A Walker’s Guide to Seattle, the Emerald City

My husband, Dean, and I love to walk so it made sense to us to go Wheel-less in Seattle. Who wants to rent a car, pay to park it at the hotel, then fight traffic and pay to park againâÂ?¦ Such is life in any big city, but since everything we planned to visit was within 10 or 20 blocks of our hotel, we figured Wheel-less was the way to go. So we shrugged into warm rain gear, packed plenty of comfy shoes and set off for our first visit to the Pacific Northwest. Luckily the weather cooperated with us–we only hit rain our first day and although the locals complained of the cold, we appreciated the perfect walking weather.

As our airport shuttle delivered us to the door of The Inn at Virginia Mason, Dean asked the driver, “Is this Seattle or San Francisco?” We didn’t realize Seattle is built on hills so steep your nose practically touches the sidewalk ahead of you. OK, a little exaggeration there but we were undaunted. After a long day of sightseeing we took it easy climbing back to the Inn, breathing sighs of relief when we could take a break at a red light and finally realizing that Madison Street wasn’t as steep as Spring Street.

The Inn at Virginia Mason, on Spring Street, is about 12 blocks from the Waterfront. It started life as a women’s residential hotel in the ’20’s and later became a part of the prestigious Virginia Mason Medical Clinic on what is known as Pill Hill because of all the medical facilities, including the famous Swedish Hospital. Reasonably priced, the room was spacious with good quality furniture, the staff friendly and the neighborhood a mix of ambulances and art deco.

Where did we walk? Well, we did the tourist things, starting in Pioneer Square. Down Spring Street, hang a left on First and keep walking till you get to the Pergola at First and Yesler. The Underground Tour takes you into the old abandoned storefronts under the streets of Pioneer Square. The tour guides range from history teachers to the granddaughter of Bill Speidel, the man who started the tours as a way to raise money to keep the square from being demolished. It’s a fun 90 minute walk through the musty and idiosyncratic history of Old Seattle. Also in that area is a wonderful antique mall next door to the Tour, several blocks of interesting shops and book lovers can’t miss Elliott Bay Books or their cafÃ?©, the inspiration for Frasiers’ CafÃ?© Nervosa. Around the corner, you’ll want to bring a snack of Cow Chip Cookies (believe me, you won’t be able to pass their walk up window without buying some!) to the Waterfall Park and take a break then proceed to the tiny but enjoyable Police Museum at 317 3rd Avenue S. The kids have fun dressing up in cop shirts and running sirens while mom can snicker at dad in a jail cell.

If you walk straight down Spring Street, you’ll end up at the Waterfront. Hang a right and you’ll find lots of shops devoted to Seattle-ania, seafood, ferry and cruise terminals and the Seattle Aquarium. Priced so that families can actually afford it, the Aquarium boasts a red octopus who smooshes into the corners of his clear domain, sea dragons (a type of seahorse that resembles seaweed) and the coolest jelly fish exhibit–it’s like a big clear upright wheel that you stand under and the jellies ride the currents up and over you–very cool. But what really got our attention was the 4 week old otter being groomed by mom. So dang cute we couldn’t move for 10 minutes! Also along the Waterfront is The Edgewater Hotel where the Beatles fished from their windows in the ’60’s. My design conference (the excuse for our visit) was at the Edgewater and they were very accommodating and their food was out of this world!

More things to the right of Spring Street–no, don’t ask me directions like east and west, I’m direction challenged when it comes to the compass–Pike Place Market. We were there at the height of tulip season (early April), so the market was brimming with gorgeous blooms of every color (even blue roses!). This is the home of the Fish Philosophy , a business model started by some of the fish sellers there. We only saw one fish toss-I think we were a little early for the peak fish tossing periodâÂ?¦ I was a little disappointed in the market–not sure what I expected. One nice thing, though, is that all the tenants throughout the market have to be independent businesses, no chain retailers, not even Starbucks!!

