These Is My Links

A friend asked for my recommendation for two days in Seattle.  I spent a summer there interning at Experience Music Project as a grad student.  My friend Heather was with me; she interned at Wing Luke Asian Museum.  Our combined list of what to try to do is sort of so amazing that I want to share it here! 

First, my email:

Rosie, your “two days in Seattle” challenge has got my juices going.  Heather, I’m including you because you might be able to give more advice.  I sort of texted Rosie my initial thoughts, but here’s the longer version.  You know I always have a longer version ;-)  Here’s my thoughts on food stuff, “attraction” stuff, and neighborhood stuff

Food Stuff

• Also sort of an attraction, Pike Place Market.  Lots of tourists, but also totally charming.  If there’s a “market” day or any other event, definitely worth visiting and strolling through, though I’m less sure it will be as vibrant in the non-summertime.  The original Starbucks is there, but skip that and go get Piroshkys next door instead!  And go to Beechers!  That’s where Heather and I took our very informative and very tipsy cheese-tasting class.  Good times.  
• The “street food” of Seattle is Hawaiian food.  Not necessarily the most delicious thing, but sort of awesomely Seattle and I don’t know else where you just go around getting Hawaiian food, unless you’re in Hawaii
• Top Pot Donuts, downtown, is an institution for coffee and donuts.  Seattleites in general are very serious about their coffee.  My favorite thing is how you can get espressos in drive throughs and in sidewalk and parking garage espresso bars.  Hilarious.  Probably worth “yelping” or otherwise to see where all the cool kids are raving about these days.
• My favorite place to eat in Seattle was the amazing, tiny, hole in the wall dumpling/noodle shop in I-town (the Internatioanl District, the old Chinatown, but not really a Chinatown because a diverse Asian community lived and lives there).  Heather, can you give her the name or at least the location.  That place was the bomb and was cheap and eveyrthing was handmade and I was OBSESSED with the sesame noodles.  I could literally eat them every day. 
• Heather and I cooked A LOT in Seattle, so unfortunately I don’t have a ton of recommendations for where to eat out.  At the top of the Space Needle was a nice restaurant with killer views, obviously.  And it spins.  Who doesn’t like that?  But actually it was very good and you get to go to the top of the Needle without paying a fee, so it sort of kills two birds with one stone, if you’re interested in the Needle.  And the view at night was sort of magical. 

“Attraction” Stuff

• Public humanities crush Wing Luke Museum.  They actually do a lot of walking tours of the I-district that might be interesting if they fit in your schedule and their exhibits change often—all community-curated.  You might like to see that.  They have also beautifully restored a historic building.  I’m forgetting the details of its significance right now, but I remember it was so cool.  Heather can tell you a lot more about Wing Luke Museum.
• I really loved, and I think Heather did too, the Underground Tour.  They literally take you on a tour of late 19th century Seattle that was preserved underground when they raised the streeet level in the early 20th century.  It’s the most bizarre and strange place to explore—there’s just old junk and storefronts down there!  We did a tour themed around vice that included a free beer!  The underground tour is in the oldest part of Seattle, so the buildings “above ground” are pretty gorgeous too.  It’s near Elliott Bay Bookstore, which is a fantastic independent bookstore, but I am half-recalling that it might have closed, which is really sad. 
• If you wanted to shop, the flagship Nordstrom downtown is sort of a wet dream, especially the shoe department.  Ohhhhhhh.  
• I would actually skip Experience Music Project unless there’s an exhibit you really wanted to see.  Also the Space Needle, other than to just see it.  It is delightfully bizarre.  You could actually take the monorail from the Space Needle/EMP area to the Pike Place Market area just to “do it” and see some cool views of the city. 
• If the weather isn’t miserable, and even if it is and you ahve a good raincoat, you could take the ferry over to one of the islands and then back.  It’s the best view of the city and it’s always calming and delightful to be on water.  And there’s a bar on board, if I recall ;-)
• Flagship REI store is also sort of hilariously awesome—there’s a biketrail on the grounds and sort of incredible displays. 
  Which reminds me that Seattle-ites are all about the biking and the hiking; they climb mountains before coming into work.  I am assuming you will plan to be in the city proper, but you could definitely rent bikes or if you get out of the city, there are lots of trails for all levels of skill/endurance/length of time. 

Neighborhood Stuff

• Bell Town is downtown.  It’s sort of chi-chi now, but it was the grunge scene in the late 1980s/early 1990s.  It’s a place to go out downtown.  It’s where Heather was kicked out at least one bar ;-) 
• Capitol Hill is sort of a grungy hip neighborhood—coffee shops, music, shoppes, etc.  That was another major grunge area.
• Blanking on the name of the other major neighorhood that people really like.  But that’s where there is a neighborhood that completely changes its menu by theme each month and is all seasonal/local.  My coworkers took me there my last day and it was really fun.  They were having an “Oregon theme” and in addition to Oregon foods on the menu, they had decorated it with Goonies and Trailblazers and Oregon Trail stuff.  hilarious.  Let me see if I can remember the name of that place.
• Heather and I lived north of the University of WAshington neighborhood.  Cute but not really a destination. the area around the university is very collegiate. 

Okay, obviously you could never do all this in two days.  And there’s no doubt things i forgot.  But hopefully that could get you started and i’ll try to think of other things and remember specific details!  Remember, the way you tell the weather in Seattle is whether “the Mountain is out”, meaning, if it’s sunny, the mountain is out, if the mountain isn’t out, it’s cloudy/overcast/rainy.

Miss you (both)!

Love,

Leah

Next, Heather’s follow-up:

Heather