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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Seattle
It looks like I have a trip to the Emerald City in my future!
Tell me everything you love/think I should avoid! And if you have hotel recs, all the better--I'm eyeing one place that looks like a bargain, but I think the room is the size of my office. (That is: tiny.)
Re: Seattle
I'll be there in 2 weeks!
Use hotwire to book a hotel. We stayed at the Westin (very nice) for $60/ night last summer. You can specify the stars and the price and get something comparable. Plus the good downtown hotels are in walking distance of everything.
Purple Wine Bar is worth the money. It is a fabulous restaurant/ wine bar downtown.
If you haven't been, commit some time to going down to the Pike Place Market. It's the open-air market that has tons of fresh food, flowers, art, etc. The original Starbucks is there and there are a lot of really neat shops within a few blocks. There was an amazing seafood place in one of those little allies, but I can't remember the name for the life of me.
The Space Needle is a fun, touristy, one-time thing. You get a fantastic 360-view of Seattle and are able to see a lot of historic landmarks.
Alki Beach is the best water-access where you can take a walk and check things out.
Wine or beer? Chateau Ste Michelle Winery and Red Hook Brewery are literally across the street from each other, about 20 minutes north of Seattle. Both are totally worth the effort.
Have a GPS. The highways get a little hairy and it's nice to know which lane you will have to be in to exit.
Have fun!!!
If you venture over to Portland, go to McMenamin's Winery. It is truly awesome.
Seattle is a beautiful place, I've always enjoyed my time there. When are you going? If in September, Bumbershoot will be going on and that's always an interesting thing to do.
That is one of my favorite cities. I always stay at Hotel Max and LOVE it!!! It is walking distance to the train and Pike Place and has a very cool atmosphere similar to W Hotels but MUCH cheaper. I love going to The Tasting Room. It is a wine bar that is in a alley across the street from Pike Place. It's in an old building has brick walls and just an amazing feel. The "locals" hang out there and when you walk in you will be greeted by the owner's amazing labs. Last time we were in Seattle we spent 5 hours straight in there. Love it! There is a cheese shop, also across the street from Pike Place, that has the very best Mac 'n Cheese you have ever put in your mouth. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!! Honestly, you really can't go wrong in Seattle. Such a great city. Have fun!!
ETA: The cheese shop is Beechers. MMMMMMM!
Awesome recs, thanks ladies! I've never been to Seattle, and am really excited to go!
I'm going around mid-August, and I think the timing is such that it's the one week of summer that's in-between festivals. Bummer! But that just means more time for coffee, wine and cheese.
Joyco, it's been years since I visited Portland, and I think at the time McMenamins was just hotels--am I remembering that correctly? I really wanted to stay at the school house, but it was all booked up! I don't remember them having a winery! (I loved Portland, incidentally, and hope to go back some time.)
Rarely Updated Blog
LOVE Seattle. We used to go there every year to visit friends...
We LOVE the Underground Tour. They are always excavating, opening and closing different areas of the underground, so the tour has been a bit different every time we've gone. It's so cool to walk around in a complete "city under the city." Seattle has an awesome history too, full of money laundering, kidnappings, brothels, city-wide poo floodings, all kinds of cool stuff. But, DH and I could just be nerds, too.
Everything pp's have said. We also have enjoyed the harbor tour, whale watching, driving to Pike's Peak, going to a number of waterfalls that aren't too far from Seattle (we've been to Snoqualmie Falls and another state park, but I don't remember the name). You can also find that sculpture of the slug bug car being attacked by the monster, under the bridge and take a picture with it. It's quirky and very Seattle. It's called the Fremont Troll.
We've also eaten at the Twin Peaks cafe, known for their pie (heh, you wouldn't miss anything IMO if you skipped this). And, supposedly the Viaduct (main highway in Seattle) is so old that it could collapse at any time, so you're really living on the edge every time you visit!
Have a ton of fun!
Take the ferry over to Bainbridge island, lots of cute shopping you can walk to from the ferry and lots of nice little places for lunch/brunch. I think we went to a place call Nola?
We also ate at Ivan's for lunch on one of the piers basically right below Pike's place.
Drink lots and lots of coffee. If you want all the locally brewed beer places let me know, I think we went to 6-7 of them