We flew in and out of SeaTac Airport, staying in Seattle for a few days, before hopping on the train up to Vancouver for a wedding. Sadly, the Pacific NorthWest was battling pervasive smoke from destructive wildfires raging over British Columbia for much of our visit.

Seattle is quite an industrial city with incredible natural surroundings and interesting places to visit as a tourist, but we didn’t quite get under the heartbeat of the city – and I think the mistake was visiting without a car.

There, I said it.

Seattle, it wasn’t you, it was us.

That said, there were some really cool things that definitely deserve a visit if you’re Sleepless In Seattle. (Stop groaning and rolling your eyes – what’s the point of going to a city if you can’t use the phrase its best known for?)

We ADORED the Pop Museum.

In fact, we could have almost spent a day in there – which is saying something for a couple who had rather diverse interests… more to follow!

The Chihuly Exhibition was breathtaking.

It was brilliant and definitively deserves a blog post all of its own – the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibition was breathtaking.

Lunching like lords

Being able to have lunch with an old friend from New Zealand and her family was the LOVELIEST surprise (and take that people who hate when you check-in on holiday on facebook!)

Sailor Spotting*

*Not always guaranteed

Visit Pike Place to sip a Starbucks Mocha-no-whip-decaff-half-syrup-mohito, sorry, Frappucino

But, not on a Saturday morning if you value your patience. It was heaving with curious tourists, so not we wandered a little, and then bought a Starbucks Frapp at another local Starbucks (there were around 17 or so in a 5-minute walk) for photo at the original Starbucks cafe, thereby skipping an hour long queue. Yes, an hour long queue….

Walk a few hills, ok, more than a few.

Spend an afternoon on the islands

Hopping on the 45-minute ferry for less than the cost of a tube ticket between two stops (and a free return!), we disembarked for an afternoon strolling around Bainbridge Island.

We took an intriguing if confusing walking tour under the streets of Seattle.

Highly recommended by several friends who had been, we took The Seattle Underground tour around a network of underground passageways and basements in downtown Pioneer Square that were at ground level when the city was built in the mid-19th century. After the streets were elevated, these spaces fell into disuse, but have become a tourist attraction in recent decades.

Brunch (obvs)

We really enjoyed a little local brunch spot in West Seattle, near our AirBNB.

We enjoyed the discovering the secrets behind the local buildings.

Fun fact: if you take enough shoefies over time, your husband will even help art direct them.

Then, we legged it out of the city for a night

We loved our stay at the incredible Salish Lodge and Spa, in more verdant settings overlooking the 270 foot waterfall near Snoqualmie Falls.

I can’t wait to dive back into these memories properly. I think perhaps we just scheduled too much time in Seattle proper – two days rather than 3 and a half, plus our hotel would have been perfect, but then we couldn’t have discovered as many of the craft beer bars, cool museums and been as relaxed for Vancouver.

Hmmmm. That’s a tough call.

Have you ever visited somewhere that you planned wrongly for?

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