Category: Seattle,WA

Seattle,WA

Place 73 – Day 7: Seattle,WA – Gas Works Park, Pinball Museum & Oldest Chinese Restaurant

Kim & Curtis Hale

Sleep!

We slept in until 11:45 this morning, partially by accident but also it was lovely to get some sleep.

We had our breakfast, showered and finally headed out at around 13:30.

2 Buses

We got onto the bus and had to change at downtown onto a bus taking us further north.

We got up to an area called Fremont and walked towards the Gas Works Park.

Gas Works Park

The gas works park is a park which contains a former coal gasification plant.

The style looks very ‘steampunk’ and it is a really awesome thing to look at. This place was used from 1906-1956 and still looks great for its age! This is actually the old remaining coal gasification plant in the US!

More About The Gas Works Park | Seattle,WA

We were also able to get amazing photos of the city from this view point!

Google

We were aware that Google had an office around that area too, so we walked down the coast line and then came across it.

They basically own an entire street of buildings…it was very cool!

Pinball Museum

We got a bus back towards the city and got off at Chinatown.

We walked for 10 minutes and got to Seattle’s pinball museum.

We had to pay a fee of $15 each and then we could play for as long as we wanted on whichever machines we wanted!

We had a really great time playing all of the machines. They were also layed out in age order, from 1960 all the way to 2018!

Seattle Pinball Museum | Seattle,WA

Rating:- 8/10

There were 2 floors to the store and we actually really enjoyed ourselves, considering we were a little sceptical.

Kim Playing The 1960 Machine

Oldest Chinese Restaurant

We asked for good food suggestions at the pinball place and were told that the oldest Chinese restaurant in Seattle was around the corner. That sold it for us, so off we went!

We got to Tai Tung and instantly noticed how old it looked, but in a good way! It has been open since 1935 and it has incredible character. It was also Bruce Lee’s favourite restaurant in Seattle!

Check Out A Video About Tai Tung Restaurant

We sat and were given a pot of Tea, water and then later, free cabbage soup!

We ordered beef chow mein, sweet & sour pork as well as some rice.

The food was pretty good, actually! The chow mein was delicious, with incredible beef in it. The pork inside the batter was good, but the batter was a little odd and the sauce a bit too sweet.

Tai Tung Restaurant | Seattle,WA

Rating:- 8/10

Hometime!

We walked back from chinatown to our apartment. There were some incredible views on the way, including a beautiful sunset.

We got back, packed as we leave Seattle tomorrow, and watched some TV for a bit.

Tomorrow

Luckily, we don’t need to leave too early in the morning due to our flight being early afternoon.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Seattle,WA

Place 73 – Day 6: Seattle,WA – Under The City & Kerry Park Lookout

Kim & Curtis Hale

Out For Breakfast

We went out for breakfast today as we were recommended a place.

The place to eat was in the Pike Place Market, so we caught a bus to the city at around 09:30.

We got to the city and walked to the market.

The market was a bit smelly, due to the fish section of the market, but we found Lowell’s, the place we were recommended for breakfast.

Curtis had a breakfast with 2 eggs, bacon & hashbrowns along with sourdough toast.

Kim had 2 eggs, 2 pancakes and bacon.

Both breakfasts were ok, Curtis did have great coffee, but both meals were a bit bland.

Lowell’s | Seattle,WA

Rating:- 7/10

Underground Tour

We were also recommended an underground tour of Seattle.

We walked from the breakfast place down to Pioneer Square, where there is the entrance for the underground tour.

We were first sat in a room where we listened to our guide talk about the history of the city and its founders.

After we had a 15 minute listen, we were walked around various points under the city, told stories regarding the great fire of Seattle (which burned the city down) and how all the original buildings are actually underground now as they were built below sea level, before the fire.

An Old Toilet. Due To The Tide, The Would Often Become Geysers!

