What to Do With One Day in Seattle

I decided to take a day off to enjoy time in the perfect sunshine when I was in Seattle earlier this month, and couldn’t decide what all to fit in. Â So I decided to go back to some of my favorite places since it had been at least 8 years since I’d had time to “do the touristy thing.”

As it was a Friday and already cruise ship season, I decided to hit Pike Place Market first. It offers some great food and souvenir shopping, even the site of the very first Starbucks, but what I like bestÂ are the flower stalls. Offering incredible arrangements of flowers I’ve never seen before at crazy good prices of $10, $15, and $20.

And of course, there’s the famous fish tossing stall.

After moseying around coveting flowers, dodging other tourists, and wishing I had more of an appetite to take advantage of their food stalls, I decided to head down to the Seattle Aquarium a block or two below.

Arriving a little before noon, I’d hit it just right. Many of the school groups had already left, and the giant octopus was about to be fed.

Having satisfied my love of watching lots of Nemo’s playing in the anemone and seals enjoying the open air I was finally a little hungry and decided to check out the Aquarium cafe. It offered outdoor seating with some pretty great views and the prices weren’t bad, so I grabbed a chowder with bacon and a mini Caesar salad for $6.40 and enjoyed the sun.

At this point I was cutting it a little close for the 1:30 Beneath the Streets tour, but by walking quickly I made the 7/10 of a mile to Beneath the Streets on Cherry Street with 5 minutes to spare.

The tour was fun — I geek out over passageways and history — and I enjoyed getting to try out a new tour option and see more of Pioneer Square’s underground.

The jaunt didn’t take more than an hour, leaving me plenty of time to head over to the Sky View Observatory at the Columbia Center to get a 360 of Seattle and its mountains.

Along the way I stopped at the Starbucks on the 40th floor to see the “free” view of the Sound, but wasn’t particularly impressed. On a beautiful day, it’s worth the extra to get views unobstructed by buildings.

After grabbing some happy hour bubbly to toast my satisfying day and the views, I headed north to meet up with friends. Arriving early I popped over to the eclectic Hotel Max to grab a drink. The sign on the roof screams outdated landmark, the interior screams posh.

I loved the wine glass wall and you can’t beat your beer choices hanging in barrels overhead. You can beat the Happy Hour prices though…Decent glasses of wine are $10+, the happy hour offerings at $7 a glass are very mediocre. The food while good starts at $8 for fries and $10 for flash fried Brussels sprouts (worth it)!