Now that I gave you the rundown of our Washington itinerary, it’s time to hit the highlights from each portion of the trip. Since our first three nights were in Seattle, that’s where we’ll start.
Seattle gave us a reallllllly good first impression. Three nights gave us just an introductory feel, but left us wanting to explore so much more. Most of our exploring was in the center of the city and we just ran out of time to go out to the perimeter neighborhoods.
If you have plans to visit Seattle anytime soon, hopefully this will give you an idea of what we were able to cover. Our boys are 9 and 10 years old, so we chose to prioritize activities that would keep us seeing the city in an active and fun way. Here we go!
Queen Anne neighborhood
As I mentioned it in my previous post, we stayed in an Airbnb in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. Queen Anne is set on a hill overlooking downtown Seattle, so wherever we were in the city, we could look for the hill and spot our home base. I loved the location and the very residential feel of Queen Anne.
One of the best views of the city could be viewed from Kerry Park, a few blocks from where we stayed. Apparently it is a hot spot for engagement proposals because of the view. To get to Seattle Center, we were only about a 10 minute Uber ride away.
Walking from breakfast in Queen Anne
Kerry Park
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundatation Discovery Center
Our first sightseeing stop in Seattle was the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center. This hands-on, interactive and FREE center is one of the ways the Gates Foundation seeks to inspire action towards their mission. And what is that mission? Uh, only to eradicate infectious disease in our world, ensure more children survive and thrive, and empower the poorest around the globe. Pretty lofty, I would say.
Although these seem like impossible goals, the foundation is actually making significant progress and using this center to share how. Even better, encouraging us to help them. The Discovery Center is right across the street from the MoPop and takes about an hour to walk through. I would definitely recommend visiting while you are in the Seattle Center. The boys really enjoyed all of the hands-on exhibits.
Museum of Pop Culture (MoPop)
Priority number one for us when it came to museums in Seattle was the Museum of Pop Culture. If we weren’t traveling with kids, I probably would have swapped the art museum for this one, but, it’s important to cater to our audience. We just knew this would be right up their alley.
MoPop, as it is commonly referred to, currently has a mega Marvel exhibit that we knew the boys would love. They are obsessed with the Marvel movies, so seeing many of the actual movie costumes on display was a real kick for them.
In addition to the Marvel exhibit, the museum has permanent exhibits that celebrate many other kinds of popular culture, such as movies, music, video games and more. We walked through the fantasy exhibit, which featured items from movies like “Wizard of Oz”, “Harry Potter” and “The Hobbit”. Ben wanted to walk through the horror exhibit, but I basically closed my eyes for that because…scary!
The museum was very well done and designed. We stayed for about 2 hours.
Artists at Play playground behind MoPop
A real happy surprise after we walked out of the MoPop was the amazing Artists at Play playground right outside. If you are traveling to Seattle with kids, you definitely do not want to miss this awesome play area. It had that really springy flooring that is perfect for play. Oh, and a stellar view of the Space Needle.
Pike Place Market
If there is one place guaranteed to be found on every single Seattle guide, it is Pike Place Market. This permanent structure is a gigantic farmer’s market that is famous for the throwing fish guys.
Despite being a major tourist attraction, Seattlites actually come here too. I was leery about the crowds, so we went early one morning as the vendors were setting up. It was a good time to go. Very few crowds. My favorite was seeing all of the flower arrangements. We went to to the famous fish place and tasted samples of their different varieties of salmon. The boys enjoyed some freshly made doughnuts, and we went on our way.
The next time we came by, it was in the late afternoon and it was way too crowded for our taste. So if you want to check out the market and avoid the crowds, 8am seems like a good choice.
By the way…the first Starbucks location is right across the street from the market. We saw it from the outside, but didn’t go inside because apparently it is like any other Starbucks. Just older. On the other hand, later you will see we went to Starbucks Reserve which was really unique.
Water Taxi to Alki Beach & Lunch at Marination Ma Kai
If I had to narrow down one my favorite Seattle experiences, it would have to be taking the water taxi to Alki Beach for lunch. Reading up before we went, the mention in THIS article caught my eye. Taking the water taxi was fun in itself and was like a little mini-cruise. It dropped you off on the dock at Alki beach, where Marination Ma Kai awaited you with umbrellas and a gorgeous view of the water and skyline.