An Old Sink

Our guide was very funny and informative. We were able to learn a lot about how Seattle was, the ‘villain’ and the founder of Seattle, all told in an interesting, funny way.

The tour took about 1 hour, over several buildings and down many tunnels.

Underground Tour | Seattle,WA

Rating:- 10/10

Doughnuts

Afterwards, we were speaking with the guide and she said there was a good place to get doughnuts and so we took her up on her suggestion and visited general porpoise.

We got a doughnut each. Curtis got a lemon curd doughnut and Kim got a chocolate marshmallow doughnut.

Curtis got a cappucino, and Kim had a hot chocolate with our doughnuts. The drinks were great and the doughnuts weren’t bad either!

It Was A Beautiful Store!

General Porpoise Doughnuts | Seattle,WA

Rating:- 7/10

Kerry Park Lookout

We walked from the doughnut shop for around an hour to get to a lookout point, but with a brief stop at the Olympic Park which has sculptures in.

We were quite disappointed in the sculpture park, so we left there quite quick and continued walking to the Kerry Park lookout.

We had to walk up a rather large hill or two to get to the top and past a lot of beautiful houses, but the view itself was worth it!

Heading Home

We had been out for a good few hours and were actually getting tired, so we caught 2 buses back to our apartment.

Once we got back, Curtis watched the Leafs game and then after that we ate leftover stir fry.

We finished the evening with some TV.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our 2nd last day here in Seattle and we have definately enjoyed it.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Seattle,WA

Place 73 – Day 5: Seattle,WA – Amazon Spheres, Tacos & Giant Water Tower

Kim & Curtis Hale

Visa

First thing’s first – something we forgot to mention yesterday – Curtis now also has his Canadian work visa, so we can confirm that we plan to work in Canada in the near future!

Now – onward to today;

Off Into The City

We took the bus to the city this morning, but only had a $5 note. Kim was given a ticket which still had time on it, so only Curtis needed a ticket.

Curtis put the $5 note in the machine, expecting change, but the driver informed him that change is not given on buses in Seattle! This didn’t really bother us too much, but now we know.

When we got off the bus, the driver called us over and gave us 2 tickets to be used any time up to 18:00 as he felt bad that we put too much money in. He didn’t have to do that, but it was incredibly kind that he did!

SIM Shopping

We need to get a US SIM as we will be in the country for a bit of time, so we walked around places trying to find one.

We had seen the perfect thing at the supermarket yesterday, but didn’t want to just take the first thing we saw, so decided to browse.

Whilst we looked, we found nothing better, so decided we’d head to the supermarket later and get the one we saw.

Victrola Coffee

We had seen a coffee shop named Victrola a few times and it was full each time, so it must have been good! We decided we would check it out.

The coffees were mostly one size, which wasn’t a great start for us, so much so that Curtis panicked a little and ordered the house coffee instead of espresso.

The house coffee wasn’t great, but Kim had a mocha which seemed to get better over time.

We found some of the staff a little standoff-ish too, which wasn’t pleasant.

Interestingly there was also an Amazon office within the same building as this coffee shop.

Victrola Coffee | Seattle,WA

Rating:- 5/10

Amazon Spheres

Kim’s surprise was planned to be a tour of the Amazon headquarters. Unfortunately, it’s a very full tour and is usually booked for months in advance, so Kim had put us both onto the waiting list.

We walked to the Amazon HQ and asked the question as to if we had been accepted or not.

Unfortunately, we were not accepted and it is still full, so we were unable to do the tour. That being said, we have signed up for Thursday’s waiting list, so fingers crossed!

Spheres

We were still able to go into the Amazon Spheres, which were built fairly recently primarily as an alternative workspace for Amazon employees, but also as a living plant biome.

We could only explore the bottom floor, which explains all about how it was built, why it was built, the challenges and the people within. It was pretty cool to see!

Tacos

We left here and walked about 25 minutes to get tacos! Our host told us last night about a great, cheap, taco place so we grabbed some as a snack.

