Things to keep you sleepless in Seattle
There are many things to keep you sleepless in Seattle, in quite a good way—and I don’t mean just the coffee, which the city is known for. (It’s the home of Starbucks, after all.)
With only three full days to spend in the biggest city in the Pacific Northwest for the media familiarization tour of Philippine Airlines (PAL), which launched this month its thrice weekly direct flights to Seattle (See related story.), I had to plan my days strategically to cover things beyond our official itinerary.
On Day 1, I hauled myself out of bed at daybreak and braved the morning chill to go for a short, 5-kilometer run, from our base in The Westin Seattle, all the way to the waterfront. Little did I know that the route would bring me some pleasant surprises along the way.
I wound up past the Port of Seattle, where a running/cycling track took me all the way to the Olympic Sculpture Park, an outdoor sculpture museum with a view of the Puget Sound beach on one side and the Space Needle, the most recognizable Seattle landmark, on the other.
Seattle has a terrain not unlike hilly San Francisco, so it can be a bit daunting to navigate if you’re not quite used to walking. (Of course, there’s always the monorail and Uber.)
That morning, we hit the Museum of Flight, an independent museum within the Boeing campus, with hundreds of full-size air- and spacecraft and thousands of other aeronautics artifacts that would leave aviation geeks speechless.
When it rains
Seattle has a reputation of being a rainy city, but in reality, it rains no more than other US cities. It does get its share of rainfall owing to its topography and ocean currents, but Seattle only gets 37 inches of rain in 165 days, while Houston get 54 inches in 99 days and New York City gets 50 inches in 120 days. We experienced one brief rainy morning on our trip, which still allowed me to accompany one of my travel mates on Day 2 down to the waterfront when the rain stopped.
Seattle is well known for its coffee culture—it’s a shame we didn’t have time to do a proper coffee crawl. Locals, including Visit Seattle’s Shawana Lee and my balikbayan seatmate on PAL, both recommended Storyville Coffee.
We did see the first Starbucks store in Pike Place, which opened in 1971, and had long queues outside. The tiny shop looked quite humble next to the Starbucks Roastery nine blocks away, with its own bakery and even a bar, and where beans are roasted and packed before being sent to other places.
A food tour of Pike Place is a must, which we did with our guide Jonathan of Eat Seattle Tours. He took us on tasting stops at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, artisan cheesemaker and maker of Oprah’s favorite mac and cheese (they have frozen ones you can bring home); the taco place called Maiz with their handmade tortillas; Totem Smokehouse, which processes wild salmon (Seattle seafood is topnotch!); the Greek-style gelato place called Hellenika Cultured Creamery, where we tried their ube and coconut flavor; a handcrafted pizza place and the chowder place next door (a must!).
Fish-throwing
We wound up at the Oriental Food Mart to sample salmon sinigang, longganisa and adobo. The owner, Leila Rosas, accompanied us to the fish market nearby, where PAL OIC executive vice president and general counsel Carlu Fernandez tried the wildly popular fish-throwing experience. What fun!
I’ve had friends warn me not to set out on my own when going around Seattle, since it’s also experiencing issues of drug use and homelessness. I’d say, tourists would be wise to avoid the southern portion of 3rd Avenue downtown, where the public buses pass. It was safe and uneventful in all the other areas.
To get a sweeping view of Seattle, the Space Needle, built for the 1962 World Fair, is a must-not-miss. From here, you can spot Mount Rainier on a clear day.
Just next door is the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), where music geeks, most especially, can soak in music history through an exceptional collection of artifacts and well-curated exhibitions on music legends like Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana, among countless others. Seattle, after all, is the birthplace of grunge, where bands likes Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden originated. (Another piece of pop culture trivia: Bruce Lee is buried in this city.)
On our last full day, I skipped the premium outlets, a 45-minute drive from Seattle, to see the stunning exhibition at the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum—and I’m glad I did. Featuring the glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly, the museum is next door to the Space Needle and MoPOP. Its expansive glasshouse, with its ceiling adorned with Chihuly’s chandeliers, was the venue of PAL’s gala dinner for its US partners when it launched its flight the week before our visit.
And if you’re lucky to know someone at Amazon HQ who could take you inside the Amazon Spheres, the jaw-dropping cluster of glass domes, go. The Amazon Spheres are a unique architectural marvel within the Amazon campus and serves as a biophilic-slash-arboretum workspace, designed to connect employees with nature.
