Sometimes you don’t get quite as much time in a city as you hope to, but in my opinion a quick trip beats no trip any day. I was able to visit Seattle this year, but only had two days to spend in a city with much more to offer than my time there allowed. That being said, I do feel like I got the most out of those two days as I could! I spent one day at Mt. St. Helens, and the next day exploring the city.
My first day in Seattle, my friend and I took a road trip to see Mt. St. Helens. It was the 36th anniversary of the devastating 1980 explosion and it was hard to believe that something so beautiful could be so dangerous! We spent a few hours exploring the Johnston Ridge Observatory, listening to the presentations about all the damage that was done when the volcano erupted, and doing small hikes near the observatory.
The next day we woke up and took the train to downtown Seattle. Our first stop was The Pike Place Market. You can’t visit Seattle without exploring the market and taking a photo of that famous sign! Seeing as how my visit was so short I didn’t buy anything except for some tea, but it was fun looking at all the little shops within the market! The guys at the Pike Place Fish Co. are hilarious too, they had a giant, creepy looking fish on a stick they made jump out successfully scaring all the curious spectators as they leaned in for a closer look!
Next we took an underground tour of Seattle ($20 adult ticket). Seattle used to be totally underground of where it is now and the entire city burned down! Can you believe that?! I had no clue! In 1889 there was a fire that burned down 100 entire acres of Seattle, taking down everything in its path and when the city was rebuilt they built it 12-30 feet taller than the original city to avoid flooding and everything was rebuilt in stone or brick to avoid another disastrous fire. If you look at the sidewalks today you will notice some places are glass and that’s because that part of the sidewalk used to be a skylight!
After the tour we headed to the Experimental Music Project Museum ($20 admission). Music is a big part of Seattle, just like music has been a big part of my life. There are so many famous musicians that were from Seattle, Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix just to name a couple! The EMP Museum is not your typical, run of the mill museum, this museum has a sculpture created entirely of guitars and a weird robot looking hello kitty! The EMP Museum also has exhibits where you can take mini lessons of different types of instruments and learn what goes into controlling a sound board, and an entire exhibit dedicated to displaying the guitars of tons of famous musicians, and they even had an entire exhibit dedicated to Jimi Hendrix!
Next time I visit Seattle I want to drink coffee by the tons and see live music, but for the time I had there I think I did a great job at seeing and learning about the city. Have you been to Seattle? What do you recommend for first-time visitors?
Oh! Don't forget that disgusting gum wall either!
