Me and Karen decided to go for a quick Seattle trip over the Labor day weekend. I have always wanted to see the Space Needle up close and since we live on the west coast, the flight was going to be nice and short. The idea was to fit in a trip without having to take any extra days off from work.
Flights:
I had booked my ticket about 2 months out on Southwest and added Karen’s ticket for just $5 with my Southwest Companion pass. I did not pay for early bird check-in and got C group boarding.
The flight to Seattle was overbooked and the gate agent offered $100 voucher + price of flight for taking just a 2 hour later flight. Even though Karen’s ticket cost only $5, we ended up getting a total of $433 of Southwest vouchers between the two of us (just for the 2 hour delay! Awesome!). These vouchers can be used for any future Southwest flights within next 1 year. The trip was already shaping up pretty good. 🙂
Rental Car:
I had booked a Budget rental car (economy class) but when we arrived at Sea-Tac airport 2 hours later than planned, the attendant at the FastBreak booth told us that all she had was a Chevy Impala. Score on the free upgrade! We got in and went straight for sightseeing in Seattle.
Day 1:
We were hungry as it was already 2 pm when we landed in Seattle. We went straight to Pike’s Market area. The streets of Seattle Downtown reminded me of San Francisco with a lot of the streets having steep inclines.
Seattle is known for its seafood and there are lots of clam and oyster places. We were going to go cheap on food for the first day as we had already booked a reservation for dinner at the SkyCity restaurant at the top of the Needle the next day.
We found the biggest crowd was outside a seafood joint called Ivar’s. We found out later from a Seattle long term resident who said that they were renowned for the best fish-n-chips in Seattle. Right on!! We ordered a plate of Salmon fish-n-chips, a bowl of white clam-chowder and an order of calamari. It was so much food that we weren’t able to finish the fries. The Seagulls enjoyed them though.
After lunch we walked around the waterfront watching various street performers doing their thing on the streets and did a little souvenir shopping. Later we went to the Pike Place Market. I was not really impressed. Maybe markets are not my thing. Been there done that I guess.
After about 2 hours of walking around, we got in the car and drove to our next stop, Kerry Park. It’s a very small park amid what looked like an upscale residential area that has what TripAdvisor described as the best view of the Seattle skyline. We loved it. We agree that this is a must see if you come to Seattle. There was an excellent view of the city with the Space Needle front and center, and since the weather was great, a great view of Mt. Rainier in the backdrop.
I had read that one tourist attraction (although lowly ranked in Tripadvisor) was Bruce Lee’s grave (and right beside him Brandon Lee). I know going to a grave site doesn’t seem like a “fun” activity on vacation, but the memorials were very beautiful and thought provoking. There are also some other very lovely memorials as well. We drove into Lakeside cemetery where the grave is located. To find Bruce Lee’s grave specifically, when you pull into the cemetery, stay right and go up a small hill. The grave directly in front of his is a large white Heart stone. There were 4-5 other families there paying their respects to the kung-fu legend.
We were pretty tired by this point and called it a day. We drove to the Holiday Inn Express in Kent (about 15 minutes from the Seatac airport).
Day 2:
I have always been interested in anything aviation (be it nice airplanes or modern airports). So with that in mind, I booked the Boeing tour at the Everett factory. The tickets ($18/person) go fast and tour capacity is limited so don’t forget to book weeks ahead.
The factory is located about an hour from Seattle at a town called Mukhilteo. At the beginning of the tour, we were shown a short movie (basically a marketing promo of Boeing) and then we were taken in a bus to the factory. Please remember that no cellphone/camera/camcorder is allowed on premises and you can keep your belongings in the car in the parking lot or at lockers in the building for nominal fee.
Our guide gave us a lot of trivia information regarding the location.
- The factory building is the largest building in the world by volume.
- The blue mural work that extends along the length of the building (including the doors from where the planes come out of the assembly line) is the largest mural painting in the world.
In this factory, the 747-8, the 777 and then 787 Dreamliner are all built under same roof. The building doesn’t look that tall but bear in mind that the height of the tail of the 747 to the floor is the about as tall as 6-story building. The planes are all assembled inside the building, so you do the math!! Our guide explained how the aircrafts are assembled. After the aircrafts are assembled and tested, they exit from the 3 doors you can see in the picture and are taken to next building for painting. Another interesting trivia she mentioned was that paint can add up to 200-400 pounds of weight to the plane so that’s why most of the airlines keep the color light on the planes.
The entire tour is about 45 minutes and then we were taken back to the main building. There is a gift shop and another museum area (otherwise known as Future of Flight) where visitors can take photographs.
Next up was lunch time. We drove around and found a local Ivar’s in Mukhilteo which is right next to ferry dock. We had some fish-n-chips (with Cod this time) and some white clam chowder soup again (mmm).
We drove back to the hotel and took a short nap before our evening trip back to the city.
In the evening, we got dressed and drove to the Space Needle. I had already booked a reservation for dinner at the SkyCity restaurant. If you are planning on going to the restaurant I would advise to book a reservation at least 2-3 weeks in advance because space is limited and a lot of people book weeks in advance. The valet parking for the restaurant is very competitive with the surrounding public parking lot rates next to the Needle and so we opted for the valet (plus you can pay this with your dinner check).
After dinner, we went back to the observation deck. It was getting a bit chilly so we decided it was time to head back to the hotel. We had an early morning flight so we decided to return the rental car back at the airport and took the free shuttle back to the hotel (it was great that they had a shuttle even though this wasn’t the closest hotel to the airport).
Next day flight back to LAX was uneventful and even though the flight was full it wasn’t overbooked and no bump-vouchers this time around (DARN!).
Cost (Total for 2 travelers):
- Airfare: $273 (Southwest Airlines)
- Hotel: $219 (Holiday Inn Express, Seattle Kent)
- Rental Car: $53 (Budget)
- Gas (Rental Car): $22
Miles/Points/Certificates Redeemed:
Miles/Points/Cash-back Earned:
- $433 in Southwest Airline vouchers for voluntary “bumping”
- 10,784 Priority Club Points
- 75$ Prepaid Mastercard for “Stay for 2 weekend nights, Get 75$ to play” promo from IHG Hotels.
- 3000 American AAdvantage miles for Budget Car rental (pending)
- 832 Ultimate Reward Points for hotel booking through Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall
- 106 Ultimate Reward Points for Budget car rental booking through Ultimate Rewards Mall