180 Lunches

Travel Log: Seattle

June 2025

We stayed in 7 nights at a hotel north of the city, in Lynnwood for soccer playoffs. Don’t stay there, we did it to be close to the fields. We rented a car and drove everywhere, there wasn’t much traffic, and getting places/parking wasn’t bad. We heard there was not a great public transit alternative, so we didn’t try.

Activities/Places

  1. Downtown: Busy, touristy, but worth a long afternoon to check off the most notable places.
    1. Space Needle: Worth the trip to the top for the 360 views and history of it’s origin.
    2. Pop Culture Museum: Lots of cool artifacts from TV, movies, music, and more gathered in one place.
    3. Chihuly Garden and Glass: Beautifully blown glass displayed inside and out. Check out the live glass blowing demo.
    4. Flatstick Pub: Beers, mini golf and duffle board, which we learned is a combination of pool, but on waist high mini golf holes.
    5. Climate Pledge Arena: We were lucky enough to see Run the Jewels and Wu Tang while we were in town. I bet a WNBA or NHL game would be good to see there too.
  2. Pikes Place: Same as Downtown, you have to go see the fish get thrown, and it doesn’t disappoint
    • ChefSteps: Tons to see here, but a nerdy highlight for me was seeing the studio and one of the host filming a segment
    • First Starbucks: See it, but skip going inside, we did when the line died down and it wasn’t worth it.
  3. Snoqualmie Falls: 1 hour drive east of the city to the 2nd most amazing falls I have ever seen in person. First is Niagara, Canadian side of course.
  4. Ballard: Just a cool ass neighborhood we kept returning to. See the food/drink section below for our favorites.
  5. Freemont
    1. Gas Works Park: Great for a short walk and cool city skyline views
    2. Fremont Troll: Not a gimmick, it is cool to see it in person.
    3. Fremont Brewing: Excellent brewery with plenty of outdoor seating to reward you for exploring the surrounding neighborhood on foot.
  6. Leavenworth: 2 hour drive east through beautiful mountains and rivers to arrive at a Bavarian alpine town with an interesting history.
    • Espresso Chalet: Stop on the way, good coffee, amazing views, and bigfoot carved statues make for a fun picture
    • Mountain coaster adventure park: Weeeeeeee!
    • Yodelin Broth Company and Beer Garden
    • Whistlepunk Ice Cream Co.
  7. Discovery Park: Large park with lots of walking paths, a nice green space escape from the city.
  8. University Village: Just an outdoor mall near the University of Washington, not worth visiting, unless you want to go to a mall of course.
  9. Bubble Planet: Fun with a young kid, but nothing Seattle specific about it, which tends to be the case with pop-up boutique “museums”

Food/Drink

  1. Coffee shops: Great coffee everywhere, of course that is what they are known for, these are not ranked, but in the order we visited them.
    1. Candor Coffee in Renton
    2. Issaquah Coffee in Issaquah
    3. Doppio Cafe and Creperie in Redmond
    4. Last Frontier Coffee in Robinswood
    5. Urban City Coffee in Mountlake Terrace
    6. A Muddy Cup near University of Washington
    7. Mercury Coffee Co. in Bellevue
  2. Breakfast: The one time we didn’t have breakfast at a coffee shop was at Geraldine’s Counter in Rainier Valley and it was fantastic.
  3. Lunch/Dinner
    1. Un Bien in Ballard: Damn! Maybe some of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. I tried a bit of each one our family picked, but “The Press” was mine and the stand out.
    2. Mean Sandwich in Ballard: I had the “The Mean” and it was killer. The outdoor ping pong was fun too.
    3. Situ Tacos in Ballard: Lebanese and Mexican fusion + tasty cocktails.
    4. Dicks Drive-In: Deluxe and Fries: These are everywhere and the move apparently is to get a deluxe, fries, and a shake.
    5. Japanese Sushi Cocina near Pikes Place: Great sushi in a city of great sushi
    6. Wild Wasabi in Lynnwood: Shouts to this strip mall sushi spot in the burbs that has no right to be a good as it is
    7. Duke’s Seafood in Bellevue: A restaurant with some history that had good food, but that I wouldn’t go out of my way to return to.
  4. Ice Cream
    1. Frankie and Joes in Ballard: The best non-dairy ice cream I’ve ever had. The Pineapple Sangria was killer.
    2. Lil Tiger Ice Cream in Olympic Hills
    3. Nutty Squirrel Gelato in Ballard