I visited Seattle a few months ago, after spending Memorial Day weekend there. It’s fair to say the city met and perhaps even exceeded my expectations, mostly because I didn’t have that many going in. I just wanted to do a few things: relax after a hectic work month and busy Thailand trip by walking around the city, shopping at Pike’s Place Market, and eating a lot of delicious food; and catch up with my good friend who was making the trip with me, finally getting a chance to have long, in-depth conversations in person for the first time in way too long.
I was excited to see Seattle, a city I’d long wanted to visit, but I was determined not to fall into the trap of “box-check syndrome” and run around trying to see and do everything possible during my brief stay. I didn’t want to be a tourist; I just wanted to be a connoisseur of the best Seattle had to offer, to enjoy it on its own terms without a strict regimen of must-sees.
By that standard, the trip was a resounding success. And I came away from Seattle with a few realizations—perhaps not exactly new, but more finely tuned—about what makes for a good travel experience, and indeed, a good life. But more on that shortly….
Seattle itself, despite the grey clouds that hung over us 90 percent of the time and temperatures that refused to budge out of the mid-sixties (come on, it’s nearly June!) is a delightful city. It has pretty much everything in it that I love for a relaxing weekend getaway: farmers’ markets, water views, cozy cafes, and great brunch spots. How could life be better?
My friend and I began our Saturday by heading over to Pike’s Place Market, which, along with the original Starbucks pilgrimage, was the one touristy thing I really wanted to do. It did not disappoint; in fact, it exceeded my expectations. I love outdoor markets (one of my favorite parts of traveling in Europe), and I could have spent hours wandering through the stalls sampling cheeses, olive oils, piping hot apple cider, and other delights, as well as taking in the lively street life and the rows upon rows of beautiful flowers for sale, which I absolutely would have bought had I had a place to take them back to aside from my hotel. Afterwards, we headed over to the Olympic Sculpture Park, which was a bit light on sculpture but made up for it with beautiful, peaceful green spaces complete with sweeping views of the blue water of the harbor and rows of wildflowers ringing it. We sat on a park bench, where I proceeded to enjoy the homemade chocolate peanut butter cup with Mediterranean sea salt (!) I had purchased that morning in a tiny chocolate shop near the market. Delicious.
That afternoon, we headed over to the Space Needle so my friend could ascend to the top. I declined as paying money to ride to the top of tall buildings is not really something I’m enthusiastic about (she said it was great and well worth doing, however). On our way over, we stumbled across an outdoor festival, and donated a few dollars to get inside. We spent time sitting on the grass, people watching and listening to live music being performed on stage while we devoured the most enormous heaping serving of curly fries I have ever encountered. Literally, they fried an entire batch of potatoes in front of us, divided the fryer portion into two halves, and gave us one. It cost $8 and was probably worth more, but neither one of us could finish it and frankly I never felt much like eating again for the rest of the day. Still, the whole thing made for a memorable Seattle experience!
Sunday morning we woke up with food once again on our minds, and took our rental car over to the Capitol Hill district for brunch at Oddfellows Café. This restaurant had been highly recommended as a brunch spot in my Lonely Planet, and I always like to check out at least a few guidebook-recommended places in any city I visit, so this fit the bill. Happily, it did not disappoint. We began with an order of piping hot beignets, little donuts covered in white confectioners’ sugar, washed down with the daily brunch punch special—I can’t recall exactly what this included, but I think there was lavender and lots of hard liquor involved. Pretty interesting. Then, the main event arrived: I ordered a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit, which thoughtfully was served with a side of healthy, likely organic greens to make me feel marginally less guilty about my brunch choices. Conscience assuaged.
And wow, what a breakfast sandwich—I am not normally a huge fan of biscuits but this one was ENORMOUS, piping hot and buttery, crumbling a bit as I ate it but still sturdy enough to stand up to the crispy bacon—I love when restaurants actually follow my bacon-cooking instructions!—and eggs stuffed inside it. I almost managed to finish it, which was no small accomplishment, and it kept me full for most of the rest of the day. On my way out I snagged a chocolate chip cookie at the counter which I ate for dessert that night and which also had sea salt on top of it. I heartily approve of Seattle-ites apparent desire to add this ingredient to every chocolate product.
