Seattle Vacation in 48 Hours

We would like to start this post by saying you cannot do Seattle in 48 hours, you can barely do one neighborhood in that time, but realistically not everyone has time to spend months here exploring every nook and cranny. This post is for people who are coming to Seattle for a weekend and need to hit up only the best of the best. 

Friday

You will probably be arriving in Seattle in the late afternoon. We are going to immediately throw you a curve ball and send you up to Capitol Hill. This is one of the best neighborhoods in Seattle for a number of reasons, and you can't miss it. First check out Melrose Market, maybe have a few oysters at Taylor Shellfish Company to keep you until dinner. Then head over to Elliott Bay Book Company, the #1 bookstore in Seattle, to browse their amazing selection with awesome staff to help you find your next favorite book.

Photo source

After this you can go check out the Jimmy Hendrix statue (air guitar is encouraged). Now you've earned dinner! Here are three options you can pick from depending on what floats your boat: Stateside,  Trove, or Tavolata. Finish the night off with a drink at Unicorn, the wackiest bar in Capitol Hill. 

The Unicorn's decorations are only outshone by their crazy cocktails.

Friday's hotspots

Saturday

Rise and shine and put your walking shoes on! Get to world-famous Pike Place Market at 9:00 AM before it gets swamped. Grab a crumpet at The Crumpet Shop and then start exploring. Check out Pike Place Fish (hint: when someone buys a fish they do the famous fish toss), the gorgeous flowers stalls, and grab free samples from many of the shops, including our favorites Ellenos Yogurt and Britt's Pickles. If you grab any food (hint: Piroshky Piroshky or Pike Place Chowder) and want a quiet place to enjoy it we recommend the Urban Garden. It's a bit tricky to find (located down the hallway to the left of Don and Joe's Meats), but a great secret of the market. 

Cute pig welcomes you to the Urban Garden in Pike Place Market

After you have thoroughly explored the market take the short walk down to Seattle's waterfront. The best stretch is between the Seattle Aquarium and Ivar's Acres of Clams. You can take in all the street artists, beautiful views of the Puget Sound, ride the Seattle Wheel, and get some food if you are hungry again. We have details all the best waterfront spots in this post. 

Miner's Landing and the Seattle Wheel 

Once you have worked up an appetite grab the water taxi located at Pier 50 ($4.50 one way) and take a short 5 minute boat ride across Puget Sound to get to our favorite seafood restaurant, Salty's, for your quintessential PNW dinner. This place has a fun atmosphere and killer views of the city skyline. Plus the food will make your life complete. 

Saturday's route

Sunday

Sleep in a little today and then grab a coffee at one of Seattle's MANY coffee shops. Once you have caffeine in hand head over to the Olympic Sculpture Park. This is an extension of the Seattle Art Museum and is a beautiful place to spend the morning. Start at the top (entrance at the corner of Broad St. and Western Ave.) and then wind your way down the main path to the waterfront where you will find the park's newest sculpture (and our personal favorite), Echo. 

Sculptures that double as benches in the Olympic Sculpture Park

From here you can make your way over to Seattle Center, which is a short walk. This park is the most popular in Seattle because of that giant needle people come to see. We recommend getting the joint ticket deal to visit the Space Needle and the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit because Chihuly is a mad genius (we did an entire post on this place here). Or if you are here around lunch you can get a free ticket to the Space Needle viewing deck if you eat at SkyCity, the rotating restaurant at the top of the Needle (spend a minimum of $25/guest).

One of the many spectacular Chihuly pieces in Seattle Center

We also love the EMP in Seattle Center. The EMP's exhibits pay tribute to all types of entertainment (think Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix, horror and fantasy films, and the Seahawks) and is well worth the $22 ticket price. 

If you haven't already, grab a quick lunch. Seattle Center's Armory building has lots of options so everyone in the group should be happy. Sometimes there are some pretty delicious food carts hanging out in the area too. You can then take your food and enjoy it by the International Fountain and listen to the music. 

From here head up Queen Anne hill to Kerry Park (you can walk, but be warned, the hill is gnarly). This park has arguably the best views of Seattle and the Space Needle. There also happens to be a delicious ice cream at Molly Moon's just up the street from it, so if you want to make a pit stop on your way we support that decision. 

The views from Kerry Park are phenomenal.

Take your photos, eat your ice cream. That's a wrap. Your 48 hours in Seattle is complete and you hit up all the best things! 

Sunday's route 

Volunteer Park

The view from the top of the water tower

You can't talk about Seattle parks without mentioning Capitol Hill's 48.3 acre Volunteer Park. It has an Asian Art Museum, sculptures, a dahlia garden, a conservatory, a water tower you can climb, a wading pool, tennis courts, lots of land to picnic, and plenty of squirrels (a main criteria when rating parks). There is so much to do here you could fill an entire afternoon wandering and sightseeing. And with Volunteer Park Café only a few blocks away, your day is set.

Black Sun by Isamu Noguchi

A peek of the space needle

One of our personal favorites of this park is the Black Sun sculpture by Isamu Noguchi, which sits on the edge of the reservoir and offers views of the Space Needle, Elliot Bay, and the Olympic Mountains. It couldn't be better for Instagraming the city and it also reminds us of a donut, so all the important things art should do (Noguchi would probably cry if he read that, sorry Noguchi). It has been credited as the inspiration for Soundgarden's famous 1994 song Black Hole Sun, sadly Chris Cornell has not confirmed this so we aren't sure if it's true, but next time we run into him we plan to ask. Feel free to sit by the sculpture and blast the song and reminisce about how awesome the 90s were, though.

