Tales from My Trip to Seattle: Day Three

Today is the conclusion to my travelogue of my family’s summer trip to Seattle Washington.

Our final day in Seattle consisted of us doing the most tourist thing you could imagine. We spent the entirety of our day at Pike Place Market. This was both my wife's and mine idea. We have wanted to see Pike Place Market for the longest time. We watch so many cooking competition shows, and anytime they have one in Seattle, it is inevitable that they will spend a day at the market. We have seen it on "Top Chef" so many times that it feels like they have a residency there or something. And on TV the market has always looked cool as hell to me. So, after the kids got up and out of bed and ready to go, we made our way downtown one last time on the trip.

It took us forever to park, traffic was wild, But we got our spot and started our walk to the market. As I mentioned yesterday, Seattle is hilly and walkable, so we were getting some solid hill training on this walk to the market. You know you're there when you see the big clock and a big sign that reads "Pike Place Market". This is synonymous with Seattle and the market. This is the icon. This is the marker. This is how you know you have made it to the right spot. And like a typical tourist, I took many pictures. I wanted to remember my time here, and the sign and clock are quintessential.

After the pictures, we started to check everything out. We went on a nice long walk to get the lay of the land. The market is pretty cool. I live in STL and we have a solid open market, but not like this. Pike Place Market has everything. When we started we were in an area with local vendors selling tons of goodies and souvenirs. There was a swath of land that had leather goods. From bags to notebooks to belts, it was leather as far as the eye could see. As we walked further we found the t-shirt and sweater section. This is where my wife and daughter decided to get their gifts for one another. We kept going and found some local musicians playing live music. As we kept moving we found the fish area. This is easy to find if you follow the smell. It is an open market, so that smell permeates the entire area. It was rad. They had so many different types of fish and seafood to buy. What I loved most was how they marketed the seafood. There was a spot for mackerel, and it was listed as small, medium and "big ass" mackerel. I love stuff like that. And this is where the workers talk what I assume is nonsense to one another and chuck fish. This was a must for us. We got to see them throw fish and it was as exhilarating as I wanted it to be. It ruled. We found a small donut shop that we got to try, and when we hit the fresh fruit stands, the samples were incredible.

We ended up heading to the restaurant where Rob Reiner and Tom Hanks had lunch in "Sleepless in Seattle". I believe the place is called The Athenia. I had a very solid tuna fish sandwich, my wife had a seafood soup, my son had salmon fish and chips, which I had never seen until this trip, and my daughter, full of fish I imagine at this point, decided to get fettuccine alfredo. It was all pretty solid.

After lunch my kids and wife said they wanted to go to the pier and ride the ferris wheel. I am not for heights, so I opted to walk around the pier. I was very happy with my choice. I got to hang by the water and look at cruise ships and walk amongst like minded and similar people to myself. I loved my walk. At one point I lifted my head up while walking, looked in the distance and noticed a mountain. This still blows my mind. The few places I've been to with mountains still makes me so happy. We don't have them in the midwest, obviously. So when I can lift my head and see a mountain, it still amazes me. It was so cool. My wife and kids saw it from the ferris wheel as well, and they got some excellent pictures.

Once my family exited the ride, we walked a little more, found a local coffee shop, which ruled and made our way back to the car.

For the final day of the trip this was the perfect way to send off Seattle. I loved every single second of this visit, and for that matter, the entire trip. Seattle absolutely blew me away. It lived up and exceeded every expectation I had going into the trip. From the weather to the scenery to the mountains to the people to the food, it was all so, so wonderful. I cannot wait to go back in the very near future. I wouldn't hesitate if my wife told me we had to move there. I would embrace it so much. Seattle was rad.

Thank you for indulging me on this retelling of my trip. I wanted to share it with you all, and I'm glad that I did. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Tales from My Trip to Seattle: Day Two

Today I’m going to continue my travelogue of my families summer trip to Seattle Washington.

