[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sam, I'm going to get off of planes and throw it over to you. Like, where would you head if you had a car?
[00:00:05] Speaker B: I feel like we hit the places. Brian, I.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: No hiking? No mountaineer? No.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: I mean, I'm thinking.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: All right, Ashley. Ashley, you go.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: We have a few days, Brian.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Put your hand down on the back of the class, Sam. Ashley's got you covered. Hold her here for a second.
Welcome back, everybody, to another live episode of the DC l duo podcast, brought to you by my path, unwinding travel. And, Sam, we're not straying too far from home today, are we?
[00:00:44] Speaker B: We are not. We're just going to head across Lake Washington. We live on the east side. For those who are in the know, east side means on the east side of Lake Washington, over into the city of Seattle proper today on our show. So super exciting. Let's welcome our guest who's with us, Ashley, welcome to the show. Or welcome back to the show, I should say.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: Thank you. Good evening, everyone.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it's so great to have you. We know you're usually watching our live show, and we appreciate that, and we're so happy to have you on. For those who haven't listened to some of our shows in our back catalog, Ashley came on our show, gosh. Now, a couple years ago to talk about Alaska sailing on the wonder. And in that show, we covered a little bit, only a little bit of her pretty cruise trip because she went to first Seattle and then to Vancouver, British Columbia, where she obviously sailed out of a Disney cruise line. Today, we're going to focus on talking about Seattle. Of course, we know Disney Cruise line does not actually sail directly out of Seattle, even though pretty much every other cruise line sails out of Seattle to go up to Alaska. But, you know, it's our hometown, and a lot of people do like to make a stop over here in Seattle before they head up to Vancouver and start their sailing on Disney cruise line to Alaska. It's only a three hour drive, folks, so that's what I like to tell people. We're 3 hours south of Vancouver, British Columbia. But before we dive into that topic of the show, um, we should have Ashley remind folks of her cruising background. You know, how many times you've sailed on DCL, Ashley, what kinds of itineraries you've done, that sort of a thing.
[00:02:26] Speaker C: Sure. So I've done eight cruises. I'm getting very close to platinum. Uh, but I've done your typical, uh, three and four nighters out of, uh, Port Canaveral, the Alaska cruise in 2022, which was just a bucket list trip.
And also out of New Orleans, where we first met you. That's right. To Mexico, in fact. And, oh, and New York. I really wish DCl would go back to New York because New York to Canada is just a fantastic way to.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Sail in the fall.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: You're like, alternative DCl port guru. That's what you are. Like. You need Galveston and San Diego on the roster to just complete out the, you know, the non standard ports for DCL in the US.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: Non standard. I have another one booked out of Southampton for next summer, too. There you go.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: All right, well, we got a few folks saying hello here, Sam, that I want to make sure to acknowledge. So, tinfoil mouse ears, CT. Hey, how you doing?
We got Matt. Good evening. Here we go.
Cross mouse adventures saying good evening to everyone. And Jill saying hello all. So, hi. Thanks for joining the stream. It's great to have you all here.
All right, let's dive into talking about why you would even want to fly to Seattle instead of Vancouver.
Well, I guess a few people fly to Orlando and then cruise out of Miami, but it's more common. You fly into the city that you're sailing out of. You don't fly into a different city. So, Ashley, why did you choose to fly into Seattle as opposed to flying to Vancouver for your Disney cruise?
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:03:59] Speaker C: So we had two reasons. The first one is we absolutely love Seattle, so we wanted to show it off to our daughter. I spent some time back in the late nineties in Seattle, and it's just a beautiful area of the country. And then also we liked the direct flight from our east coast cities of Charlotte and Atlanta because this is a multi generational trip. And so we had one direct flight to Seattle. We were already on the west coast. And back during the 2020 season, there was also a lot of border crossing restrictions, and so then it just made a lot more sense to be able to drive across the border instead of being able, if we caught COVID on the ship, being kind of stuck in Canada before, quarantined in Canada before flying home. So it just made logistical sense. Plus, we love that area of the town of the country.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: Well, look, I'll also say that if you're coming out this far for Alaska and you haven't visited the Pacific Northwest, like Seattle, Portland, uh, great cities to visit, and you're coming, if it's, you're coming during Alaska season, you're pretty much coming at the best time of year. So for those of you who don't live in Seattle. You may have heard it rains a little bit here. Uh, I guess just a little, you know, all to the contrary. With the background behind me, that is an actual view out the window where I sit and work.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: That's our backyard. Yeah, that's our backyard.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: But it does rain a lot here. Uh, but we, we pay that price because during the summertime, it is absolutely gorgeous in the Pacific Northwest. Everything is green. All the evergreens are blooming. Not a cloud in the sky and many, many a day. Mild temperatures most of the time. Uh, and just lots of stuff. It's, it is an outdoor community when, uh, we hit the summertime. And I, when I say that, I don't mean everyone's off hiking. Lots of people are, uh, but lots of people just go to parks and picnic and sit around and just get outside to soak up the vitamin D, because we don't, we have to take supplements the rest of the year. So it's a great place to visit. And it's, it's a, it's a, you know, it's a world class city here in Seattle. Uh, not to knock Vancouver, I always, we love to go visit Vancouver, too. So my recommendation is actually come, fly here, head up to Vancouver, even for a couple days, then do your cruise, and, you know, repeat the, uh, on the other end to, to go home. So that's what we did.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: It was great. So I can hit both cities?
