Adventures of David and Paul: Washington

Each year we try to get to at least one Atlanta United away game. This year we saw they were playing in Seattle, where our friends (and former ATL UTD season ticket holders) Lauren and Leslie live. So we planned a three day weekend to see the game and visit with friends.

We flew out on a Friday evening, and had amazing views of the mountains and the city as we descended into Seattle. Normally we try to take transit from the airport when we're on vacation, and Seattle does have a light rail, but unfortunately we picked a bad weekend for Seattle transit. The light rail was single tracking and running on a reduced schedule, with forced transfers at Pioneer Square. So we opted to take a 20 minute Lyft to our hotel rather than a 90 minute transit ride.

Our hotel, The Sonder Boylston, was located in Capitol Hill, a neighborhood northeast of downtown. It's a very vibrant neighborhood, with block after block of interesting restaurants and shops, and is a bit of an anything-goes hot mess. Our hotel was a converted residential building, and was clean and nice although the room was quite tiny. There was no front desk and no frills; we opened our room using a code. It's a good location and much cheaper than downtown hotels, so we'd recommend it.

We were already pretty tired (with the three hour time change) but we ventured out for a short walk and then couple of quick stops within a block of our hotel, starting with some ice cream at Salt and Straw, which featured a variety of unique flavors as part of their "summer picnic" series, including the bizarre chocolate potato salad. Next we went to an Amazon Go market, which is a small grocery store with no checkouts or registers. You scan in, just grab what you want, and leave. A huge array of cameras and sensors track what you take, and you receive a digital receipt after you leave. Maybe a little bit 1984, but it's a really convenient system.

Tahoma/Rainier, Adams, and Hood in a row.

Seattle was gleaming as we flew in.

The entirety of our hotel. The shower is behind the frosted glass...right by the front door.

They always have interesting flavors.

If you've ever met Paul, you know how he feels about ice cream!

Check out the ceiling of the Amazon Go store.

Saturday morning we woke up very early thanks to the time change. Paul waited for Victrola Coffee to open up at 7am, and we picked up a pineapple fritter and bananas foster Bismarck to go from Half and Half Donuts. After enjoying our coffee and donuts at the hotel, we lyfted up to Discovery Park, Seattle's largest park, which was about six miles northwest of our hotel. We did a fairly long hike around the park, including descending down to the beach and passing the lighthouse before reconnecting to the loop trail through the forest. We ended near the northern end of the park, and from there walked to the Chittenden Locks. The locks separate fresh water Lake Union from the salt water Puget Sound. The locks were quite crowded on a sunny weekend day, especially since it was salmon spawning season. We spotted a couple of harbor seals, saw lots of salmon in the underwater viewing area, and stopped by the small visitor's center. We also saw them letting some boats through the locks.

Victrola Coffee was empty early in the morning.

Coffee and donuts for a very classic start to the day.

The only day we could see across the sound.

Beach views from our hike.

A forested section of the trail.

The bridge at the locks opening for a sailboat.

The underwater viewing area.

Lots of salmon in the fish ladder.

Boats going from the sound to Lake union.

The small museum at the visitor's center.

A short walk from the locks is the National Nordic Museum. We first stopped in the museum's Freya Cafe for some iced chai and a delicious beet and burrata salad with pickled peas, and then explored the exhibits. This is a well done museum, with two floors of exhibits mostly focusing on Nordic history and the history of Scandinavian Americans.

It was a short walk to our lunch spot, Arashi Ramen, where we had spicy tantanmen and black garlic ramen. Next we took the bus a few miles east to the Burke Museum on the campus of the University of Washington. This was a great science and history museum, with several floors of exhibits on geologic history, animals, and indigenous cultures. Before leaving Paul grabbed a cedar blackberry tea latte at Off the Rez cafe in the museum.

A little snack and drink before the Nordic Museum.

One of the main exhibit halls.

The museum had an interesting layout.

