Tuesday, May 23, 2017

5.19.17 - 5.23.17 Seattle and Portland

We arrived about 3 hours late Friday night because of bad weather across the country. I was very glad we decided to stay at a hotel near the airport. It took about 25 minutes from claiming our bag, calling the shuttle, and getting to the Coast Getaway Hotel. It's a clean, dated hotel with a friendly staff. It's on a road with several restaurants including Roasters in the parking lot. We enjoyed the continental breakfast with hard boiled eggs, waffles and sausage in the morning.

Saturday morning, we took a Lyft down to Pike's Place Market and checked into the Inn at the Market. The location is amazing. We are steps from the market. The hotel is on a steep incline so that's something to keep in mind. We checked in early so our room wasn't ready.  They took our cell phone number and said they would call us when it was.


We headed out towards the Space Needle. The museum on our list was the Museum of Pop Culture. It is fantastic! The exhibits on Horror, Fantasy, Sci - Fi, Star Trek, and Jim Henson were immersive, interactive and fun! We spent about 2 and 1/2 hour there and could have spent longer. We usually spend about an hour at a museum so this was a great museum.



We headed to Elliot's on the pier to get our oyster fix. The oyster list was so long! We couldn't choose so we trusted our server to choose for us. The oysters were fantastic.


Our favorites were Eagleock and Snigoku. We also had a crab and shrimp melts and the spicy crab chowder. Both were very flavorful with a lot of crab meat. Glenn thought the crab chowder was too thick. It was a little globby.

We got the call our room was ready so we headed back. We needed to fix a part of Glenn's shoe since the sole was a little loose. We completed our shoe repair and headed back to the docks. I wanted to see the Seattle skyline from the water and ride a ferry so we chose the 35 minute ferry to Bainbridge.


Everyone was in good spirits since the weather was sunny and warm - a Seattle anomaly. We walked into town, tried some very good Amelia Wynn wines and took the ferry back.

It's game time! Time to check another stadium off our list. As we were walking to the stadium, Glenn stopped and pointed to a bar across the street. "That's the bar from the painting." We've had a LeRoy Neiman painting for years of F.X. McCoy bar. I was so excited. We headed in and had a drink.

It's famous for its collection of whiskeys. Glenn had Woodford Reserve Brandy Cask Finish. The bartender was pretty excited to serve it.


A few unique things about the Mariners stadium are:
  • One of the stands has cask ales.
  • The ridiculous walk up music - It was a lot of sad country and Phil Collins.
  • The scoreboard showed First Pitch Stats
Overall, the stadium was a good mix of local  and corporate food. The fans were friendly and we loved the location right downtown.

Sunday, we headed to the Amtrak station. It was a little stressful because we didn't count on there being a long line to check bags. Then we stood in the wrong line. We figured it out and made the train, but that much stress at 7:00 am when you've only had one coffee is a bit much. The views from the train made up for the stress.


We arrived in Portland, checked in the Portland Vintage Hotel, grabbed a beer at Rock Bottom Brewery, and then headed to the Northeast neighborhood to meet up with Devon and Nick. They gave us the BEST day. We had amazing French food for brunch, sampled terrific sour beers at Great Notion Brewery,

played games while drinking fun cocktails and eating yummy tacos at Cruzoom,

sampled an ice cream flight at Salt and Straw,

and ended the evening at Alberta Street Pub. It was a blast - the absolute best way to spend a Sunday.

Monday we took it easy. We made the pilgrimage to Voodoo Doughnuts and tried a whole bunch. Glenn's favorite was the Portland Crème and mine was the Lemon Crueller.


We took the train back to Seattle. A little boy around 2 years old and his dad were in front us. He was pretty cute and talked the whole time. The best moment was when he was trying to do something. His dad said, "Don't do it." The little boy responded  in the same tone of voice, "Don't do drugs." The entire car laughed.

We checked in the Palladian Hotel. We were upgraded to a one bedroom suite - I know, we are so fancy. Glenn found a great Japanese restaurant just down the block. We had a great meal and called it an early night.

Today we take a VIP tour of Pike's Place Market and then board the cruise ship. I can't wait.