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: So, Ashley, we. So Sam and I are going to preface, we're going to talk about where to stay. Sam and I are just going to offer suggestions on neighborhoods. We, obviously, we live here, so we don't stay in hotels, although we've stayed here and there a few nights at different hotels around the area. But, Ashley, you have experience with a particular hotel. Would you recommend it? And where was it?
[00:06:35] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. It was on Western Avenue. So it is walking distance to the space needle and Seattle center, that park. It's walking distance to the waterfront so that you can go see all great food and a running trail along the river, and you can see the water because it's a bit up on a hill. And so that was in Western Avenue, and it was the Homewood suites. Because we had a larger group, we wanted a little more space.
But also we were spending the big bucks in Vancouver at the Port hotel there. So it worked out great for all the families.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a perfect spot. So where Ashley State is in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, which is basically the neighborhood that's directly adjacent to downtown, and it's also really close to or really where the port is. If you're sailing out of the downtown port, I wanna be clear. There are two ports that cruise ships sail out of in Seattle. So if you're cruising out of Seattle on a different line, instead of cruising out of Vancouver, that's a great place to. Belltown is a great neighborhood to stay. Or another neighborhood right next to that, which is sort of one more neighborhood removed from downtown is called South Lake Union. I would say that's better if you are. Well, it's a great neighborhood, too, but it's also better if you're sailing out of the other port that is on what's called Interbay, which is a little bit outside of the downtown corridor. You'd have to take an Uber. Our friends drew and Haley actually sailed on Holland America cruise line out of Seattle, and they were sailing out of that port, and so they stayed in south Lake Union. So I think either is a great neighborhood to stay in. Lots of restaurants. Both of them are walking distance to most of the attractions in Seattle, both the waterfront as well as the space needle, and, of course, lots of museums in that area, which we'll talk about, you know, places to. Places to go while you're visiting Seattle, and even a great park. We'll talk about that. I know Ashley went with her family.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I was going to say, I think you've hit some great places to stay if you are sailing out. If you're ever sailing directly out of Seattle from the downtown port, there are hotels that are, like, right across the street. You can walk your luggage across the street, but if you're. If you're sailing out of that, enter Bay port. It is. You're going to need a car. You're going to need some way to get there. It is not a walkable experience from the core downtown area as far as where to stay. I do want to be upfront with people about my own city and say, I would not encourage folks to stay in the downtown core of Seattle right now. Post COVID, like lots of west coast cities, we have had a huge uptick in homelessness that has led to some not great interactions for visitors and guests in the core downtown area, particularly in.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: The Pioneer Square neighborhood, which is where basically I work.
[00:09:25] Speaker A: It's not that you can't get into downtown to go to a restaurant or something. It's just, you know, I would not encourage you to stay in that area. I think Southlake Union is great. I think Belltown is great.
I'd go so far as to say if there's anything on the lower Queen Anne area, that's great.
All of that is central. Tons of restaurants, tons of things to do, tons of walkability in those areas. All great. If you're looking at hotels, for whatever reason, in Bellevue, which is the city on the east side, you can actually see the two cities. Both have high rise skyscrapers, and you can kind of see them across the lake. Just know, yeah, there's stuff to do over there, but it is not Seattle. It is much more suburban. It's suburban. There is a downtown core, great restaurants, a big shopping mall, that sort of stuff. But I would not advocate staying there. You'll be spending half your time driving back and forth across bridges or toll bridges to get into the downtown area.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: Although you'll be real close to where we live. So if that's an attraction, then, you.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Know, it is not. No maps to the house are being sold. All right, so we talked about a little bit about where to stay. Um, I want to talk about what to do, uh, in Seattle. And I want to just, we're just going to pass the mic around and everyone scratch some things off their card as we go. And we'll get into some deep cuts the further we get into this. Um, but there is a ton to do in Seattle.
