My younger sister goes to school in Portland, OR. I’ve been lucky enough to visit her not once, but twice! On my second trip out there, American Airlines was offering a connection in Seattle. I could have flown non-stop, but they offered a connection in Seattle, which would give me a really long layover. My sister, Aj, had school all day on Friday. If I was going to fly in in the morning, I would have had to spend the day alone.
Basically, my choice was to spend a day alone in Portland (which I did the previous year, and was going to be doing already on this trip), or to spend seven hours exploring Seattle. What do you think I chose?
Transit.
My flight landed in Seattle (SEA) at 8:40 a.m. on a Friday. I did not check bags, so I had nothing to worry about on that front. I got off the plane and walked to the public transport, the Link Light Rail. I had time to spare as I could not drop my bags off at the bag storage place until 10 a.m. The walk from the terminals to the train is actually a pretty decent walk! Most of it is open to the outdoors, so it can be chilly, as well.
Since I had time to spare, I just downloaded the app and paid for transit tickets on my phone. There is an option to do it at the station, but I figured “why not just get the app?”. It made more sense to me. I was able to get on the train and get a seat with no problems. The airport station is called the SeaTac/Airport Station (duh). You need to ride eleven stops on the train to get to University Street Station, which is where Pike Place is located. This takes about 40 minutes.
Bag Storage.
By the time that I got where I needed to be, I was still ten minutes early. I was planning on storing my bags with a program called Bagbnb. I used them last year in Portland and had an amazing experience with them. However, this time, I wasn’t as lucky.
The Bagbnb storage place is less than a block from Pike Place. It was slated to open at 10 a.m., and I reserved for my bags to be held from 10-5. I was expecting to walk in and out, as I had last year. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this time! The store owner was running late, and I had about a twenty minute setback waiting for her. It was no big deal though, someone else was waiting and we had a nice conversation.
Bagbnb is incredibly convenient. You reserve storage space online. It’s a flat rate of $6 per bag. It’s great if you’re doing a long layover, like me, or if you can’t check into a hotel before a certain time. The places are totally random. The first time I used the service, a Qdoba is where my bag was stored. The second time? It was a fine Native American arts store. Very different.
You walk in with your bag, tell them you’re there to store it, and they give you some receipts to fill out. It’s similar to coat check. You hold onto your stub, and then when you come back to check your bag back out, you give it to them so they know which bag it is, etc. Very simple.
Pike Place.
Immediately after I dropped off my bags, I headed to Pike Place. The first thing on my list was to stop at Daily Dozen Doughnuts, as I had read rave reviews on Yelp and was dying for some good breakfast food. I had been up since 3 a.m., Chicago time, and it was now about 12 p.m. in Chicago. I was starving.
The one thing that I had NO IDEA about was the layout of Pike Place. My sister was the only person I knew who had been to Seattle that I had actually talked to about it. She told me, “Seattle is hilly. When you’re from the Midwest, you forget that not everything is flat.” Man, is that ever true!
I was made aware of this the hard way, actually. When I walked out of University Street Station, my internal compass was still a bit messed up from the flights and the subway and the 6 hours of travel. I turned the wrong way and had to walk around the block. The block was ALL hill. And I was lugging a suitcase. I had no idea that a city could be so hilly!
Anyways, I had no clue that Pike Place was 6 stories and that it was essentially built into a hill! So when I walked in, I was looking for Daily Dozen. Of course, I went right when I walked into Pike Place. This led me away from the doughnuts I was craving and into the maze that is Pike Place Market. Before I knew what was happening, I’d wandered all the way down to the end of the market, and then somehow ended up down on the first floor! Which meant stairs. Ugh.
After a lot of wandering and getting distracted, I finally found Daily Dozen. They were pretty good! If you want to read my full review of Daily Dozen, check out my Donut Digest blog post.
After I had my donuts, I spent a bit more time wandering around Pike Place, and seeing what there was to see.
Argosy Harbor Cruise.
Having done my research before I left Chicago, I knew that I wanted to do the Argosy Harbor Cruise while in Seattle. It was incredibly affordable, and I knew that I did not want to spend all 7 hours of my layover walking around. This gave me a chance to rest my legs and see the sights of Seattle.
Honestly, I think that this boat cruise is incredibly worth it. I think I paid about $30 for it. It’s about an hour long, and you learn a ton about Seattle. As someone who has done the Architectural Boat Tour in Chicago about 700 times, and raves about it to anyone who is not a Chicagoan, I can safely say that this boat tour is a close second to the Architectural tour!
The boat tour, I believe, is $35 normally. However, if you take public transit to Pike Place (which is where the cruise departs from), you can save money by showing your receipt. This is why I paid less. The cruise was very convenient for me because of where it departs from. It’s super close to Pike Place, and easily within walking distance of many tourist attractions. It makes it incredibly easy!
The picture above is one taken by the company. About 40 minutes before the boat departs, people can start boarding. So if you want a really good seat, you should be there early. You line up on the docks. Then, they start letting groups come forward to take the picture. You can skip it if you want, but it doesn’t hurt to do it! It only costs money if you CHOOSE to buy it at the end of the cruise.
So for this reason, it takes awhile for everyone to board. The line appears to be moving really slowly simply because they stop everyone for pictures before you board. Once you’re on board though, the boat is so nice.
The boat has several levels. I chose to stay on the first level because the day that I went was very chilly. Many people did go on the top deck to enjoy the views, but I felt like I could see fine from the inside of the boat and didn’t want to deal with the cold. They serve drinks and snacks on the boat, which is really nice, but you can also bring your own water bottle on board.
