Our trip was during 20-28 Dec 2017, to visit our family in Gig Harbor, Washington. We’re going to visit Tim’s father in Seattle during Christmas!
But there’s always time to look around, 26 Dec we walked around Pike’s Market, we had the best clam chowder (soup) at Lowell’s Resturant, fresh donuts, curds cheese, a coffee at the First Starbuck Store and a stop at the Gum-wall, our last stop was Chinatown (nothing to compare with the one in NY!).
อ่านเวอร์ชั่น -> ภาษาไทย
OUR FLIGHTS:
Alaska Airline flies direct from New Orleans to Seattle, and it’s about a 5 hrs flight. This would be our first time to travel with Alaska Airline.
Tim’s stepmother was so sweet, she took care of our flight tickets, she also treated us all in first class!!!
Who doesn’t like to fly first class?!?!?!
We took our dog with us, we paid her fee at the check-in gate of $100 . But it’s so weird, nobody asked to check for her vaccination record at all! Different when we tried to take her for grooming on the day before traveling, the groomer didn’t want to do it until we could show her the vaccination records.
Something new? Alaska airline gave us a tablet to watch movies on board, it’s very convenient and cool!
This service is complimentary in First class but for the other passenger, they need to pay a little more.
We arrived at Seattle airport around midnight or 2 in the morning New Orleans time.
OUR RENTAL CAR:
After we got our bags, we headed to get our rental car. For this trip we rented a car with Alamo.
During check-in at Alamo, we upgraded our car to something I wasn’t sure was better than the one we reserved online but all we payed was an extra $100 for all wheel drive (it was going to snow).
OUR HOTEL:
As planned, we got here very late, so we didn’t plan to bother Tim’s family after midnight. We booked a hotel nearby the airport, DoubleTree By Hilton. Tim found a very good deal on the internet with King Bed, and bacony view!
When Tim checked-in, the hotel didn’t have the room we reserved, and the only King bed they had they wanted more money for.
I heard Tim ask about the room he reserved with a guarantee for late arrival, the clerk said “that rooms is not available”, and Tim said “then you clearly don’t understand the concept of a reservation”.
That’s not a good start at two in the morning….
When we got in our room, we got two twin beds (we booked for Kingbed?!?!) and we all slept in one twin (Tim, me and the dog)!
The balcony view that they advertised was actually a construction site across an alleyway!
After a short sleep, we got to wake up to the sound of hammers and saws.
If we weren’t tried, we would complain or change the hotel!!!
They also don’t have a lot of parking! It was $25 to park over night and $30 for valet (since self-park looked full we went with valet).
By the way, our booking didn’t included the breakfast which we found out was $23 each for the buffet. We thought that was a lot for scrambled eggs.
Tim and I just walked out and went to Dave’s diner across the street. We had a great breakfast for a third of the price.
We will never stay at a DoubleTree By Hilton again.
We booked online at $100 per night but when we checked-out, our bill was over than $200!!! (animal fee 50$, parking $30, etc).
The hotel is pretty old, no fancy decorations but expensive and they charge extra for anything!
Next time we come back to Seattle we’ll stay at the La Quinta which located in front of the Double Tree (free parking)!
OUR ACCOMMENDATIONS & FOODS:
After we checked-out, we drove to Tim’s family house in the morning the day after we arrived.
This trip would be about 7-8 days but most of time we were with Tim’s father. So we dined in at home and Tim’s stepmom fed us good food every day, especially the KING CRAB LEGS!!!
I love these king crab legs so much (as much as Tim loved to peel them for me!) Our best meal was King Crab legs salad and crackers. But the king crab omelet was awesome with rice!
I wish I could buy some and get it back home for a real Thai menu!
As Washington is the top apple producing state, and we are here! We found many different types of apples in the grocery store. The one that I really liked was called “Honey Crisp“, it’s crisp and juicy.
There is an apple farm and shop nearby Tim’s family called “Butler’s Farm”. It’s a self-shop, you weigh your produce and put money in the safe box by yourself… There was no one there, just apple trees, and a farm stand with instructions on where to put the money. This was our favorite apple shop for this trip!
There is Clam Chowder which Tim loves so much all around Seattle! I’m not sure if it was the cold weather that made this soup feel so good. But it’s really good and thick and full of clams and potatoes!
The best Clam chowder for our trip is at Lowell’s in Pike Market (Public Market Center). We also tried the soup at Streamers in Tacoma and Anthony’s in Seattle airport. They are all great but we do really like the one from Lowell’s the best.
After the trip I found out that the #1 rated Chowder is at Pike Place Chowder in Pike’s market. We missed it this trip but I’m sure to order some for Tim, I found out that they deliver (ship) to anywhere in the US!
http://www.pikeplacechowder.com/
OUR TRIP:
As I mentioned, this trip was really about family time, so we only got out on the 26th when we went to Pike’s Market. We drove our car to the ferry terminal and then took the ferry to Seattle. It was a beautiful view but cold!
I’m glad we had a chance to check out Pike’s market for our clam chowder at Lowell’s, the fresh donuts, and the long line at the first Starbucks Store, we even put our gum on the Gumwall!
Click here to read more about Pike’s Market (English soon)
After we visited Pike’s Market, we went to see Seattle’s Chinatown area but it was very disappointing because there’s just not much there to see!
This was our trip in Seattle during 20-28 December 2017, we had so much fun and had a great family Christmas, even though the rest of the family wasn’t there, we still made memories!
Trip expenses:
Long term (our car) parking in New Orleans airport (20-28 Dec 2017) = $136.56
Full Trip Car Rent at Seattle = $604.09 (excluded gasoline)
1 night at Double Tree hotel $202.05 (gerrrr)
Jammai’s flight fee $200 (round trip)
Our flight tickets $3000 (Thanks Brenda!)
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