The menu at Marination Ma Kai was super eclectic, Hawaiian-Korean fusion. We ended up ordering one of almost everything! I would definitely recommend this as a fun 2-3 hour activity on a beautiful summer day in Seattle.
Starbucks Reserve
While we skipped visiting the “original” Starbucks, we did make a visit to the Starbucks Reserve. There was very little to recognize from your local Starbucks here. This “next-level” experience is definitely worth it for the coffee lovers out there.
In addition to a huge coffee bar as you walked in, there was also a separate area with menu-service where you could order different “flights” of coffee varieties. The center of the store had an open view of the coffee bean roasting process. On the other side of the building is a massive retail space with every coffee-related gadget you can imagine. Plus, there is also a wine bar and pizza oven restaurant in there too.
Chihuly Garden and Glass
While the MoPop was my top priority for the boys in Seattle, Chihuly Garden and Glass was my personal top museum choice. Washington native Dale Chihuly is a master at creating these colorful and hand-blown gigantic glass installations. If you have ever been to the Bellagio in Las Vegas, then you have seen his glass flowers on the lobby ceiling.
Chihuly Garden and Glass is located in Seattle Center, right along with MoPop, the Space Needle and the Pacific Science Center. I really liked that it was a “walk through” experience, through the building and into the garden. I would say we were here for about an hour, so it is an easy visit to include with another Seattle Center site. For us, we combined it with the Pacific Science Center.
Pacific Science Center
Speaking of the Pacific Science Center, we headed right there after Chihuly Garden and Glass. Any opportunity we get to go to a great hands-on science museum, we are there. As an extra bonus, we actually got to get in for free because of our membership to the Cade Museum here in Gainesville. Such a nice perk!
We have an approach to visiting museums in a new city that helps us get a taste without feeling the overwhelming need to see and to all of it. What we will typically do is divide up…one parent with one child. And then we let them lead the way with what they are most interested in doing/seeing for about about two hours. We’ve noticed that we all get much more out of an experience when we go deep instead of trying to cover every last thing.
So that is what we did at the Pacific Science Center. Besides the virtual reality underwater experience with dolphins, I spent most of the time with Max in the Tinker Tank. This was a large space dedicated to makers, which he got totally immersed in. We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. Although I noticed when we were leaving (around 11:30am), the museum had gotten a lot more crowded. Just in time for us to leave 🙂
Seattle Bike Tour
We have a tradition of taking bike tours as often as possible in the cities we visit. Bike tours are great because they give you a nice overview of the city, and you always get tidbits about the history or current culture that you would have never learned without the tour. I think it is a great activity with tweens and teens.
In Seattle, we signed up for the basic city tour with Seattle Cycling Tours. Our tour guide was super nice and the tour itself was good. We especially liked visiting the hub of Amazon.com and learning all about how they are basically taking over the world Seattle.
In retrospect, I wish I would have signed us up for the Ballard and Fremeont tour instead of the basic city tour. Here’s why: we did this tour on the afternoon of our 2nd day in Seattle. I thought we would be too tired on the first day.
By this point though, we had already visited 3/4 of the stops on the tour. I had no idea we would do that, so it’s more a hindsight being 20/20 thing. We covered a lot of repeat ground. On the other hand, we never even made it to Ballard or Fremont during our visit, so bike touring those neighborhoods would have been more interesting.
My recommendation to you if you do this tour is to either do it on your first day OR take one of the other tours. The Bainbridge Island bike tour looks REALLY cool as well. I would love to do that one next time.
REI Flagship Store
If you are into the outdoors, a fun place to visit in Seattle is the REI flagship store. This place is ah-mazing. Even just walking into it felt like an outdoor experience. There were trails, bridges, waterfalls. As you walk in, you hear a choir of camping angels sing. Just kidding. Although I think Brian might have heard that in his mind as he opened the doors!
The store is huge, with more than any human could ever imagine needing for their next adventure. Brian wanted to stock up on a few things before we headed out in the camper van the following day.
Besides the plethora of gear, the star of the show was their 85-foot rock wall. I don’t know if we just got lucky, but the employee that ran the rock wall was so good with the boys, and they really enjoyed the experience.
If you enjoy the regular REI experience, you will love it here!
So those were the highlights from our time in Seattle with kids. If we had another full day, I really would have loved to visit Gas Works Park and Discovery Park. Maybe rented kayaks to enjoy one of the beautiful lakes or even the bay. Next time, I guess!
How about you? Have you been to Seattle? What were your highlights?
