It is the end of the summer and the kids are going back to school soon. A great way to relax, re-energize and connect to your spouse and partner in crime, raising kids is a weekend or week away. Just the two of you! We just made it into a Parents weekend out;) Seattle and Vancouver, Canada, here we come.

Travel and stay

Just by the thought of traveling light, back packing, road tripping and eating yummy food, we were getting excited about our trip. We finally got to listen to OUR songs, like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, ” Road Trippin'”. No screaming from the back seat: ” CAN YOU TURN THAT OFF!”).

We decided to travel from Kansas City to Portland with Spirit Airlines. This airline company has cheap tickets, because they’re using “bare fare”. This means that you can bring a small backpack and that’s pretty much it. If you want to bring extra bags, it’ll cost you $50 extra per bag. And all the snacks and drinks on the plane cost extra too. Don’t expect much of the seats or cleanliness either. But for our short flights it was totally fine.

We drove our car down to Kansas City. I had heard that the parking fees at the airport were expensive, so we found a parking space at hotel, called Sleep Inn. From there, we took the shuttle to the airport. In the car we checked in online and had our boarding passes ready at the gate. Very easy!

Our first part of the trip took us to Las Vegas. I didn’t realize that the airport is located so close to the Las Vegas strip. As soon as you walk out of the gate, you’ll see a few dozen slot machines. Yup, welcome to Las Vegas!

Our next flight was delayed. The plane was not even at the gate. One and a half hours later we we re on the plane to Portland.

In Portland we were hungry and found a great sushi place a few feet from the gate: Hissho sushi. I just love Bento boxes and they had great miso soup.

Off to find our rental car. We rented it from Dollar, through Hotwire. The guy spoke so fast and tried to get us a bigger car, extra insurance and gas. I was happy my husband was with me, but even for him, it was so overwhelming. We just said no and thank you!

Up to Seattle!

Seattle

Where to stay

We drove to Seattle that evening. It was not easy to find a nice and cheap hotel, which we normally have, so we tried an Airbnb room instead. It was our first time for us. I have to admit, it was a little strange for me to step into other people’s house and share their bathroom at 11:30 pm.

I think, if you make a reservation with a bigger group or family, you’ll have better chance to get an apartment or a whole house with more privacy. Maybe an idea for next time.

It was a nice room, though and we briefly saw the owner and they were very nice!

What to do

In the morning we looked for parking possibilities near Pike Place Market. We used Spothero and found a valet parking spot at hotel Alexandria. From there it was just a few blocks away from the market.

The market looked a little old and dingy, but it had an interesting vibe. The first thing I noticed was the high price of the products. It is maybe because this is a big tourist attraction, but I’m used to pay less for produce on markets. I can totally understand, most of the other products are home made and are more expensive. I have to say we still bought yummy cherries and peaches, for our pre-breakfast snack.

Slowly we made our way through the market. Merchants were still setting up. Beautiful bouquets (these were cheap compared to the bouquets in the Midwest), lavender stand, jewelry, honey, and of course the fish throwing stand.

We made it to lower levels of this quirky market and found a place called Sound View Cafe for our brunch. It was not cheap. Food was okay, but you also pay for the view.

Something quite disgusting we also discovered by accident. I saw pictures, but I unconsciously moved it into the garbage can in my brain. But hey, there it was…it even smelled like bubblegum in the entire alley.

We definitely wanted to see the Space Needle, but somehow I got caught in a phone call and at the same time a text came in from friends we wanted to meet. So, no time to make it to the top. From friends we have heard the best way to do the Space Needle is getting a nice lunch in their restaurant, SkyCity, the trip to the top will be free. Next time we’ll definitely do that!

Back to Pike Public Market. We’ve found our friends and they took us to a wonderful coffee bar, called Storyville with amazing pastries and great coffee.

We were still hungry from our brunch, but our friends needed a bite to eat. They took us to FOB Poke Bar. I heard about Poke Bowls, but never ate them before. These bowls just changed my trip eating habits. We had at least 2 of them during our trip and I’m definitely going to find a place close to where we live….maybe I have to talk to our local Sushi Restaurant!

Unfortunately it was time to go…. A little more than 3 hours of driving was ahead of us.

More things to see, eat and do in Seattle

Here are some more ideas what to do, see and eat in Seattle if you have more time

Seattle Aquarium: In general we love aquariums and this one we will visit when we come back with the kids.

Seattle Ferris Wheel: Yes, we saw this wheel from our brunch place at Pike Place Market, but again we didn’t have time. I bet our youngest would love this ride.

Underground tour Seattle: Friends in Seattle were telling a little about Seattle’s history and it sounded really interesting. Now the kids are a little bigger, they’d probably be interested in this more.

International Fountain: Again a recommendation from friends and their kids. Locals hang out here. The kids can splash in the water (would have been nice when we were visiting).

Kerry Park: If we had more time, we would have done the hike up to this park. From here you’ll have a beautiful view of the city, the Space Needle, the water and Mount Rainier in the distance.

Starbucks, the original: We drank a ton of great coffee in Seattle and we can see how Starbucks started this brand in this city.

Piroshky Piroshky: Right next to Pike Place Market and the original Starbucks, is this Russian/Eastern European Bakery with sweet and savory handheld pies.

Biscuit Bitch: This restaurant has mainly Biscuits and gravy in all kinds of varieties. According to friends, it is a really good place to eat something quick.

Vancouver here we come!

Danielle

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my Crafty Dutch Girl blog! Grab a cup of “koffie” and browse through fun blog posts about our Dutch family expat life in the USA, Dutch history, Dutch recipes, Dutch things to do in the USA and all kinds of crafts and activities. Don’t forget to connect with me for new ideas! “Groetjes en tot ziens”.