Amazing Adventures in Seattle: Hike, Eat, Drink, Explore

We absolutely LOVED our time in Seattle. We had so many fun adventures in Seattle in our 6 months there.

Seattle, or anywhere in the PNW for that matter, was not anywhere close to being on our radar when we started looking in to our first travel PT contract. We struck out on a few places we thought we were going for sure. Austin, Charlottesville, Atlanta, Phoenix to name a few. Boy oh boy, are we glad that Seattle came in to the equation. We were so close to choosing southern Oregon, but decided to head further north in January.

First impressions go a long way, and our first impression of Seattle was pretty bad. We were not staying in the nicest area, and Seattle was in the midst of one of its very foggy/rainy stints. “What did we get ourselves in to?” We literally said that to each other. Fortunately, we started exploring downtown and all of the surrounding areas, and quickly changed our tune.

The rainy/gloomy weather is what everyone associates with Seattle, including us. But, it really is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. The locals will tell you, that is how they keep people away from Seattle. This picture above is from January 22nd, at Kerry Park (the one by Meredith Gray’s house). Clearly, it is a beautiful day, and you can see Mount Rainier in all of its glory. This was our first jaw dropping moment with Rainier, it is unimaginably big and majestic.

Hiking & Outdoors

Check out our post on our favorite days hikes within ~90 minutes or less from downtown Seattle here!

Snoqualmie

There are a never ending amount of hikes to do in Seattle and the surrounding areas. Snoqualmie is the area that we did a majority of our hikes due to proximity. It is only 30-60 minutes from Seattle, depending on where you are going. There are a plenty of really popular hikes in Snoqualmie/North Bend/Snoqualmie Pass (Poo Poo Point, Rattlesnake Ridge, Mount Si, Mailbox Peak). Hiking these trails in the winter time helped keep the trails a little less crowded. With how many hikes we did, there are still some that are left on our list. ( Snow Lake, Kendall Katwalk, Franklin Falls).

We also were able to take a couple trips up to the Snoqualmie Pass ski/snowboard area. Pretty awesome to have a ski resort an hour away.

Snoqualmie Falls is quite impressive, and worth stopping by. Quick and easy walk from a parking lot close by. We also had brunch at Salish Lodge. That had a great view of the falls. 

Snoqualmie Casino is a fun place to go, if you are into that type of thing. It happened to be March Madness when Cameron came to town, so we went and checked out the sports book to watch a few games and placed a few bets (responsibly, of course). 

Gold Bar

This area is a bit further from Seattle, ~90 minutes northeast of town. Bridal Veil Falls to Lake Serene was our favorite day hike that we did while we were in Seattle. The first part of the hike is to Bridal Veil waterfall, and if you choose to continue on, you can hike up to Lake Serene (alpine lakes are so cool). It was mid-April when we hiked, and there was multiple feet of snow at that top still. We used micro spikes at the top, which made things a bit easier.

We were able to do this hike with our great friends, Joe and Sara (with Berkeley in tow), which made this hike even better. Love you guys!

Lake Twenty Two is a different alpine lake that we hiked. It was still very snowy, and the lake was frozen over. But, we were the only people up there, so it was as quiet and peaceful as it could possibly be.

Another hike we did in Gold Bar was up to Wallace Falls. Seth was in town for this one, and Kirby was loving having Uncle Seth with her.

Food

Before we left Houston for Seattle, a friend gave us this Seattle Food Crawls book. It was such a sweet gift, and we found in helpful!

By far our favorite food in Seattle was the sushi. Neither of us claim to be a sushi expert, by any means (but we know a guy – talking about you Joe!). But, we have had a lot of sushi in a lot of different places, and none of them amount to the sushi we had in Seattle.

We tried a few different restaurants, and did not have a bad experience. A couple of our favorites were Umi Sake House, Sushi Katsuya, Momiji, and Matsu. One experience we did not get to, was the omakase at Sushi Kashiba. It is on our list. Taylor Shellfish Oyster Bar has a delicious “oyster sampler” plate that we got when Cameron was in town (none for Erin, she thinks they are gross).