We also recommend stopping in at the Conservatory ($4) and checking out the tropical plant collection. It's actually a perfect winter time activity too as they have to keep the temperature balmy to support the tropical plants. We like to go in the middle of winter and pretend we are in Costa Rica.

Tropical plants in the Conservatory

Lots of cactuses in the Conservatory too

Last stop is the Asian Art Museum. It costs $9 and the camels at the front entrance make for great photo opportunities. It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays but opens at 10am the rest of the week. We like to go and look at the collection of Buddha sculptures, there is something so peaceful about them. The museum has been around since 1933 and is currently looking to be restored. You can learn more about that here.

Seattle's Asian Art Museum (source)

Seattle Brewery Tour: Downtown

Downtown Seattle. It's a love hate relationship we have with you. On one hand you are the epicenter of our city. You house Pike Place Market, our favorite place in the city. On the other hand you also smell kinda bad and lack the fun atmosphere so many other neighborhoods have in Seattle.

Luckily, if you are in downtown and are overcome with the smell of urine or just need to get away from that man on the corner trying to convince you the end of times are indeed upon us there are a few breweries you can duck into for sanctuary. 

Photo from Pike Brewing Instagram

Pike Brewery Company

The big hitter downtown. The George Clooney of the downtown breweries. They have been around awhile and know what they are doing. They have it down, they rarely create something that isn't good (cough cough.. Batman...cough cough). They have a big location, good for groups, a large food menu, and offer brewery tours. 

Our Favorite: The Space Needle IPA, but if it goes off the menu the Scottish Kilt Lifter is a year-round goodie.

Old Stove Brewery Co.

Another brewery in Pike Place Market? What??!! Yep. It just opened this year and is set to expand into the new MarketFront building next year. They have communal tables in a true beer hall fashion, large windows that open to bring in fresh air and don't forget about the beer. It's pretty good too. We attended the Grand Opening and did a full write up here. 

Our Favorite: Galaxy Smash Pale Ale (you had us at citrus aromas).

Good color palette plus good beer equals happy bloggers.

Cloudburst Brewing

We saved the best for last, like the red skittle or the pink starburst. This brewery was born at a time of turmoil in Seattle, when Elysian sold out to The Man (aka InBev), and we were all crushed, but from the ashes rose something beautiful, from the ashes rose Cloudburst Brewing. There is not a bad beer on the menu. Everything is different in a delightful way. Exploring this menu is like exploring a beautiful utopia where you encounter something better at every turn. It's really that great, we are not hyperbole-ing here people. 

Our Favorite: It is so hard to pick one but if we MUST...Happy Little Clouds... or maybe the Clickbait IPA... but then there is the....crap. ok. stopping before this gets embarrassing

Need to find breweries in Ballard? Check out our first post in this series.

Long Beach, Washington

When you think of beach towns you might be picturing tiki bars, sand volleyball, and a bathwater temperature ocean, but the beaches of Washington are, well, a little different. They are a bit more rugged, much colder, with fewer foam parties and spring breakers. They are wonderful and charming, though, and definitely deserve a visit (of course, if you want to order a pina colada at one of the restaurants and pretend like you are on a topical beach, by all means). We headed to Long Beach, WA for a little getaway and had such a good time in this quaint little town. It’s small and easy to get around and can definitely be handled in a long weekend. Below is our guide highlighting our favorite spots.

Where to stay:

Adrift Hotel – We love this eco-friendly lodge that sits right on the beach and the boardwalk. They rent bicycles to guests for free, have a cute restaurant with live music most nights, a game room with shuffle board and ping pong, and loads of board games and DVDs for your use. Also, it's dog friendly!

What to do:

Visit the beach – Long Beach has an 8 mile boardwalk that lines the beach. It is perfect for walking or biking and there are a few geocaches hidden along the way. It’s peaceful and pretty. You can also drive your car straight on the beach, which is great because you can easily bring all your beach supplies with you (beer! frisbee!). Long Beach is actually the world’s longest beach, so you have miles and miles to explore.

Cape Disappointment State Park - There are a lot of trails of different lengths throughout this park. We chose the Cape Disappointment trail, which is easy and around 4 miles long. It takes you to the lighthouse at the mouth of the Columbia River and past Fort Canby that you can explore. It's set up to give you history about the fort, and the mouth of Columbia is crazy and insane!

Marsh’s Free Museum – This wacky shop is filled with all sorts of bizarre knick knacks, tourist gifts, antique coin operated machines, a two headed calf, and Jake the alligator man. If anything, it’s good for a laugh.

What to eat:

Cottage Bakery & Delicatessen - THE BEST DONUTS ON THE PLANET. They are so good that we may or may not have stopped here twice. They are handmade, fluffy and out of this world.

Captain Bob's Chowder - get the smoked salmon chowder because, duh.

Laurie's Homestead Breakfast House – We love this little diner. It feels like the perfect place for breakfast when visiting a beach town…huge portions, delicious food and a lot of character. Insider tip: borrow bikes from Adrift Hotel and ride the boardwalk all the way down to the restaurant!