We each got a house taco (pork, salsa & pineapple) and we shared a steak taco.

The pork were by far the best. absolutely delicious, and the steak was just ok.

Taco Chukis | Seattle,WA

Rating:- 7.5/10

Volunteer Park

We went for a walk around volunteer park, which is a large park of woodlands. There isn’t much there, but it was a nice walk to relax. We saw a lot of squirrels and some were daring enough to come close. Kim tried to hand one a pinecone and freaked out!

We walked around for a bit more and then stumbled across a giant former water tower.

Water Tower

This water tower is huge and is now an observation deck.

We were able to climb the stairs to the top and get a 360° view of the city (and all the rain clouds!).

Different Bus

We took a different bus home after stopping by at something we will be doing tomorrow to ensure we are booked in.

We walked to a bus stop and caught a different bus number so we could go a bit off course and get directly to the supermarket near our apartment, rather than having to walk from home.

We got the SIM and other things we needed from the store and walked back home.

Stir Fry

We got home and Kim whipped up a pork stir fry, which was incredible.

We ate a lot, but it was worth the fullness!

We watched some TV and then went to bed. Got to be up early tomorrow!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Seattle,WA

Place 73 – Day 4: Seattle,WA – UPS Waterfall, Waterfront & Starbucks Reserve Roastery

Kim & Curtis Hale

Walking To The City

We were going to take a bus to the city, but we only had a $100 note, so we decided to walk instead. It wasn’t very warm today, but it also wasn’t cold or raining so we didn’t mind the 40 minute walk.

International Centre

We walked through the international centre, which is Chinatown, Japantown & the Vietnamese area. This was great and there also seemed to be a lot of great looking restaurants!

UPS waterfall

Our first stop was brief, but was fairly interesting.

This was a waterfall which was used to commemorate and celebrate the UPS staff and founder.

This is a Japanese style garden and is also the original office of the UPS.

Pioneer Square

Right by the waterfall was Poineer Square which we accidentally stumbled across.

This area has games, like table tennis, and also a memorial to all firefighters from Seattle that have lost their lives.

Ye Olde Curiosity shop

We went from here towards the waterfront and then stopped at Ye Olde Curiosity shop. This is a shop which has been around since 1899 but has moved several times.

This is a gift shop, but also has a lot of interesting, rare, items in, such as (apparently) real preserved dead bodies and more like that.

Kim Tried On Some Really…Interesting…Glasses

Walked along waterfront

We walked along the waterfront some more, just to see what was there. There was a lot of seafood restaurants but it was an interesting walk.

Starbucks Reserve Roastery

We walked from the waterfront up to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery.

This is where coffee beans are roasted, as well as a self guided tour, coffee only available at this location is served as well aa mixologists and staff that know a lot about coffee!

We started by being given a map and going to the first area where they roast coffee. Just 9 feet away, we watched the coffee get roasted and then it all poared out and smelled incredible!

We were given some freshly roasted beans to smell and taste!

These smelled incredible, but didn’t taste to good like this!

We got a flight ofcoffee to try, which was 8oz of 3 different coffees.

We had one from Kenya, one Columbian coffee and one which is only roasted at this location from Guatemala.

Kim isn’t a big coffee drinker, so Curtis drank most of it!

The Kenyan coffee had a great flavour but was fairly bitter. The Columbian was the easiest to drink and the Guatemalan coffee had a crazy flavour of black cherry and plum, which it really did, and was a little overpowering.

Curtis didn’t feel great after drinking so much rich coffee at once, but it was an awesome experience!

Starbucks Reserve Roastery | Seattle,WA

Steak

We got back to the apartment and Curtis watched hockey.

After hockey, we went to the supermarket to get a few things we needed as well as dinner for the next few days.

We got back and had steak ready to cook, which we purchased a couple of days ago.

This was a new york strip steak and it was large and incredible.

