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Our one night in Seattle was packed full of site seeing!
Talk about sleepless in Seattle! With only one night in Seattle, we had lots to do and not enough time to do it in! SO, we hired a private tour guide to give us a quick view of the city. Upon arrival in Seattle, he was waiting at the airport for our tour to begin. If you want to do like we did and hire a guide, I suggest booking with Get Your Guide due to their flexibility and best price guarantee. Here’s a similar private tour of Seattle that will give you the most bang for your buck and allow you to see the most in your limited amount of time.
The drive from the airport to the city center was longer than I expected. It was only 14 miles, but it seemed a lot longer in the traffic due to a sporting event. As you can see below, there are 2 stadiums in close proximity of each other, the Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Mariner’s stadiums.
Downtown Seattle was full of people walking and enjoying the city.
I wish I had more time to spend in downtown Seattle. There were many shops I would have liked to check out, and I really wanted to see Bubblegum Alley. I know it sounds disgusting, but we had been to one in San Luis Obispo years ago and I really wanted to compare them! 🙂
One of the first places we went was the Fish Market. Unfortunately, it was closing as we arrived. I loved hearing the story of how it began and how the people persevered over the years to keep it going. It started when farmers in the area were upset with the price gouging of the produce. They gathered together to directly sell their goods, therefore, sidelining the wholesalers! The farmers sold out within MINUTES!!!
As quick as the Farmer’s Market began, it slowed down with the start of World War 2.
When World War 2 began, the city of Seattle was transformed into industries to produce machines of war, such as the Boeing company. Men went to war and women started to work, hence, the nicknames Rosie the Riveter and Elsie the Electrician. There were lots of Japanese that helped in the fields before the invasion of Pearl Harbor. Afterward, many fled for fear of their lives, while others were sent to internment camps. The Farmer’s Market was affected with a shortage of farmers to bring in the supplies.
This continued for almost 30 years before the people of Seattle voted to keep the Public Market going.
The Pike Place Public Market is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and spans 9 acres of locally produced goods. I like that you can get only local goods here and not just people selling things they get in bulk like at other public markets. The prices were much better than other shops, as well!
Seattle is known for the birthplace of Starbucks coffee.
We passed the original Starbucks. I’m not a big coffee fan, but I liked hearing the stories about Starbucks. I was told this is the ONLY place you can see the original logo on the store front. If you notice, the logo shows a naked woman with her legs spread. Of course, people were offended by this logo and that’s why we have the current Starbucks logo today.
I was also informed that Starbucks had a competition with Seattle’s Best Coffee to determine who had the best coffee. Seattle’s Best Coffee won and later Starbucks bought them out. Interesting!
We continued on towards the Space needle. Closeby is the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPop). It is an interesting looking building. We were told that each piece of the building had a specific spot it must go in. Unfortunately, someone misplaced a piece and they had remove the pieces until they found the correct piece. Talk about having to pay attention to detail!
As we drove through downtown, our tour guide pointed out the building that was supposed to be the one from ’50 Shades of Grey.’
We found Fremont troll!
One of the coolest places we visit was the car crushing Fremont Troll. You would think he lived under the Fremont Bridge, but he is actually found under Aurora Ave. Bridge. We were told this is quite the happening place on Halloween.
There are many views around Seattle to get a good picture of the city.
Since we only had one night in Seattle, I really wanted to see the city from a distance. I was excited when we pulled up at the Gas Works Park. The park was the former Seattle Gas Light Company gasification plant, but now provides a beautiful view of the city. You can see kayakers and boats in the water while watching the seaplanes take off and land. It’s the perfect place to have a picnic or watch the sunset. This park was one of my favorite areas of Seattle.
Even though I had only one night in Seattle, I HAD to visit the Space Needle!
Chris had already visited the the Space Needle and chose to visit the food stands while I went inside. I chose to go at night for the view of the city lights. As I made my way up to the top, I learned about how the building was made. The view from the top did not disappoint!
Here’s a quick video of the view from Gas Works Park and my time at the Space Needle.
With one night in Seattle, we chose to stay at the Mayflower Park Hotel.
The hotel is located right downtown and was one block away from the tram that we rode to the Space Needle. The room was clean and we had no complaints about our stay in this historic, beautiful hotel. This historic hotel is the perfect place to stay in Seattle. (Click here to check out rates.)
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