We hiked up to Fifth Street, hoping to catch the monorail to Seattle Center. Wouldn’t you think the monorail would run for more than 5 or 6 hours a day? They don’t start running during the week till about 11AM. It’s terminal is part of a chi-chi mall, which is fine and dandy but we didn’t want to wander a mall for a couple of hours when we could hoof it a few more blocks or 10 and be where we really wanted to be. So off we went, passing through mouth-watering aromas from neighborhood cafes, peeking in the windows of glass blowers and galleries and smiling at the locals lugging their laundry. What I like about walking is you see things at street level you’ll never see traveling on wheels.

Seattle Center’s a cacophony of architectural styles and culture shock. You’ve got the iconic Space Needle overlooking the fairly normal design of the Science Center and the wild colors and shapes of the inner ear-inspired Experience Music Project, plus a kids concourse of carnival rides and the monorail station, among other things. Like Lemmings, we lined up for the elevator to the top of the Space Needle and ooh’d and ahh’d on cue. I admit, it’s a lovely vantage point–but not worth it to do twice. Dean did the EMP and having morphed over the years from a garage band dude to playing professionally at Knott’s Berry Farm, he ate it all up. You get to play instruments, hear tunes and generally absorb everything Music. He got the package deal that included the SciFi Museum next door, which he said was totally worth it. Lots of genuine articles plus an interactive room that put you into the scenes of several scifi movies. I’m sure I would have liked it but I’m also sure he had more fun without me while I was at my design conference. The other thing we recommend in that area is to Ride The Duck. It’s a little pricey but where else can you tour the city, both land and lake, in a WWII era amphibious vehicle? Our Captain, Cody Pendent, was a hoot and kept us laughing and bouncing to great music the whole 90 minutes, pointing out such wonders as the poison park and the Sleepless in Seattle house.

Just a few more Seattle notes:

Considering we were walking around Seattle for five days, we only ran into one area that made me uncomfortable enough to seek the relative safety of the Waterfront. I believe it was Western, on our way back to The Edgewater.

Look Up! Seattle has the best architecture and public art anywhere. The neighborhood around the Inn at Virginia Mason is truly lovely Art Deco (the Inn has a rooftop patio that affords a great view of the building tops down to the waterfront). The Pioneer Square area boasts Victorian era detailing and the newer buildings in downtown are works of modern art–check out the Main Library–I call it the Geodesic Pyramid! And public art is everywhere–after all, don’t three of the richest men in America live in the area? Don’t miss the robotic Christopher Columbus on the Waterfront and the Bumpershoot hanging over an intersection beyond Pike Place Market.

You’ll smile a lot. Maybe Southern Californians like us are a little cynical, but I found the Seattle natives to be a whole lot friendlier than So Cal-er’s. The lowliest clerk in Seattle always gave a friendly salutation, even when they appeared a bit sullen. Sullen sales clerks in So Cal stay sullen from beginning a transaction till they boot you out the doorâÂ?¦

We’re not foodies–just give us a decent, cheap meal and we’re happy. There’s a McDonald’s on the Waterfront near Spring Street, which was okay but did attract some “interesting” locals. There’s also a McD’s near Seattle Center. We took quite a few of our meals at a Bartell’s Drug store. They had a nice area in the back of the store with a cooler full of very good sandwiches, salads and bagels and a full service coffee bar. Once we sat at the counter and ate breakfast and several times we grabbed sandwiches and snacks for dinner on the way up the hill. Their staff was very friendly and I was impressed enough to fill out their survey card and pleasantly surprised when I got an appreciative letter back from their corporate office. The one food splurge we made was to an Irish Pub on First near Pioneer Square called Fado. It’s the closest thing to genuine this side of Shannon and the food was terrific.

And contrary to urban legend, there isn’t a Starbucks on every corner. Some corners have Seattle’s Best. Which Starbucks owns. On second thought, maybe there is a Starbucks on every cornerâÂ?¦

Dean and I would love to go back to Seattle and see more of the area, probably with the aid of an actual car, though. He’d like to see anything related to the air and aerospace industries and being a glass nut, I want to visit Chihuly-infested Tacoma. But our bipedal first taste of Seattle will always be our favorite visit!