Curtis seasoned the steak very well and Kim cooked it perfectly, with the help of meat thermometers. The meat was incredibly tender and the accompaniment of the expertly cooked potatoes and delicious onion and mushroom gravy made it a heavenly meal!

Host Chat

We sat and had a chat with our host for a while as he came in whilst we were cooking.

Once we were done with the chatting, we washed up and then went to bed to watch a bit of TV.

Tomorrow…

Kim has a surprise for Curtis tomorrow, so he doesn’t know what’s going to be happening!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Seattle,WA

Place 73 – Day 3: Seattle,WA – First Starbucks Store & MOPOP

Kim & Curtis Hale

The Actual First Starbucks

We had to pay for the bus this morning, which was a change from yesterday!

We got into the centre and went straight to the actual first ever Starbucks.

We waited in line to get into the store and before long, we got in!

It is a little tight and crowded and you cannot sit inside, but we got our coffee and headed back outside.

We sat and had our coffee on a bench with a great view of the mountains!

Museum Of Pop Culture

We next planned to go to the Space Needle, so we walked towards it.

Once we got there, we got some good photos of the space needle and then realised we didn’t have enough money on us to go in, so we’ll have to do it another day, but we did have other plans anyway!

The Space Needle

Instead, we went to the MOPOP (Museum Of Pop Culture).

This has all things from video games to movies of different genres to TV shows and also music.

There were a few different sections within the museum and the first we came to was the Sci-Fi section, with a brief stop off at the video game area!

Video Games

We played a few indie games and it felt like we were right back in the UK at EGX!

Sci-Fi

The science fiction section had mostly costumes that had been worn for science fiction characters, such as enemies from Doctor Who, the hoverboards from Back To The Future as well as Star Wars and Star Trek items.

Star Trek Weapons

Horror

We accidentally went through to the next area which was the horror section.

It was similar to the Sci-Fi section, but with horror. There were a lot of props as well as things like the costume from Friday 13th.

There was an area which had fake dead people wrapped in sheets and hanging, which was quite creepy!

Fantasy

We moved on upstairs to the fantasy area. This spoke about movies and games based in the fantasy genre, the big two it mentioned being Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings.

There were more items on display from both of these films, as well as other items.

Pearl Jam

There was a whole floor on the band Pearl Jam, from Seattle.

We had not heard of them, but we enjoyed reading about them as well as looking at their memorabilia.

MOPOP | Seattle,WA

Rating:- 7/10

Lunch

We left the museum after this and found somewhere delicious for lunch.

Just before we left for lunch, we found the International Fountain, which is just a big fountain which is synchronised with music.

We went to a place named Michou.

This place was fairly busy when we arrived but it was an Italian style deli with a lot of, large, sandwich options.

Curtis got a roast chicken & chipotle sandwich and Kim got a beef and cheese sandwich. Both sandwiches were delicious, so we ate those up and then got out the way.

Michou Deli | Seattle,WA

Rating:- 9/10

Cinema

We walked down to the cinema to watch the film Fighting With My Family.

Neither of us realised this was based on a true story and then when Curtis realised who it was about, it all made sense!

We really enjoyed the film, actually. We aren’t sure how anyone from any other country would understand it as it has a lot of British humour and slang, but it was good for us!

Fighting With My Family

Rating:- 9/10

Dinner

We got back home via an Uber and had leftover Thai green curry, which was, as last night, delicious!

We watched some TV and did some research for tomorrow and future travels before hitting the hay.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Seattle,WA

Place 73 – Day 2: Seattle,WA – Wrong Starbucks,Public Market & Wine Tasting

Kim & Curtis Hale

Free Bus Tickets

We went down to the city for a walk around, as well as some things we had planned.

Firstly, we left the house and waited at the bus stop for the bus to arrive. Whilst waiting for the bus, a lovely lady gave us a box of Sugar Babies, an American candy, as she said we have to try them. We can confirm, they are delicious!