Ashley, as an actual tourist to this, to the city, like, what was the first thing that you decided? We have to go see this.
[00:10:55] Speaker C: It's the waterfront. I mean, we have to be, you have to go to pike place market and then the big Ferris wheel, the great wheel that's down there. And we were with grandparents and at the time, a seven year old kid. So all of my recommendations are good for really any age group, but going down to the waterfront, smelling the seattle has a very distinct smell that brings out great memories for me, that salty water with the pine air looking at the jellyfish. So making sure to get to the waterfront and pike place market, you've seen it in all the movies. You catch the fish, and at that time of the year, that's your afternoon, that's your lunch. You walk through and you eat little bites through all the different stalls. You grab a bottle of wine to have later. Obviously, the original Starbucks is right there. And then the biggest tourist attraction, all of Seattle, the infamous gum wall. Chewing gum wall. You gotta make sure, walk through the market, find that, because every kid finds it fascinating, but really just that exploring right on, right on the waterfront too.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: So I want to, I do want to highlight pike Place market. Great restaurants in there, great food stalls in there, great place to find souvenirs. It is an active like sort of greengrocer market. They have multiple fishmongers in there, including the one that's famous for throwing the fish. They've got butchers, cheesemongers, flower stands, produce, fresh produce, handicrafts. Theres one really long strip that you can walk down. Theres some different floors and levels you can kind of get lost in and find little magic shops and curio shops and things like that. Old bookstores. Yeah. Its where the scene from sleepless in Seattle was filmed, where Rob Reiner and Tom Hanks are, are eating at a greek diner. It was in pike Place market. It is a hub not just for tourists, like locals go to the market too. We used to go over there all the time to get fresh cracked crab that we could just bring home in a bag and pour in a bowl and eat. Um, it was great. So as a tourist destination, it's also a place that, you know, at least some of the locals still go. Um, you can access the actual waterfront proper from Pike Place Market. They have stairs that go down and will meander you down to the waterfront area.
Ill highlight that piece of it, which is down on the waterfront. There are some piers and the piers are a great place to go wander around. Theres some great attractions down there and some decent restaurants, especially sort of family friendly restaurants. So on the restaurant side, well do more food reviews later. But on the restaurant side, if youre down there, Ivers is down there which is a local fish and chips favorite.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: And Elliotts as well.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: Elliotts which is another good local fish place.
Theres a red robin down there which is a burger chain here locally. Its a sit down burger chain here locally that started in Seattle. And people love it.
Theres the great wheel or the big wheel down on the pier, which is a London eye, only smaller, but great views of the sandbox.
[00:14:03] Speaker C: Right?
[00:14:03] Speaker B: It doesn't.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: And then wings over Washington is a great attraction right next to the great wheel. So it is basically Soarin over Seattle. It is not, they can't call over.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Washington or Soarin over Washington.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: Yeah, but it's a great, it is really, it is a Soarin like attraction called wings over Washington. And, and it's one of those things where you can actually purchase tickets to do both the great wheel and the wings over Washington or individual tickets from one to the other or you can buy, I think it's like a city pass or something like that that gets you entrance into those attractions and some other museums and attractions throughout Seattle. Yeah, yeah. But great stuff on the waterfront. What's also down on the waterfront, I want to add, is the aquarium. So Seattle has a fantastic aquarium, if you're into sea otters and river otters in particular.
They're adorable. And they hold hands and they swim together and they sleep while they're holding hands. And it's the cutest thing ever. But, yeah, it's another. While we're talking about the waterfront, I feel like that's another great place to visit. Visit in Seattle. That is in that exact same area as what we've been talking about. Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: And I want to highlight. So we talked about the original Starbucks. I just want to be clear, like, it isn't just a Starbucks store. All right. But you can buy some special mugs and things in there. It is the only large chain that is allowed to be in the market because it didn't start as a large chain. It was a local coffee shop that then took off and became the global brand we all know today. They have a different logo out front. They have the original mermaid logo, which is a little racier than the existing logo that they have. And they sell mugs and stuff. I have the original logo on it as a part of their collection. It's typically busy, but it's fun to see. I'll also highlight one more food recommendation. I know we said we saved food to the end, but I can't. We're at the market.