Ballard is a cute neighborhood.

Nothing like some black garlic ramen!

Fossil exhibit in the Burke museum.

A modern totem pole.

After leaving the museum, we walked around the campus of the University of Washington for a bit, enjoying the architecture, then took the light rail back to Capitol Hill. We stopped at Frankie and Jo's vegan ice cream, and Paul got some unique flavors - beet strawberry rose and California Cabin (smoked vanilla & pine ice cream with black pepper cardamom shortbread cookies). We walked around the neighborhood for a bit, went in Pink Gorilla Games, then went back to the hotel to relax.

That evening we had some inventive cocktails at Foreign National. We were discussing cities with the bartender, and she said Denver was like Blink 182 threw up everywhere. Anyway, this was a cool tiny little cocktail bar with interesting drink flavors, such as a fortune cookie gochujang cocktail. From there we walked to dinner at Gokan Katsu, which was decent, and finished up the night with another quick visit to the Amazon store.

A tree-lined path on the UW campus.

Nice architecture around campus.

A huge fountain on campus.

Seattle's light rail is expanding, but for now there's just one main line.

Well, they do need to update their software! :)

Capitol Hill neighborhood is cute.

Ice cream time!

Our cocktails were lovely.

Tempura veggies at dinner.

David occasionally gets a hankering for Japanese curry katsu. Mission accomplished!

This place looks too cool for us.

Sunday was our last full day in Seattle, and the day of the soccer match. We woke up early and had donuts at a General Porpoise. We then walked to the downtown waterfront, where we waited for Wings over Washington to open at 10am. This is an unabashedly touristy indoor ride that takes you on an aerial journey across the state. It's a good time, especially for families. From there we walked to Pike Place Market, and explored a bit. It was very busy on a nice summer weekend. We stopped in Metsker Maps, which was a nice map/travel/book store. We continued our touristy day by taking the monorail up to Chihuly Garden and Glass, on the former site of a World's Fair, next to the Space Needle. We'd seen a similar exhibit in Toronto, and we enjoyed this one as well. We then walked back to Capitol Hill and had lunch at Honey Hole, before resting at the hotel.

Filled donuts at General Porpoise.

A fun little alley in Capitol Hill.

It's true! He is one!

Early morning quiet streets.

It's a long way downhill to get to downtown.

Walking by the library.

Downtown Seattle, and construction on the waterfront refurbishment.

Touristy piers.

Inside Wings over Washington, before boarding the ride.

Pike's Place Market.

The monorail was popular.

The air quality was really bad from wildfires, which cancelled some of the outdoor tours.

One of the main rooms. Very impressive!

We saw a boat like this in Toronto.

A big glass greenhouse exhibit.

There was an outdoor exhibit too, with glass art interspersed with plants.

View of the Space Needle behind glass flowers and real plants.

Sandwich lunch at Honey Hole.

Later that afternoon we met our friends Leslie and Lauren at Rough and Tumble, and had some drinks and snacks before heading down to the stadium. The air quality was pretty bad at this point from the wildfires, but the game wasn't cancelled. Lauren dropped us off and went to pick up her parents from the airport. We had a great time watching the game and hanging out with Leslie, and Atlanta won 2-0. After the game we walked back to the hotel, which was about a 45 minute walk, mostly uphill (according to Google maps, a 351ft elevation change).

Heading into the stadium.

This is fine....insert meme of burning house in your mind...

The smoke was clearly visible in the stadium lights.

It was great to see Leslie and Lauren! We're sad Lauren got pulled away from the game last minute.

Back to our hotel!

Monday we had half a day before we had to head to the airport. We started with coffee and breakfast at Wunderground, then walked around and visited a few different stores as they opened. We enjoyed Elliott Bay Book Company, a large local bookstore. Finally, we had lunch at Biang Biang Noodles, claimed our bags from hotel storage, and took the light rail to the airport. That wrapped up our Seattle soccer weekend!