My wife and I are planning a vacation, and of course, we're planning to go to Vancouver because that's our favorite place in the world. I'm trying to determine how we'll plan our route, and I'm thinking we might fly into Seattle, take a ferry over to Victoria, then take the ferry over to Vancouver, and then drive back down to Seattle to fly out.. We'll have about nine days total, so we could probably spend two days in Seattle, a day in the San Juans (it's on the way to Victoria by ferry), a couple of days in Victoria, and several days in Vancouver. What are some "must see" and "must do" things in Seattle and the San Juans? We've never really explored Seattle, and neither of us have ever seen the islands. Any experts out there?
For some reason, I'm just not a big fan of baseball.....though I do typically enjoy it better live. Actually, that might not be a bad idea. She works for one of the big four accounting firms, so they might be able to get us some tickets there. I was hoping someone had some info on the San Juans though......
My sister and some good friends live out there and I've been there a lot for work so I have spent a good deal of time out there. In Seattle itself: Experience Music Project is a must visit, as is Pike Street Market (one of those quintessentially seattle things with the fish tossing and stuff); Pioneer Square is ok too, There's also a really nice park in Capitol Hill (forgot the name) but it's one of the Frederick Law Olmstead parks, and it has a cool asian art museum. Crittenden locks are kind of cool too as you get to see the salmon swimming upstream underwater. Safeco is fun too. Outside Seattle: Mount Rainier Nat'l Park is a gorgeous place to visit, really good hiking & beautiful vistas, about a two hour drive away, well worth a daytrip in my opinion. You can hike to about base camp level (about 10-11k feet) before it gets too professional. The mountains on the Olympic peninsula are cool too (across elliot bay from downtown Seattle). Snoqualmie Falls are cool to see too, and are not far outside the city. San Juans: I don't know much about but my sister has been and supposedly awesome.
Thanks Sam....I'll try to check all of those out. My company had one of those corporate workshops that are supposed to help everyone understand and work better with everyone else, and one of the videos they showed was on Pike Street Market. It's about the only thing I remember from that seminar, and it's a place I've always wanted to visit since then.
Take a ferry out to Orcas Island. The island itself is fun to explore, but you can also hop on a boat and check out the pods of orcas and bald eagles that inhabit the area. Victoria has a famous flower garden that is impressive. The rock museum in Seattle is a bore, not to mention the ugliest building I've ever seen. Pikes market is pretty fun. Snoqualme (sp.) falls just outside of Seattle is a cool hike. It's the town where David Lynch's Twin Peaks was filmed.