The food stalls are fantastic. But if you're at the market and you're near the Starbucks and you're looking for something tasty as a snack, head across the street to Beechers. The Beecher's cheese is made here locally. They make fabulous. Fabulous. Like these sharp cheddars, aged cheddar cheeses. And they make Beecher's Mac and cheese, which is phenomenal. So I highly recommend trying that out. Yeah.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: And I will say we've got Matthew asking if we have Tim Hortons in the area. We have Starbucks. He needs his Timmy's. I'm sorry, you have to go across the border to Canada for Tim Hortons. There are no Tim Hortons that I know of in Washington. There are certainly none in Seattle. But we have so many amazing, wonderful coffee shops that you do not need a Tim Hortons. There are. And I'm not talking Starbucks. Starbucks is fine and great. And going to the original Starbucks is, you know, it's. That's a destination.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: If you're a coffee, if you're a coffee fan. Uh, and you got a car, then reach out to us on our email, uh,
[email protected]. We'll give you some just really great coffee recommendations. Once you have coffee from some of these places, you will be like, I can't go back. I can't go back.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: And there are so many good coffee places in both in downtown and outside of sort of downtown corridor in Seattle, so that we can give you, like, just, you can do your taste test of Seattle.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: Matt coffees, 100% agree. There is no Mac and cheese that can. It's. I mean, it's got to be pretty bad.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: And he says coffee is life in his next comment as well. So, yes, coffee is life, at least in Seattle.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: I see a lot of you are giving some recommendations around restaurants and things to eat. I will definitely bring those up as we get more toward that point in the show. But let's take a hop, skip, and a jump from Pike Place Market and over to Seattle center, because that is a huge destination, not just for tourists, but also for locals and has a lot of great things going on over there. Completely walkable from the downtown area and the downtown hotels. If you want a little bit of fun, you can head to one of the local malls, the name of which is escaping me, and ride the monorail from the mall.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: The Westlake center. Brian.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: West Lake center. Westlake center mall.
[00:17:55] Speaker C: You can ride the monorail Nordstrom. The original Nordstrom is there. Yes.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: You can ride the monorail from Westlake center out to Seattle center. The monorail has two stops, Westlake center and Seattle center. And that is it. So if you're a fan of the Simpsons, we got sold a monorail. So there you go.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: And it's maybe a quarter of a mile or half of a mile, so you can totally walk it. You don't need to take the monorail. If you want to take the monorail, you're doing it because it's a choice.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: If you want to really upset someone from Seattle, talk to them about the monorail a little bit, because, yeah, let's just say I'm probably still paying taxes on a monorella never built anyway.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: Ashley, what did you, what do you do? Or what did you do at Seattle center? We know you went there. Tell people what's at Seattle center.
[00:18:37] Speaker C: Yes. Well, I reached out to my favorite Seattle folks at the DCL duo and asked for a recommendation for a playground because we knew that we needed to stretch our legs after that long cross country flight. So we went to the artist at play playground which is, it was even that perfect Seattle drizzly weather. And there were.
It's like no other playground I've ever seen in terms of the climbing structures and the musical instruments that are really large that you can play and the interesting swings. And it was just fantastic slides that the adults went down. And it was. It was fantastic. Really pretty large. You could also throw a frisbee or a football or something. It was. It was great.
Also, you've got the space needle there. If it's. If you can see Mount Rainier, if it's not a cloudy day, if it's nice and clear, you can. You can do the space needle. I'll put a shout out for the Pacific Northwest ballet that's also there in Seattle center.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:19:37] Speaker C: If they are the sense you're playing, it's lovely. And then the Chihuly exhibits, which we didn't have time to go in, but I love the Chihuly gardens, so all of that is fantastic. And you can get a New York style street hot dog. So if that your food jam.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Well, if you really. If you really want. If you really want a local hot dog, you gotta get a Seattle hot dog, which has cream cheese on it. So that's.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: But no, it's weird.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: For those who don't know, I just want to briefly. Dale Chihuly is a very famous glass artist now globally, but originated in the Pacific Northwest. He's got a lot of glass blowing and making facilities up here. He's very well known up here.
