out there was a new hibachi restaurant just opened in town. Hibachi is basically where you sit around a large hot-plate and a chef cooks up all your food, while putting on a show with knife skills and some humour. The food, thankfully, was tasty and we all enjoyed it.
After dinner, it was back to the house and we put a plan in place for the next few days to see as much as we could in our short six nights in Seattle.
Our first adventure was a trip into the mountains to spend the night in my cousin’s mountain cabin. It’s about a two hour drive from Edmonds and once out in the countryside, the scenery is fantastic. On the way there we stopped at the town of Leavenworth. Leavenworth is a Bavarian themed town, so everything, from the food to gift shops is all very, well, Bavarian. They have a very large Christmas store open all year round. So while it seemed strange, we picked up a decoration for the tree. For lunch we went with, no surprise, burgers, although I did have the bratwurst burger, which was not too bad.
This part of Washington state is big farm country, however, unlike the Dakotas, it’s mostly fruit. Apples, pears, berries and the like are in abundance. So our next stop was a farmers store selling these items and more. It also has a quilt and fabric store, which C was very excited about.
At around 4:00 p.m. we arrived at the cabin, we were not too sure what to expect, after all we’ve seen more than a few movies that have the “cabin in the wood” thing. However, this was more than a cabin, it was basically a second home, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. The setting is perfect, right beside a river, surrounded by trees and only a few neighbours.
Once we got settled, we hit the road for some sightseeing. As we’re in a forested area, a lot of the roads are only accessible by 4WD, which of course my cousin drives. So we continued up the mountain and once on top, it offered great views of the valley.
For dinner that evening we went to a food court of sorts, which is a converted railway station. As it was a Sunday evening most of the restaurants were closed and we dined in a place called Fire. I went with pizza which was pretty good along with a craft beer which was very nice.
The following day, we had an early breakfast at a dive diner that was decent. Then we hit the road towards Seattle, we made several stops, including Roslyn where Northern Exposure was filmed, this was followed by another stop at the town of North Bend where Twin Peaks was filmed. We made one or two other stops along the way including Sonqualmie Falls, which made for an enjoyable road trip.
When we arrived in Seattle we grabbed lunch in a food court and picked up tickets to visit the top of the Space Needle.
Our allocated time was 5:00 p.m., so we had plenty of time to visit the very cool Museum of Pop Culture, known as MoPop. The museum is spread out over three large floors, it has a sound lab, which is basically recording studios, where you can play guitars, drums, keyboards etc., just for fun. It has fantastic sections on the horror genre, Sci-Fi, video games and Fantasy, including original movie props from everthing from The Wizard of OZ to Lord of the Rings. You’ll also find every space gun, space ship, character and the like used in several dozen sci-fi movies. The place is very cool. Being Seattle, of course, it had dedicated exhibitions to Jimmy Hendrix, Pearl Jam and a fantastic section all about Nirvana.
After, it was time to take a trip to the top of the Space Needle, completed in 1962 for the World’s Fair. It offers great views from the top plus the glass floor is also pretty cool.
We had a full-on day which was fantastic, so when we got back to Edmonds, we ate and relaxed for the remainder of the evening as we had another early start in the morning.
Hello from Canada
To mix things up a little, we took the passenger ferry that departs Seattle every day to Victoria in Canada. As part of a package, we booked afternoon tea in the very plush Fairmont hotel, one of the most famous hotels in Canada.
On arrival, we pretty much walked the entire centre of the town, there’s lots of places to eat and shop. As we were not having tea until 2:00 p.m., we visited the Danish Bakery to have a light snack and coffee. C went for a Danish, I opted for the blackberry tart, both were not particularly good.
Moving on. After checking out several stores and a few of the sights, we headed towards the hotel for our afternoon tea. In the past, we have been underwhelmed by afternoon tea offerings both at home and away. Unfortunately, the afternoon tea at the Fairmont did not exceed the mark. The sandwiches were uninspiring, a carrot and ginger sandwich anyone? The lone single scone was probably the best option, all the pastries lacked any sort of real flavour. So we were a little disappointed given the distance we had travelled. After we grabbed a nice drink in the bar before heading back to the ferry for the journey home.
We were met off the ferry by my cousin and we headed to grab a bite to eat, I went with the classic American, meatloaf. A good end to the day.
Another must-do attraction in Seattle is a visit to the Boeing Future of Flight experience. It’s a chance to get behind the scenes at the Boeing factory. On arrival, we thought we were visiting an airport that just happened to have the Boeing hangars on site. This was not the case, it wasn’t an airport, this was actually the Boeing factory – it’s huge.
You can’t bring phones, cameras, bags or any personal items and you are not allowed to even take notes while on the tour. Therefore, we have no photos inside the production lines which are housed in the world’s biggest building – it’s the size of 75 American football fields. Boeing employ 35,000 staff there and they have their own water treatment plant, fire station, hospital and dozens of coffee shops and restaurants.
To try and give an idea of scale – in the 747 (jumbo) section (yes, they still make them), it had four 747s along the production line. The same building also has the production lines for several other models including the Dreamliners. The photos are taken from the visitor centre but really do not do justice to the size of the place.
Of course, every plane they make has to be tested. Here’s an Alaskan Airlines plane coming in for landing after it’s test flight.
Pike’s Place market is Seattle’s most famous visitor attraction, yes it’s just a market but there’s plenty to see plus the original store of “that” famous coffee chain. On an interesting note, there’s a street that runs just under the market, which for some reason has become a must-visit attraction. The walls are covered in, well … chewing gum – and no, we did not stick chewing gum to the walls unlike a lot of other tourists.
There’s also the Pike’s Place fishmongers who are famous for throwing salmon or several other types of fish around the place. When someone orders a fish, the guy on the outside, grabs it and throws it to a colleague on the other side of the counter. However if you like, you can catch your own fish when it’s thrown over the counter – yep, we did not get it either, but there were scores of tourists hanging out getting photos.
So our little Seattle adventure is coming to an end. We went to some fantastic sites, did a little shopping and enjoyed plenty of food and the occasional margarita. However the most enjoyable part was getting to hang with my cousin and his family for the few days.
Until next time,
Bye for now.
C&J
cjfoodandtravel 