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What to do - Where to go ideas for a daytrip

This started as a bunch of copy & past and is new.  But I'm tweaking it as I can...  It's mostly from an email about what to do w/a friend from out of town for a day trip.  If there's no link in the mention, please refer to links in the table above.

It seems that the three top spots for tourists in Seattle are:

  1. Space Needle  http://www.spaceneedle.com/  

  2. Pike Place Market  http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/

  3. Snoqualmie Falls. http://www.snoqualmiefalls.com/  

Other destination ideas

  1. Mountain Rainier - Sunrise Ridge or Paradise - but both are too much for one day.

  2. Mount St. Helens

  3. Hurricane Ridge via Port Angeles

  4. Hoh Rain Forest & Rialto Beach - stone skipper's mecca.

  5. Ocean Shores

  6. Long Beach Peninsula

  7. San Juan Islands

  8. Blake Island - w/Indian salmon bake

  9. Port Townsend

  10. The Triangle of Death = Fort Warden in Port Townsend, Fort Flagler on Marrostone Island, & Fort Casey on Whidbey Island

  11. Leavenworth

  12. Tacoma's Glass Museum

  13. The Granite Falls - Darrington Loop -if passable

  14. Just take a ferry!  Take it to Bremerton & come back through Kingston/Edmunds

  15. Underground Tour - I've lived here nearly 30 years & never took that tour.  no reason, just didn't

  16. Aqua Duck is somewhere around the Space Needle

  17. Take a tour boat from Seattle's waterfront.

The table at the top of this page has many ideas within.  Worthy to spend some time checking through them.   Try the calendar too for your time reference. 

Here are some of my personal recommendations:

·        The Snoqualmie Falls is a given (in the top three above).  It’s less than 30 minutes from my house with a short walk to the viewing deck.  There's a trail down, but the hike back up will have your legs talking to you the next day.

·        If there’s something good showing, I highly recommend a stop at the Boeing IMAX  http://www.pacsci.org/imax/  I used to have a membership at the Pacific Science Center and could slip into the Butterfly room w/o paying extra.  It's worth the cost when the weather is seriously cold outside because it's so warm & humid for the butterflies and you can forget about the weather for a short bit.   

·        Then I usually followed that with a stop at the “Center House” where there are countless options for something to eat.  I confess that lately I’m partial to the mom & pop Gyro shop.  I heard a guy order his "extra sloppy" for more sauce.  My dad always stopped for fudge nearby whenever he was there.

·        Or… The Science Center/Boeing IMAX is in the shadow of the needle.  Dining at the Needle is probably the best way to see Seattle.  You sit comfortably as the restaurant rotates about a full turn in an hour.  –Long enough for a relaxing meal and see the area.  I expect any time of day is good.  But I can imagine being up there as the sun goes down & city lights come on would be a winner time slot.

·        Issaquah Salmon Hatchery… You won’t see any salmon in the river at this time of year, but it is still an interesting place & I just like Issaquah.  Tiger, Squak, & Cougar mountains so big & close, give it a mountain village feeling.

·        Ivar’s Salmon House has a pretty good tourist thing going.  You can kill some time looking at their historical photos & canoes hanging from the ceiling.  Gas Works Park & the Freemont Troll are nearby for a unique follow-up.  Don't forget the crowd "waiting for the interurban."

·        Another possibility is Pioneer Square.  There’s no shortage of funky places.

·        A trip to Port Angeles & up to Hurricane Ridge is doable in a day.  A trip to the Hoh Rain Forest & Rialto Beach near Forks is possible in a day.  For either, take the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge.  Tip: Avoid the M's game letting out with a ferry from Kingston to Edmonds.

      Ocean Shores, Westport, Grayland, & even Ilwaco & Long Beach are possible in a day.  LB is 3.5 hrs each way. 

    Or stay local.  If into flowers, maybe enjoy a visit to the Bellevue Botanical Garden. 

·        Ever been down to Meydenbauer Beach?  I like telling about the Montlake Cut as I show the marker at the end of the wall that indicates where the waterline used to be.

I saw this on a blog about getting to the falls & thought of you w/your GPS: Don't trust your GPS, once you get within less than a mile from your destination. Use your EYES and you'll have an easier time finding the falls. The GPS system, sent us through some crazy drive that led us in a big circle...turns out, the parking area was about 30 steps around the bend from where the stupid navigating system told us to turn. The parking area is right down the main road from the lodge to your right.

Pike Place Market has “renovation now underway”.  But I found this to alleviate any concerns: Will the Market be open for business during renovation work?
Yes, yes and yes. The Pike Place Market is a 362-day a year working neighborhood (only closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day) and will continue to be a (almost) year-round operation during renovation, too. That's one main reason we are tackling the renovation project in phases - as not to disrupt the entire Market at once.

Please send any suggestions for this list to: george@meyermanor.net

This page was updated on 08/24/2011