We arrived in Seattle around 6am and we don’t fly back to New York City until 9pm, so we wanted to take advantage of our long layover to explore this awesome city! We stored our larger packs at the Smarte Carte kiosk, which is luggage cart company that is seemingly at every US airport. We probably could’ve traveled with them throughout the day, but the $8 per bag convenience sold itself.
From Seattle Airport, we took the Link Light Rail to the Westlake Station. This brings you right to the downtown area (and on the train itself its listed at Westlake/Downtown), but we didn’t see the word “downtown” anywhere when purchasing tickets. It costs $3pp for a one-way trip, so it was definitely worth it for the two of us, but when travelling with a larger group, a shared car from Uber or Lyft might be the better option. Getting off at Westlake station brought us about 2 blocks from the Pike Street Market, but being that we got in so early, the streets were still pretty quiet.
Our first stop was The Crumpet Shop (family owned and operated since 1976) for some breakfast and coffee. We felt a little overwhelmed with crumpet choices, so we asked the barista for one of her favorite “sweet” crumpets and one of her favorite “savory” crumpets.
For savory, she recommended the egg, cheese, and ham crumpet and for sweet, she recommended the cream cheese, maple butter & walnut crumpet. Our crumpet exposure is pretty low, so we don’t really have anything to compare them to, but wow were these amazing…highly recommend this place and these two crumpets specifically.
After a nice breakfast pick-me-up, we walked down to Post Alley to find the infamous Gum Wall. We were both amazed (and a little grossed out) by all the gum on the walls of the ENTIRE ALLEY…but not grossed out enough not to take pictures and add on to the shenanigans.
We continued our walk north and towards the Olympic Sculpture Park. This park is a unique extension of the Seattle Art Museum, and it’s so much more than just a green space to relax; it’s also filled with large sculptures that make you stop and wonder. You’re surrounded by massive sculptures, and amazing views of the Space Needle, the bay, and even the Rocky’s in the distance!
We know that Seattle has a lot of art museums and exhibits, but it was so cool to see this art style incorporated into its city planning…from signage to light poles, everything seemed strategically inclusive of Seattle’s art culture.
We received a ton of ideas from friends about what to do here in 12 short hours (shoutout to all of you that gave us input!!!), but it really came down to a few things for us…good food, cool art, and the some of the “must-sees.”
At the top of our list was the Chihuly Museum and Gardens. Don Chihuly is just wow. You can check out our pictures below and Google him all you want, but this place just has a feeling about it. The indoor museum does an amazing job of narrating his life and his work, but the garden leaves you speechless. The garden layout and living/nonliving integration make life seem like Alice and Wonderland. The glass works and the floral choices are absolutely amazing.
Seattle is home to the famous Space Needle and the Chihuly exhibit is right next to it, so check it out! In Seattle, we’ve heard of two popular viewpoints…the Space Needle and Kerry Park. The Space Needle sounded cool, but it stuck us as a bit unnecessary at the time, so we opted for Kerry Park.
The hills in Seattle are no joke, so we took a short Uber up to Kerry Park. Kerry Park is one of the coolest urban viewpoints we’ve seen. It gives sweeping views of the bay, downtown Seattle, and even Mt. Rainier on a clear day! Mt. Rainier has a special place in our hearts so we might be a bit biased (check out Day 22 of our U.S. Roadtrip).
After taking the in views from this cool little micro-park, we took another Uber to the Fremont area (just north and over the Aurora Bridge from the downtown area). The artistic vibe in this neighborhood could be felt throughout, with installations that are thematically altered to express political statements and even celebrate birthdays. The Fremont Troll is a must-see just for the appreciation of its sheer size. There’s a massive 7-ton statue of Vladimir Lenin with an interesting story, and even a group of people forever waiting on a failed Interurban transit system.
It was around noon at this point, so we were on the hunt for some good food. Luckily there is an awesome sandwich shop (right next to the massive Lenin statue) that deserves a shout out…Royal Grinders. Quality of food and service was exceptional, and they have a ton of specialty sandwich options, as well as a build-your-own (vegetarian and vegan sandwiches available as well). If we’re in the Fremont area again we’ll definitely return.
After we fueled up, we walked along the water about a half-mile to Fremont Brewery. We’d never heard of this brewery before our trip, but they were serving it on our flight out here (Alaska Air), so we wanted to visit. The brewery is in this awesome outdoor space that just invites the neighborhood in…and the beer was pretty tasty too.
From here we were recharged and ready to head back downtown. We walked down the block to take in the views of downtown from Gas Works Park, a converted park that was once the site of the Seattle Gas Light Company and its synthetic gasification machinery (not to be confused with natural gas). The park has this eerie feeling of an older time, but gives some of the coolest (sea-level) views in the city…which must’ve looked much different back then
From Fremont, we took an Uber to the famous Starbucks Reserve Roastery. It was pretty busy when we got there, as expected, because everyone wants to visit this location for some reason (it’s not the original one, and has a pretty limited menu with overpriced beans). We found a little nook and enjoyed our time with some craft coffee and pastries that were actually quite tasty.
After we finished our fancy coffee and pastries, we headed off for some cheese samples at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese. They actually have a location in New York City as well, but their cheese is top notch, so it was an easy excuse to “compare the locations.”
They always have toothpicks for interested onlookers to sample their fresh cheese curd and Flagship Cheddar. Either will suck you into the line to look at their dozens of varieties…good luck. We were overwhelmed and went with their Flagship Cheddar, which was phenomenal, but you could spend all day here choosing. We bought some Beecher’s Honey Oat crackers to enjoy our cheese with…turned out to be the perfect airport snack!
The Public Market seemed completely different than when we saw it in the morning. It was fun to walk around and check out the different food vendors, but we slipped away from the hustle and bustle at the right time to find Mee Sum Pastry…famous for their baked Hom Bows (baked BBQ pork bun), but we obviously had to get a classic steamed BBQ port bun as well!
To cap off our day, we stopped by the famous Pike Place Fish Market to see the famous flying fish! By flying fish, we mean fishmongers throwing fish that customers select…apparently this has been happening since 1930.
After an adventure-filled day, we ended up where we began, the Westlake Station. We took the Link Light Rail back to the Seattle Airport to catch out evening flight back to New York City. Make sure to stay posted for our next adventure…coming (potentially to you) soon!