PNW Trip Report (Part 2: Seattle Night & Day)

Space Needle at Sunset and Exploring Neighborhoods

Stop 3 (Day 1): Space Needle in the Evening

Last newsletter was all about our first day in Seattle, including Pike Place Market, Bainbridge Island, and getting to the Space Needle. We wrapped up the evening going up to the top of the Space Needle as the sun set and night fell, followed by a nice Italian pasta dinner.

Entering the Space Needle was straightforward and easy, with a set of ATM-like kiosks outside to buy tickets (no long “box office” or “will call” type lines!), and a not-surprising elevated queue inside wrapping around a large ground-floor gift shop.

There are a couple levels once you go up to the top. There’s the upper level with an exposed balcony. It was pretty busy but a great area to take spectacular photos of the Seattle skyline, Puget Sound, and mountains in the distance. Yes, that includes Mount Rainier if the weather is reasonably clear. There’s also a lower level that, unbeknownst to me, has a rotating lounge/restaurant, and also a glass floor where you can see down to Seattle Center at street level.

As the sun set and skies darkened, the views became even more spectacular with buildings and water bodies lighting up, and the glow of an orange sky behind the distant Olympic Mountains.

As night fell, it was good to see a cityscape different from the raw urban grid I’d been used to seeing from my native Chicago’s Sears (sorry, “Willis”) Tower or the Empire State Building over Manhattan. The second photo above was a cool accidental effect of looking down on the Chihuly Gardens from the clear glass external elevator as we exited, but reflecting the upper part of the Space Needle above.

Stop 4: Tavolàta Belltown for Dinner

As it was getting late into the night, we found a nice Italian place within walking distance of the Space Needle and our hotel, Tavolàta. Staying in Belltown in the middle of Seattle Center where the Space Needle is and Pike Place Market & downtown proved to be quite convenient.

Although this wouldn’t turn out to be the most memorable meals on our trip, it was definitely one of the better ones. I can’t recall the exact pasta dish I had as the menu seems to rotate, but it was a think “ribbed” spaghetti with some sort of lemon and egg yolk sauce. Very different but very good. Dessert was also very good - I *think* we had tiramisu and a couple of other items.

Since we largely did everything we wanted to do in Seattle, it was good with only a half day left before heading to Vancouver.

Day 2: Capitol Hill, University District, and King St. Station

The next morning we had some good free, unplanned time, and decided to explore some interesting outlying neighborhoods. First, we had a nice breakfast at Dahlia Bakery in Belltown. They’re known for their coconut creme pies and mochi donuts.

Stop 1: Capitol Hill

I suggested Capitol Hill just northeast of the downtown core to explore another neighborhood. No real plans to see anything but I’d heard of it being an interesting commercial street with shops, cafes, and restaurants. Basically a more “real” neighborhood. Luckily it was a fairly quick trip with some walking and our first use of the Sound Transit Link Light Rail system.

Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures here so the Google Street View above will have to do.

We did stop by an interesting thrift store and picked up a couple of items, and kept walking up the street. The restroom beckoned again but unlike the previous evening’s scramble for one in downtown, a thrift store employee kindly pointed us to a public library a couple blocks away, which was a nice break. We kept walking up north through the main commercial street, and while it was an interesting neighborhood, my family quickly got bored and decided to head further north into the University District next to the University of Washington.

Stop 2: University District

My wife had been intrigued with the overhead power lines serving the Seattle trolleybuses, and so it was a good opportunity to use one of these between these two transit- and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. The bus was convenient and easy - if I recall correctly, we just tapped our credit card for fare payment on board. It was about a 12 minute ride and put us right at the front of the University District’s main commercial street (University Way).

It was definitely an interesting neighborhood, though while walking up University Way it was clear we didn’t have enough time to find or explore anything particularly unique. The crowd was definitely much more students with the University itself next door. I later heard the campus is gorgeous, but again we unfortunately did not have enough time to explore before heading back towards downtown to get our bags at the hotel and head to the Amtrak station.

Stop 3: King Street Train Station (Amtrak)

We headed back to our hotel from the University District, again taking the Sound Transit light rail. At this point I definitely found Seattle transit services to be convenient, at least in the inner core where we were exploring.

After picking up our bags we took a Lyft over to Seattle’s main rail station, King Street Station just south of downtown. As you can see above, it’s a gorgeous historical building and maintained well. The only sad thing is intercity rail service is definitely much more limited compared to decades ago, but the station is conveniently located with regional/commuter Sound Transit trains and Link light rail at adjacent platforms.

We had a lot of time to kill before our train to Vancouver, and the nice thing about the station is that it’s well integrated into the city’s urban fabric, and especially with the International District/Chinatown just to the station’s east. My younger son wanted to satiate his boba tea urge, which would be a recurring theme throughout our trip. I also just wanted to see what Asian food would be good to pick up and enjoy before and during our train ride. I ended up splurging a bit on Filipino sweet baked goods with ube, including cheesecake and cookies. Unfortunately the signature Filipino dessert of halo-halo was not in season in April.

Boarding the train was very orderly and the local Amtrak staff were wonderfully courteous. It was like a more laid back version of boarding a plane, with some basic passport checks and immigration forms as we we were crossing the border later during the trip.

How we decided to use Amtrak and our experienced the ride will be my next post…to be continued!