Day two of our trip to Seattle started off with a morning walk of Alki Beach. My wife is a big fan of romantic comedies, and one of her favorites is "Sleepless in Seattle". Alki Beach is where Tom Hanks character, and his son in the movie, move to after the passing of his wife. I didn't see this movie until the pandemic, but when I saw it I mentioned how much I liked the beach town. This was the only invitation my wife needed to set up a morning walk along the beach, and then some lunch while we were out there. The drive to Alki Beach was beautiful. I found myself really enjoying the rolling hills littered throughout the city. It was akin to a roller coaster. And the houses were beautiful. I don't know much about architecture, but I know what I like and these houses struck my fancy. After we parked and got out, the weather was, again, perfect. It was a little overcast and about 60 degrees. We started to walk on the beach and I instantly recognized some stuff they shot for the movie. There were also a ton of seagulls, which I have grown a little fond of the older I get. The beach was great. There were sand dunes throughout, the water felt nice, most of the beach was rock so my son and I got to skip stones and it had an overall comforting feel. The kids decided to stay on the beach a little longer, so my wife and I got some time just for the two of us to walk and chat, which was greatly appreciated. The further down we walked the more art I noticed on and around the street. The artwork in Seattle is rad. There's all kinds of cool pieces throughout the city and Alki Beach was no exception. We also came across a little Statue of Liberty, which was donated to Seattle in the 90's. It was pretty cool, I read the plaque and we showed the kiddos. We walked into a surf shop. This is where we met Surfer Dave. He owned the shop. He was one of the nicest people I've ever encountered. He gave us some history of the town, poked fun at Missouri which I got a kick out of, and at the end of our visit he gave us a proper welcome. He blew into a conch shell, said our names and welcomed us to Seattle and Alki Beach. When he was done he said "mahalo", gave us the surf fingers and left us with some cool souvenirs.

The best food of the whole trip was the lunch we had at Alki at Harry's Beach House. This place was nice and quaint and a great stop for a solid lunch. I had mussels and lamb sausage, my wife had Shrimp Louie, my son had a shrimp po boy and my daughter got fish and chips. We all shared and we all really enjoyed what we had to eat. My wife and I shared some fresh oysters while the kids had some crab beignets. The food, albeit kind of pricey, was top of the line and we got what we paid for. The broth in my dish was some of the best food I've ever had. On my return visits to Seattle I will definitely patronize this place again and again.

After Alki Beach we found a local park with some minor hiking trails. This is where I got pictures of some big ass trees. I wanted pictures of trees and Seattle did not disappoint in that regard. I loved that they have such large trees and I love that my family indulged me in this journey.

After a little rest we headed out for dinner and a stroll around town. We ended up on California ave and had dinner at an Asian noodle spot called KinD. This place was hip and delicious. My szechuan ramen was fantastic. We walked around the downtown area here, where my son and I found a rad record store, and my daughter and wife found a bookshop. The record store, Easy Street Records, was amazing. I could have spent an entire day there. They had two stories and records as far as the eye could see. They had a bunch of rare stuff and they had all the hip hop my son has dreamed of since I got a record player. My wife and daughter loved the book shop. It had new and used stuff and tons of graphic novels. Seattle is so much hipper than most cities, and this street we happened upon proved that tenfold.

We ended the night with some ice cream at Molly Moon's. This is a local chain and the ice cream was hitting. I had a cherry chunk, my wife and son had blueberry cheesecake and my daughter had a thin mint equivalent. Again, we all shared and we all loved each flavor. The ice cream felt creamier, maybe it came from Tillamook, than anything I get here in STL.

This was probably my favorite day of the trip. We crammed so much fun stuff into one day and it all felt so fun and worth it when we all crashed at about 11pm. I want to go back to the record shop for some serious shopping in the near future. Thursday was our last day, so come back tomorrow to get my take on our visit to Pike Place Market. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

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Tales from My Trip to Seattle: Day One

Hello all. I'm back and ready to tell you all about a wonderful week I had with my family in Seattle. I'm going to take the next few days to tell you all about some of the stuff we did while we were visiting. Let’s go.