The seafood (raw and cooked) is excellent throughout the city, and there are many great options. But, perhaps our most enjoyable eating experience was with some friends from Houston that were in town (shout out Elorie and Phil). They recommended this Malaysian restaurant called Kedai Makan. Neither of us had ever had Malaysian food, that we were aware of at least.

This place is very popular and not very big, so there can definitely be some waiting involved.  We got there just before opening at 5pm on a Wednesday, and still had to wait an hour and a half. But, there is plenty to do around the restaurant, so the time went by really quickly. 

Looking back, the wait could have been 3 hours and it would have been worth it. It is a counter service type restaurant, and we went family style. Our friends had been there before, so we let them order a whole bunch of stuff that we would all share. Everything we had was delicious, and of course we ordered way too much food, so we were all stuffed. This restaurant should be on everyone’s short list for places to eat if you are in Seattle. 

When it comes to dim sum, we are newbies. But, we had a few different experiences. On the more “authentic” side of things (was not sure what some of the menu items were), we had Harbor City. We were able to share this meal with Alex and Jenn, and Alex likes to order some more “adventurous” things. It was a great meal, and got to try a few things we had not had before. Dough Zone and Din Tai Fung were on the more “Americanized” side (for lack of a better term).

Both very good, but we preferred Dough Zone. The xiao long bao (soup dumplings) are phenomenal. The szechuan noodles at Dough Zone are highly recommended, and it comes with the tingly tongue feeling from the szechuan peppers. 

Von’s 1000 Spirits has some fantastic sourdough pizza and pasta. Highly recommend the pizza, and we really enjoyed the mac and cheese (duh). They also have a very impressive list of spirits (the name gives it away), and one of the better drink deals that you can find ($7 Martini or $8 Manhattan), when in the city. 

Beer

Checking out new breweries is one of our favorite past times. Usually we try to visit at least one in all of the different places we travel to, and get their sticker to put on our recycling bin at home. Just like with food, we think that we can get a feel of the culture of a place by the breweries that are there. Seattle has a pretty large brewery scene, particularly in the Ballard area. 

Elysian Brewing is one of the more widely known breweries that we visited. “Space Dust” is a very popular beer, and the brewery has some variations of it that were quite tasty. Dank Dust is “420 inspired” and has quite the aroma to it, if you catch my drift. Reubens Brews was probably our favorite brewery in Seattle. We are big fans of hazy/NE IPAs, and Reubens has plenty of them. 

Georgetown Brewing is a brewery we did not get to, but was/is on the list. Their flagship IPA, Bodhizafa (everyone just calls it Bodi) was one of the first beers we had when we got up to Seattle. It is very popular among locals, and for good reason. Bodi is just a really solid IPA, not overly bitter/hoppy, for those who may not be the biggest fans of west coast IPAs. 

Old Stove Brewing is another place worth checking out. The location is what sticks out the most, it has an incredible view of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. But, the beer and food is really solid too. 

West Seattle

West Seattle was our favorite area of Seattle. It has a different vibe than everywhere else in Seattle, and you definitely get the small beach town feel to it. The West Seattle Bridge was closed while we there (it has reopened), so it was a pain to get over there. But, if a bridge is crumbling, it is probably a good idea to close it for a few years to make it a little safer.

Alki Beach is an awesome spot. The beach itself has a bunch of volleyball courts and fire pits, and there are some restaurants and bars along the road that have great views. On a clear day, you can see the Olympic Mountains across the water. We were lucky enough to get some epic sunsets over there. Marination Ma Kai has some really good Hawaiian inspired food, and a great view of downtown Seattle. Salty’s on Alki Beach was where we decided to go for our last dinner before we left Seattle. It is a great place for some very tasty seafood.

More to come. There is just no way to condense all the fun stuff we did in to one post.

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