After brunch, I wanted to check out another guidebook spot, Victrola’s Coffee Roasters, a famous little café just a few blocks down the street. Neither my friend nor I are big coffee drinkers (Seattle sacrilege, no doubt) so we opted for non-coffee alternatives; in my case, a hot chocolate. I tend to be wary about ordering hot chocolate in unknown coffee shops, because often times even great coffee baristas don’t make this drink in quite the way I’d like—I need LOTS of chocolate and minimal sweetness. I was thrilled to find that Victrola had it covered. They used a rich chocolate syrup melted into hot water and a swirl of heart-shaped froth on top to make a visually stunning and scrumptious treat. Plus, the relaxed vibe, exposed wood decor and great people-watching view from our window seat made it a really charming place to hang out for an hour or so. If I lived in Seattle, I have no doubt I’d be a Victrola regular.
After our coffee shop detour, it was on to the Puget Sound ferry to ride out to Bainbridge Island. I didn’t know a whole lot about Bainbridge except that it was a popular day-trip from Seattle, easy to reach in less than an hour, and made for a great excuse to get out on the water. Any chance for a boat ride is one I’ll quickly seize, so I enjoyed the windy but picturesque ride over to Bainbridge, and getting to see a different view of Seattle’s landmarks as we drifted away. Many photos were taken—yes, embarrassingly, even including a few selfies. Sorry.
Bainbridge itself proved an unexpected delight, and a great example of how having no expectations and keeping an open mind about a place can pay off in spades. When we got to the island, we were given a map and quickly figured out that Bainbridge was best known for its shopping, cafes, and a multitude of wine tasting locales. Yes please! I’m not a huge wine drinker, but I really have come to enjoy wine tasting—the fun, relaxed ambiance, learning about different wines, the ceremony of the pouring, and of course, the accompanying cheese. My friend and I did a tasting—or rather, she did the full tasting and I stuck to a single serving of Riesling, which was excellent and complemented our cheese plate perfectly. The winery’s owner was a really fun and engaging women who clearly loved her job (I would too!) and the afternoon was complete once she put on “Midnight Train to Georgia,” and got most of the wine drinkers singing along.
At that point, we decamped for some ice cream at one of the shops lining the Bainbridge streets, and then it was time to hop back on the ferry for dinner at a barbecue place in Ballard with one of my old roommates from Praha days, who, as luck would have it, lives in Seattle now. After we finished our meal, she invited us back to her house and we got a glimpse of her neighborhood, a residential, leafy area outside the maelstrom of the city, which offered a great peak into a side of Seattle most tourists never get to see. Food, wine, ferry, and friends: the day was a resounding success.
As lovely as Seattle was, I think the thing I will take away from it most isn’t a single sight or experience, but rather, how nice it is to visit a city without a long planned agenda of items to check off but rather, with the intention of simply enjoying it. I think often, we hard-core travelers tend to lose sight of the fact that above all, travel should be fun! We want to get inside places, to experience them on a deep level, immerse ourselves in the cities and towns we visit, and that’s great. But when you only have a few days to see a city, it’s actually quite freeing to just decide on a few things you want to do—see a market, have brunch, and hit a famous café, for instance—and just let the rest unfold as it will.
I realized on the ferry trip back to Seattle from Bainbridge, as I relaxed and tried to take in the beautiful view of the city panorama growing closer and closer on the shoreline horizon, just how fleeting the ride really was, and how fleeting my two-day trip had been. I wanted to try to hold onto every moment, record the memories of all I was seeing in some inviolable place in my brain where they would remain forever. But I’m not sure that’s really possible. I may not always remember the exact way the Seattle skyline looked to me as our ferry pulled up, or the exact colors of the wildflowers in Olympic Sculpture Park, or the distinct flavor of the cheese I sampled in Pike’s Place Market. But what I will (hopefully) always remember about Seattle is that I got a chance to experience a lovely city for a weekend, see at least a little of what makes it special, and relax and have a wonderful time. I hope the memory of how much I enjoyed Seattle will linger long after the specific details I tried so hard to record begin to fade.
And of course, I’ll remember the brunch. And the chocolate. J