I have always wanted to travel to Seattle, but it never worked out until now. Luckily for me I have a wife and kids that are willing to go on fun adventures with me and explore places we've never been, My dad used to travel there a ton for work, but I was never able to go along due to sports or some other conflict. But I finally made my journey there and it was a memorable one.

The first full day we had was pretty great. We started our day with a trip to the Chihuly Museum. My daughter is a big time artist. She loves to draw and make up comic strips and she got into modeling, with clay, this past school year. The idea of a museum filled with pieces of art that are made from blown glass was right up her alley. And after a mild flare up due to some extra walking she didn't expect, we found our way to the museum and we were blown away. The artwork in this place was incredible. There are so many pieces and they are all done by this one guy, who also wears an eyepatch. I don't know why or how he ended up with the patch, but that has not stopped him from making some of the coolest artwork I have ever been witness to in my life to this point. The pieces in this place were magnetic. I am not much of an artist by any stretch, but I have always followed the idea that I may not know a lot about art, but I know what I like, and I really liked the stuff we saw at Chihuly. The museum isn't humongous by any stretch, but it filled to the brim with these glass pieces and it blew my mind. We went into one gallery and one of the workers showed us that we could see even more detail in the vases if we shined our phone flashlights on them. That rules. The outside walking area had some of the most unique and biggest pieces of art I've ever seen. There was a room with a glass ceiling that had a very good floral art piece, and you could see the Space Needle from inside the building. The Chihuly Museum is a must for first time travelers.

My daughter and I aren't much for heights, but my son and wife have no fear, so they both did the Space Needle. They loved it. My wife sent me tons of pictures while my daughter and I did some further exploring. My wife said they only went up 525 feet, but when they got up there it felt high. She said they had glass floors and a spot where you could sit on glass and get your picture taken. She told me that made it seem higher. When they came down my son was amped. He was talking a mile a minute, and that is a big sign that he enjoyed himself. The pictures they sent made my knees weak. They also sent a few pictures they snapped from the top of the Space Needle where they spotted my daughter and myself. That was pretty cool I thought.

We ended the first day with a Mariners game. I have always liked the Mariners. I was growing up and playing baseball when Ken Griffey Jr first appeared in the majors. He is one of my favorite players of all time. My son happens to like Julio Rodriguez, so going to a game was an easy yes from myself and my wife. T Mobile park is really cool. They have three statues out front, a Ken Griffey Jr one, an Edgar Martinez one and an Ichiro Suzuki statue. We got pictures of all of them. My son and I got our picture taken by the Griffey Jr one with our matching Griffey Jr t-shirts. It ruled. When we walked into the stadium I was impressed with how easy it was to get around. We found our seats with ease. We were five rows up in right field. The seats were incredible. They made the game so much more fun than it had any right to be. My son was stoked because all of the Mariners regular starters were playing and the Angels had Joe Adell playing right field, who he's a fan of as well. The game was a pitchers duel until the 7th inning, when the Mariners opened up the floodgates.  The food was so much better than what we get at Busch Stadium. My daughter had a personal pizza with cupped pepperoni. My wife had fish and chips. My son got a Sumo Dog and nachos. And I had two Sumo Dogs. We got to try Seattle hot dogs as well, which were great. I found the sushi bar they have at T Mobile, and while I didn't try any, it looked damn good. My wife and daughter got the moose ice cream, which is soft serve inside of an upside down batting helmet with cookies to make a moose. My son and I had churros, which were hot and delicious. The weather was perfect too. It got down to the mid 50's during the game. We all had long sleeves in June. It was a dream come true.

This was just our first full day there. I will fill you all in on the next couple days as the week goes on. This was a great start to an awesome trip. Seattle came out of the gates on absolute fire. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.