This summer Megan and I decided it would be a good time to knock off a bucket list item and travel to the Pacific Northwest to explore Washington State and cruise to the southern tip Alaska known as the inside passage. Luckily for us Megan had a pharmacy conference in March of this year in Seattle so she was able to get out and scope out the city before we headed out there in May and stay over Memorial Day. If any of you have ever booked a cruise the time leading up to it seems to take forever and this trip was no exception. Much like our cruise last summer I did an extensive amount of research and planning so now we just had to wait until the day we flew out.

We took a non-stop flight from Charlotte to Seattle and arrived around 10:00 AM on a cold drizzly day. Upon leaving the airport we jumped on the Link-Light Rail from Sea-Tac to the Westlake station where we caught an Uber to our hotel on the Waterfront right in front of Pier 66 which we would be leaving from in a few days. After getting all checked in we set out to explore Seattle and made our way a few blocks to Pike’s Place market.

We made our way through the various levels and shops throughout the market with stops at the famous gum wall, Beacher’s Cheese (Recommendation: Mac and Cheese), Piroshky, Piroshky… (Russian bakery). We walked along the waterfront and explored more shops while determining where we should eat that night for dinner before turning in early so we are rested up for our tour of Snoqualmie Falls in the morning.

The next morning we woke up early and headed out in search of a fun breakfast place and fell upon Biscuit Bitch with a massive line out the door so naturally we had to jump in line and see what this place was all about. I would say it is worth the hype, but if you are going to get a biscuit just go all in. I got the gluten free one and it wasn’t as good.

After breakfast we walked back to the hotel just in time to be picked up by our tour guide to do a full day tour of Snoqualmie Falls and wineries. For anyone that is interested this is the Viator we did and would highly recommend it. We started at the falls which is two times as high as Niagara and is just impressive. After getting some pictures and video from the top we made our way almost a mile down to the bottom for some spectacular views.

After leaving the falls we made our way to Woodinville which to our surprise is the highest concentration of wineries anywhere in the world. We started out at William Grassie Wine Estates where we sat out on a large patio overlooking his small vineyard sharing an amazing lunch and wine tasting everything he had. 

Then we moved on to Davenport Cellars for an hour or so sampling some amazing Cabs and Blends and then finished up at Celaeno Winery while sampling all of their great Syrahs. Every place we went to was quite different in their winemaking and we had ample time to talk to the winemakers to really understand their process and where they are heading next.

The next morning we got up early and set out to try a Seattle donut and ended up at Top Pot which has locations all over and seems to be pretty well-liked. The donuts were pretty good, but I wouldn’t say it changed my life. After that, we made our way to the Mono Rail which takes you from downtown to the Space Needle and was built in 1962.

Unfortunately, the line for the Space Needle was incredibly long so we opted to tour the Museum of Pop Culture which is an awesome place to explore.

After we left the museum we made our way back to the waterfront just in enough time to catch a ferry to Bainbridge Island across the Puget Sound which gives you a beautiful panorama of the Seattle skyline and a wonderful view of Mt. Rainer.

After walking around Bainbridge Island for a few hours we made our way back to the ferry and back to Seattle with enough time to get ready to head to our first Mariners game. They were playing the Twins and we wanted to check out T-Mobile Park. The park is right on the waterfront just down from our hotel so getting an Uber was quick and easy. It’s a great place to watch a game even though the Mariners were taken to the woodshed that night with the final score of 18-4.

The next day we woke up, packed up all our stuff and checked out of our hotel just in time to walk across the street to NCL Pier 66 and board the Norwegian Bliss for our seven-day Alakasan cruise which has always been a bucket list item I’ve wanted to do for so long.

Stay tuned… I’ll post all about our cruise in upcoming posts.