There is a Starbucks right next to the ticket office, so I just ran in and grabbed a bottle of water before boarding because I wasn’t sure what the prices on board would be.
The one thing that I thought was AWESOME about the boat tour was the guide. The information she had was incredibly informative. When I’ve done boat tours in the past, a big issue is that you simply can’t hear the guides because the boat is too loud. This is not a problem with Argosy’s Harbor Cruise! I was able to hear our guide the whole time, and it made for a very enjoyable and informative experience.
One of my favorite parts of the cruise was when we passed the Edgewater Hotel, and our guide told us a bit about it! People used to fish out of the windows, and among those “people,” were the Beatles. After hearing that, I googled it, and sure enough, there is a very famous picture of the Beatles fishing out of their hotel windows. Now, that hotel is an item on my bucket list! To stay in a hotel where the Beatles stayed would be pretty cool.
When you get back to shore, you disembark and they have all of the photos out on a display board. It’s not digital at all. They have a giant board, and you can go up and find your picture, and if you want it, you can purchase it. The perk of this is that you can actually just snap a quick picture of your photo, as I did. Typically, if there is a set-up like this, someone will stop you and tell you it’s not okay to photograph their professional images. I actually got yelled at once for doing it on a cruise. The guard stood over my shoulder and watched and made me delete the images off my phone. So after that experience, I’m pretty nervous about doing stuff like this. That security guard situation was definitely not the case with Argosy. 94% of the people coming off the boat were snapping pictures, and staff was standing by and letting it happen!
All in all, I definitely recommend it if you have time to kill in Seattle. It was such a neat cruise, I would do it again!
Back to Pike Place.
After the Harbor Cruise, I headed back to Pike Place to explore some more and grab lunch.
The two places I knew I did not want to leave Pike Place without trying were Pike Place Chowder and Daily Dozen. Since I’d already had my donuts, it was time for some chowder!
It took a bit of doing to find Pike Place Chowder. It’s not in the main building of Pike Place, it’s located in Post Alley, which is across the street. When I got there, the line was crazy! I was determined to wait, but others were not having it. So many people turned around and left upon seeing it, but it ultimately wasn’t terrible. I waited maybe a half hour? And the chowder was SO, SO worth it.
I chose to get the four chowder sampler. I knew it was going to be a ton of food, but I also wanted to try fresh chowder while I had a chance! I’m so glad I tried it. I was actually able to finish a lot more than I thought I could.
I tried the traditional New England Clam Chowder, the Crab and Oyster Chowder, the Market Chowder, and Seafood Bisque. This all came with a side of bread, and cost me less than $16. To some, that may seem like a lot of money for lunch. I’m not denying that it’s a lot of money, but when you’re used to Chicago prices, that’s a pretty normal lunch price!
At Pike Place Chowder, you are not allowed to sit at their tables and reserve them for someone in line. You have to order, then find a seat. The woman next to me did not follow this rule, but I wasn’t going to rat her out. I fought for a corner seat at the counter and she came up next to me to save a seat for her husband. She had already grabbed food elsewhere. When she saw my chowder sampler, she immediately ran back over to her husband to tell him about it. I told her it was excellent, and the next thing you know, he’s ordering it too!
But really, the chowder was insanely delicious. I have dreams about it. One day, I’ll be back!
After my lunch, I went back to the market and just wandered for the rest of my time. I walked past the first Starbucks, but didn’t bother going in. The line was crazier than the line for Pike Place! It was insane.
Then, it was time to go. I sadly left Pike Place (with a quick detour to the Gum Wall), and headed to pick up my bag. From there, I went back to the airport. And thus ended my seven hours in Seattle.
Things I Wish I Had Known.
1. I wish I had taken my sister seriously when she told me how hilly Seattle was. I think I climbed these stairs times six!
2. The Gum Wall! It’s underneath Pike Place. So if you go down the stairs or the alley to the left of the main “Pike Place Public Market,” sign, that is how you would find it. It took me awhile, and Google Maps was super confusing. Also, I really wasn’t all that impressed by it? It was a lot less than I was expecting.
3. Starbucks is insane, and can’t possibly be worth it. From what I saw, it’s a normal Starbucks. Unless you’re dying for caffeine and can’t walk a few blocks to the next Starbucks location, I’d say skip it.
4. Hang around Pike Place Fish Company! If you’re lucky, you’ll get to see them throw a fish when someone places an order. It’s pretty neat. Just be careful not to block other people who are trying to walk around there… It gets crazy crowded as that is the entrance to Pike Place. People are trying to get through!
5. If you can, take public transit to Argosy, as it will save you money on your ticket! If you’ll be in Seattle for longer, then the CityPass is definitely the way to go. If I had been there for longer, I would have done the CityPass! The Harbor Cruise is included in it, and I believe you get a deal if you purchase the pictures, as well.
6. Pike Place is SO crowded. You see all those great pictures of the famous Market sign, with nobody in the front of it, or just one person in the image. That’s virtually impossible to get, from what I saw. Going early does kind of help, as it gets busier as the day goes on. I got there around 10:30a.m., and it wasn’t horribly busy. By the time I was leaving at 3p.m.-ish, the crowds were insane. So many people trying to get their picture with the iconic sign!
I had a great seven hours in Seattle! I was able to do a boat cruise through Argosy, and spend a lot of time wandering around Pike Place. I’d love to go back to Seattle someday and see more of the city, but for now, these seven hours will have to suffice.
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