Home to the infamous Space Needle, beloved Seahawks, and of course the original Starbucks, Seattle has been on the top of my vacation getaway list for many years. So when planning a weekend getaway traveling to Seattle for my mom’s 60th birthday, right away I thought what better city to visit than the beautiful Emerald City.
I immediately begin researching the city-where should we stay, what should we do, is it going to rain the entire time? Going in December for a long weekend, Friday through Monday, I knew we were likely to have rain filled days, so I looked for activities to do indoors, but was pleasantly surprised when we arrived Friday morning in Seattle, after a short two hour flight, to cloudy skies but no rain!
After getting our rental car (thank you Enterprise for the free upgrade), we began our journey to the beautiful city of Seattle! Having been my first time in Washington, I was taken aback by the beauty surrounding us on our drive. There was so much greenery and open space, something I definitely am not used to growing up in Southern California! We arrived at our hotel, Courtyard Marriott right on the shore of Lake Union, where we immediately unpacked and got ready to set out and explore this amazing city! (Side Note: I wanted to stay somewhere that was not in the heart of downtown, but was close enough for us to walk to most of the major attractions. I loved that our hotel was across the street from Lake Union, as we enjoyed daily walks around the peaceful park. Also, I jumped on a major sale they were having and was able to book the hotel for over 60% off. Translation: more shopping money for me and my momma!)
Since, it was day 1 (Friday) and we were happy it wasn’t raining, we decided to explore the Southlake Union Neighborhood, where we stopped at various boutiques, saw tons of new construction being built, and ate at Whole Foods. We originally were planning on eating at the highly popular Serious Pie, but the wait times were just way too long and we had not eaten since breakfast at the airport! Afterwards, we ventured back to our hotel and took a short nap to prepare us for our night time adventure!
Once our energy levels were back up, we decided to venture out and explore downtown Seattle. Because it started to rain, we decided to take our rental car out for a spin and headed to the Nordstrom flagship store for a little shopping! Because it was Christmas time, we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived and there was a Christmas extravaganza with various groups singing Christmas carols, lots of beautiful decorations and of course Santa Claus. After spending a few hours walking around the different stores and sights, we got back in our car and went back to our hotel (or at least tried!). Just a word of advice, driving was such a mistake! I don’t know if it was because of the holiday or if it is the random super steep hills, tons of one way streets, or trolley’s that end up in your lane, but we were pretty stressed out from driving and were so happy to finally make it back to our hotel, after getting lost in a super sketchy neighborhood! The next day (Saturday), we walked across the street to Starbucks, where we grabbed a hot macchiato and started our morning with a walk around Lake Union. I made my mom do a little photo shoot for me, so I could try and document our first mother daughter trip, and then we headed to Pike’s Place Market.
I was most looking forward to going here, just because it is such an iconic landmark, and I am a sucker for farmer’s markets! We walked around the various stalls, ate some delicious clam chowder, went to the infamous gum wall (so disgusting, but a fun must see), and attempted to stand in line at the original Starbucks! After 15 minutes, we gave up and decided to just take a picture outside it! Lots of touristy adventures on this day! After a quick stop to Target to pick up some Band-Aids (did I mention we walked tons this trip), we continued walking the streets of Seattle and exploring the city. We definitely slept like babies after so much walking and exploring.
Sunday morning, we again visited Starbucks, walked around Lake Union and watched some seaplanes leave the lake. While we were definitely interested in seeing a lot of sights while in Seattle, we also wanted to relish our time together and enjoy in conversation and fun as mother-daughter. We booked an Argosy Cruise Seattle Harbor Tour, so we could enjoy a 1 hour narrated tour of Seattle, while enjoying the beautiful views of the city, Space Needle, and shipping terminals. It was actually sunny, although freezing, and we got to see a rare view of the beautiful Mt. Rainer! We definitely enjoyed learning about Seattle’s history and seeing the city from a different view!
After the harbor tour, we explored the waterfront, grabbed lots of coffee and then walked back to our hotel, where we again took a quick nap and changed clothes. After some pretty crazy driving experiences, we decided to call an Uber (my mom’s first time and she was pretty skeptical of how safe it was) and head over to the Space Needle. We bought our tickets, and took an elevator up the 605 foot tall tower, where we were met with beautiful views of the city below us! I am not scared of heights, and this experience felt so magical! Seeing 360 degree views of the city lights was pretty amazing and I would definitely recommend visiting this beautiful attraction.
Finally before calling it a night, in preparation for our early flight out the next morning, we walked around Seattle Center, where we saw the colorful and vibrant glass art at Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. It was definitely beautiful and decked out in lots of Christmas décor! We definitely felt extremely lucky to get to explore Seattle during such a fun holiday season.
Overall, we had such a great trip and definitely enjoyed our time filled getting to explore a new city together. We learned a few lessons (1. Don’t rent a car and 2. Bring lots of Band-Aids), but definitely had a fun-filled trip. Knowing that Seattle is only a short flight away, we both decided we will have to make multiple trips back to see more of Seattle’s awesome attractions. The city is full of culture, delicious restaurants and cute coffee shops that are just waiting for us to try them out! Thank you Seattle for being so good to us-it’s not goodbye, just a see you later!
Written and posted by Kari L. Moya.