Seattle

[KCDowntown]

Took the family to Seattle for 4 full days. We stayed a block away from the Pike Place Market on 1st. That area of downtown was consistently busy, and the whole downtown seemed very active.

First off, downtown Seattle is on Puget Sound, and it’s a very steep hill from the heart of downtown to the waterfront. To get from 1st street to the waterfront is about 10-12 stories worth of steps within 2 blocks. They are doing a lot of ton of work on the waterfront, adding paths for bikes, adding areas for plants - it looks like they are really classing it up. The waterfront area and the piers had people everywhere at all times of day. The waterfront adjacent to downtown has the aquarium, Ferris wheel, and a bunch of touristy places, as well as places to chill and watch the boat traffic into Harbor Island (heavy freight).

As for the attractions, the main driver of pedestrians was the Pike Place Market. As someone who had never been to Seattle my original impression was that Pike Place was only a fish market where guys are throwing fish around. That could not have been more wrong. It’s a 6-level multi-building complex full of restaurants, small businesses, rotating vendors with tables. It’s like the City Market on Saturday morning with way more variety (and everyday). It was really, really impressive, and the main building is the most non-descript building ever- built into the side of the aforementioned hill.

We hit some of the other main attractions as well - the Ferris wheel had great views. We hit the Space Needle at exactly the right time on a clear day. We got up to the top, which had amazing views of the skyline, only to see Mount Rainier “floating” in the distance (it’s 60 miles away) - it was literally a breathtaking surprise and view. I’ll try to post a photo later.

My son and I hit up a Mariners game at T-Mobile Park (formerly Safeco Field). Compared to the K, it’s much larger, had better concessions, has great views of the skyline, good transit access via light rail, but no spin off development as it’s surrounded by train tracks and highways only - any building looked to be modern warehouses. Their Hall of Fame though was so bad I felt bad for their players in it. For each player it was a tiny TV screen with highlights, a small plaque and cardboard cutouts. There are a lot of specialty areas that kind of detract from the actual baseball aspect of the stadium.

As for transit, we used their light rail a couple of times. Payments appeared to be on the honor system - it was 4.50 for my ticket to go 3 stops and free for 18 and under. We took a monorail to the Space Needle, but it was mainly a tourist option with only 2 stops (Space Needle and center of the city). We never encountered the streetcar, and it looks like they have 2 separate lines of that. They are expanding their light rail to the north. I’ve always thought that if KC wanted light rail from downtown to the airport that finding room for it would be a problem. Seattle’s light rail shows that it isn’t - they just make room. Their whole northbound extension appears to be on elevated platforms.

Downtown Seattle is not without its issues though. A couple of blocks of 2nd and 3rd streets especially featured rampant drug use. My wife and daughter had a planned trip to the spa that had an actual drug store (with a line) set up outside of it with people cooking up drugs alongside the building. I felt terrible for the owners of the spa who have to try and operate a business next to this. At one point outside this spa I had a guy walk up behind me with a Nerf gun and point and shoot at me and my son. Even in the most active parts of downtown, if you looked down an alley you were more then likely to see someone doing or cooking drugs at all times of the day. It was kind of wild, and a little wild that no one seemed to be doing anything to stop it. Target was a locked up security zone, the downtown Macys was closed, and Nordstrom closed off a bunch of entrances. There were always enough people around (even at night) that it never felt truly dangerous, but anywhere other than by the Market and 1st you would need to be aware of your surroundings.

All in all it was a great trip, and I was really impressed with Seattle. It appears to be thriving and growing (lots of cranes) and has a nice light rail system, but there are certainly some serious issues with drugs.

KCDowntown

[brewcrew1000]

I find Pikes Place Market a major tourist trap and overall really dislike Downtown Seattle unless its north of Denny Way , when we go to Seattle we pretty much just venture off into the other neighborhoods. Did you make it to Fremont at all to see the Troll? Green Lake, Ballard, Queen Anne, Magnolia, West Seattle are some of my favorite neighborhoods and they all have there own small town feel with good parks/views/beaches,, i think these somewhat separate feeling neighborhoods is where Seattle really shines.

[FangKC]

Those hills in Downtown Seattle are killers. I can only imagine how the sidewalks are when it's below-freezing and icy.

[chingon]

It's kind of the only one of the PacNW trio that feels like a real city, with actual culture, and not just a DINK disneyland.