The bus was late and, when we got on, we had our $2.75 each ready.

The bus driver was kind enough to give us tickets for free!

Wrong Starbucks

We first went to Starbucks as the first Starbucks was opened in Seattle!

We didn’t think it was much different, other than the logo.

Curtis had a nitro cold brew, which he’s been wanting to try for a while. Kim had a cloud caramel macchiato.

The nitro cold brew looked like a Guinness, but tasted just like coffee that has gone cold. Kim’s caramel macchiato was good, though!

We later realised we had gone to the WRONG Starbucks and the first one was actually down the street, right where all the people were queuing. Guess we’l be heading there tomorrow.

Gum Wall

We walked down a side street and saw a wall completely covered in chewing gum. This wall is world famous and, for some odd and disgusting reason, people stick their chewing gum on the wall and people come along and take photos of it. That being said, here is a photo;

History & Information Of Gum Wall | Seattle,WA

– Wikipedia.org

Public Market

We walked to the public market for a wander around. Being Saturday, it was absolutely rammed but great fun!

There are all sorts of things at the market.

There are food stalls, drink stalls, people selling homemade items, a bakery or two, wine tastings, model car shops & BBQ areas!

Fish Stalls

Seafood Restaurants

Wine Tasting

We found a wine tasting place and thought ‘why not?’.

For just $5, we each got to try 6 wines of different types. White, red and Rosé wine.

The man serving us was very knowledgeable, funny and helpful. We sat and played connect 4 with an incredible view whilst we drank some wine.

Northwest Tastings | Seattle,WA

Rating:- 10/10

Home Time

We wandered around a bit more and then found a bus stop to catch a bus home.

Our ticket was valid still so we were still able to ride for free!

We got back to the apartment and Curtis watched the Leafs game whilst Kim did some laundry.

Food Run

After the game, we went to get something for the next few dinners from the supermarket. We met some really nice people at the store, too, which was lovely.

Thai Green Curry

We decided on Thai green curry for dinner, so we made that when we arrived home.

Dinner was delicious! We then watched some TV before heading to bed as we have another fun filled day tomorrow!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Seattle,WA

Place 73 – Day 1: Seattle,WA 🇺🇸 – Crossing The Border & Beautiful Room

Kim & Curtis Hale

Early Wake Up

We were up early to get ready, pack up and eat breakfast.

We bought cinnamon buns from the supermarket yesterday to have for breakfast along with the remainder of our orange juice.

Once we got packed up and showered, we checked out of our apartment and walked to the bus station.

Awesome Building

The bus/train station is Pacific Central Station. This is an amazing old building, with beautiful ceilings and the architecture is incredible, both inside and out.

Subway & Coffee

We had time to kill, so we were resourceful and went to Subway to get a sandwich for our bus ride and Curtis went to Starbucks for a coffee.

We got back to the bus station and stopped there for a while whilst we waited for the bus.

The bus arrived and on we got, ready for our 5.5 hour journey!

The Border

About 2 hours in to our trip, we stopped at the US border and went through customs.

We got our bags searched, randomly, which is always nerve wracking, even though you know you have nothing!

We jumped back onto the bus and continued on through some really awesone towns.

Arrival in Seattle

We arrived in Seattle and had to figure out our route to our apartment.

We walked a, less desirable, way and it felt a little intimidating, but we were all good!

We eventually got there and it was actually in a great neighbourhood and was very lovely.

We got ourselves in and we have a beautiful room as well as a shared bathroom, but that is lovely too! It’s in a 3 storey apartment and we are currently just sharing with the people that live here, so this bathroom is just ours for now.

Walking Around

We wanted a walk so walked for 20 minutes or so to get to the supermarket, where we saw McDonald’s so we knew what we were eating!

We got what we needed from the supermarket and then grabbed our food.

We strolled back to the apartment and were really ready to chill out.

We have some fun stuff planned for the next week here in Seattle!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale