Sleepless in Seattle... and Portland - Part 1

It was Memorial Day weekend and we were enjoying our dinner at a revolving restaurant called Chart House on top of the Tower of Americas in San Antonio, Texas when we decided we want to go try the restaurant at the Space Needle too. Yes, in Seattle.

So we booked our flights for the July 4th weekend.


1st day.
Our flight was (PHL) 3:54pm - (SEA) 6:48pm. Duration, 5 hours and 54 minutes. We drove to Smart Park (hubby's favorite airport parking) around past noon.



When we landed at Sea-Tac Airport and after claiming our luggage, we went straight to where the shuttle is that would take us to the car rental (Enterprise). I pestered the hubby to go to Jollibee first  because it was just 1.5 miles from the car rental. The hubby is a fan of chickenjoy and he enjoys the spaghetti so he was also looking forward to it. Unfortunately, they close early that day at 7:00pm, it's supposed to be open until 10:00pm. Maybe because it was 4th of July.

We went straight to our hotel instead and then later went out to go and check-out some of the restaurants at the Post Alley. It's very close to the Pike Place Market and Westin Seattle (our hotel) is just walking distance to Pike Place Market so it's the perfect place.

our hotel from the monorail

Most of the restaurants are closed and we ended up having dinner at a French Brasserie called Cafe Campagne. I ordered their Duck Confit and the hubby ordered Coq Au Vin. We both enjoyed our dinner.

Duck Confit
photo from their Cafe Campagne's website

There were 4th of July fireworks at the Gas Works Park but we were so tired (remember, Seattle has a 3-hour difference from Philly, ie: 11pm in Seattle is 2am in Philly) we decided to skip it and just watched the fireworks from the window at our hotel room instead.



2nd Day.

outdoor dining place

dry blood anyone?

Woke up early to have my Jollibee breakfast. I ordered beef tapa and hubby had his chicken joy and spaghetti, his favorite combination.
Then we head back to downtown Seattle to buy a ticket for the  Bill Speidel's Underground Tour.  We got there 5 minutes late for the noon tour so we had to wait another hour for the 1pm tour. We just spent the next 45 minutes in an outdoor resto called Delicatus.

Hubby ordered wine while I ordered diet coke, which they don't have and they gave me (what they claim is like a diet coke)  Dry Blood Orange Soda, instead. I just drank half of it and gave the rest to the hubby. It tastes like flavored club soda.



The Underground Tour is interesting because of it's history and lots of interesting stories and trivia but for someone who's finicky you might not enjoy this. There are some curious smell and you will feel like your trespassing into someone's abandoned very old basement. If you think you can handle that then I would suggest that you still try this for the experience.

this is supposed to be a walkway... the hotel or store entrance is to your left. click for better view

spooky

Then we headed to the Pike Place Market  next, just because I really want to go to the First Starbucks store (yeah, yeah, jologs alert, I don't care, lol).

piroshky bakery

I'm not really a die-hard Starbucks fan, but I want to see it for bragging rights, lol. So we went to Pike Place Market first. There are lots of artworks and some weird stuff being sold there and of course fresh fish, veggies and fruits. We really didn't stay there too long and was just passing by.

While we were on our way to Starbucks we saw this long line at Piroshky and we got curious. So hubby and I decided to divide and conquer, lol. I went in line at the Piroshky while the hubby proceeded to Starbucks. One of Piroshky's best sellers is Beef and Cheese so I ordered that and most people in line were ordering Potato and Cheese so I ordered that too.
We like the Beef and Cheese very much but not so much with the Potato and Cheese. It doesn't taste bad but I guess it was just overshadowed by the Beef and Cheese because we tasted that first. The line at the Piroshky moved fast so even if it has a long line there's really not too much waiting compared with Starbucks line that the hubby swears never moved. We made it though and we bought the famous First Starbucks Store mug and I also decided to get their vintage-design tumbler.

inside the first starbucks store

The highlight of our day 2 was our dinner inside the Space Needle. This structure has been around since December 1961. There's a revolving restaurant at the very top called Sky City, which we made sure we book in advance. Tip: try to dress nice (no jeans, no shorts) when you go there for your reservation. This would give you higher chances of getting a good table, yes, the window seat.

space needle: it's old but it never gets old

cheers

Our hotel is very close to the Monorail, so we took a monorail ($2.25 fare, one way) to the Space Needle. When we got to the Space Needle, there is a separate elevator for the restaurant. From the Monorail walk towards the Space Needle and walk to you right until you find another entrance door that has the SkyCity sign. Go to the receiving area and inform them of your reservation. They would then give you those lighting/vibrating thingie that would tell you if your table is ready. Before we went up the elevator the receptionist told us that even if our reservation is not until 30 minutes (we got there early) after we reached the view deck (it's the first stop) she suggested that we go one floor down (where the restaurant is) to request for a window seat. We were with some other Sky City diners who were dressed in capris and shorts and jeans in the elevator but they weren't given instructions like we had. So as instructed, after everyone got off the elevator to the viewing deck, the hubby and I went one flight down to the restaurant's reception area. I let the hubby do the talking and we were amused when the receptionist immediately said: "we actually have one available right now!". Which means we didn't have to wait for that vibrating thingie to vibrate/light-up, they just walk us straight to our table by the window.

Awesome.

view of downtown Seattle from the revolving restaurant

The awesome-ness of the night didn't stop there. The food is exceptionally good too. I ordered the Carlton Farms Pork chop and the hubby ordered the Wild King Salmon and a bottle of Beringer (my brand) White Zinfandel that the hubby and I shared. We finished our meal with a dessert called Lunar Orbiter (see video). We're supposed to just order one and share but the hubby pressed the 'stop recording' button while I was giving him the camera that we weren't able to catch the dessert "show" on video, so the hubby ordered another one, haha. Labo eh no, haha. But it's good so it's still not a waste of money.



LunarOrbiter from bluemarlinfish on Vimeo.

Oh, and they give you a complimentary professional photo at the restaurant too. There's a lady photographer going around and asking if you want your picture taken (of course we said yes!), took our photos and gave us a card that we need to scan to get our pictures. We got ours during sunset and it turned great. After dinner we just scanned the picture card at their viewing deck (one floor up from the restaurant). They would just give you an option to send it to you via email. Sorry, no prints.

After dinner we were contemplating on going to a bar and get some drinks (we want to check out a particular bar we saw in the magazine but the name slips me at the moment) but we decided to just skip it. It would be an early day for us the next day because we'll be driving to Portland and Mt. St. Helens. We called it a day at 11:30pm.


...coming up  next: 3rd day - Voodoo Doughnuts and the Hike/Helicopter ride to Mt. St. Helens...
update: done! click me

all photos and videos by yours truly, please do not use without permission.