If you don't think you know what his art is. In Paolo on the dream and the fantasy, I believe as you walk in, there is a glass installation on the roof. And that is, if it's not chihuly glass, it's in the style of Dale Chihuly's glass. So it is beautiful, beautiful stuff. And he built a permanent exhibition of his work and, you know, have some rotating exhibitions as well at Seattle center. It is. It is well worth walking through and seeing that it is right next to the space needle. You don't have to venture very far. I'm actually going to put a plug in for the space needle. I think a lot of people see that stuff and they're like, oh, that's a tourist trap. It is. But we've been up it and we enjoyed it. And they actually remodeled the space needle. It used to have a rotating restaurant, which it still kind of does.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: It's more of a barn.
[00:21:10] Speaker A: At the barn, the best value used to be go up to the space needle for, like, lunch and, you know, you get the value, you get the ride up for the value of your meal. So at least you're getting kind of the meal. And they don't view. And you could go to the observation deck. Now it's more of a bar, rotating bar. But what they did is they replaced all of the flooring and, like, everything in the space, you know, so it's all glass now. So when you're up in the space and we can stare straight down below you and the thing still rotates, it's really, really. It's really, really fun to see. It's a great way. Yeah.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: And that's inside. You can also go outside. And of course, they have like tall, like, walls, so you won't fall over or anything like that. But you can go outside and actually get great views as well. But as Ashley mentioned, this might not be something you want to book ahead of time because you don't know if it's going to be a clear day in Seattle. If it's a cloudy day, you're not going to get these beautiful views of either the city skyline or of Mount Rainier. If it is a clear day, you will get, we always say the mountains out today when we see Rainier, that's the mountain is out every day, but we can't always see it. So we say the mountain is out when we can see Rainier. And there are some days that will be fantastic. The one issue is it's possible that it could be sold out with pre reservation. So there is some risk there.
[00:22:24] Speaker A: If there's. If, uh, if it's a really warm day, if you're coming up later in the season, it's a warm day. Seattle center is also a great place to go because as a matt, I mean, a gigantic fountain and people just put bathing suits on and they go into the. It's meant to be kind of. It's like a. Not a fountain, it's more like a splash area, but like on steroids. Like, it shoots a column of water up like 2030, 40ft in the air and then it comes splashes down on everybody. It's a great spot to go if you're looking to cool off. And huge grass areas. There's a spot over there called the Armory that has a ton of food.
One of our cool local radio stations has a whole setup over there. They're known for discovering lots of grunge music acts and things back in the nineties and a really, really popular kexp. You can walk by and look right into the studio as they're broadcasting. There's a lot to do around Seattle center. That is, it will keep you busy for a day. If you just want to have kind of a fun, relaxing little day over there.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: I want to give two more recommendations for Seattle center, specifically, which are there are two great museums in Seattle center. One is the Seattle Children's museum. So if you're going with young kids, that's a great place to hit. If you're not going with young kids and you're into pop culture, Sci-Fi music, whatever. There is the Mo Pop museum, which is the museum of popular culture. It's formerly the. Forget what it was. It was formerly like a music museum. Basically.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: It was the empty experience music project and the Sci-Fi Museum.
This will blow your mind. It is Paul Allen's personal collection of music and Sci-Fi memorabilia. Like he owned Captain Kirk's chair. He owned all of these guitars from famous musicians. So he installed it in a. And a building as a permanent set of exhibitions. Paul Allen was the co founder of Microsoft, for those who don't know. And the building itself is really interesting to look at. It's supposed to look like a smashed guitar. That was the architectural theme for the building. So it's really.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: So now it's the Mo pop or museum of popular culture. And it's right there in Seattle center. Right. Exactly where we're talking about. So there's multiple things to see in that one area between Chihuly, the children's museum, the space needle, the artists at play playground, which I'm a huge fan of myself. You know, there's just a lot to do right there. And then a hop, skip and a jump away. We've got to talk about the Pacific Science center because that is another fantastic museum for both adults, kids and the young ones. There's a really nice little toddler exhibit. There's a butterfly room. We have a great science center.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: There's an IMAX there. They have a full imax. I think they have a planetarium over there too. Yes. And then, yeah, they've got a butterfly house. I've got all kinds of installations for various engineering things, robotics. We used to take our son there almost every other weekend, we remembers, and just let him run around and have a great time. So the Pacific Science center, highly, highly, highly recommend. There's also a bunch of, at Seattle centers, a bunch of. Ashley mentioned the ballet. There's children's theaters and other theaters over there. The old key arena is over there that sometimes hosts some smaller concerts, roller derby I think they host there now.
[00:25:43] Speaker B: It's the climate pledge arena.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: The climate pledge arena?
[00:25:45] Speaker B: Yes, Brian.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: I always remember the key arena so well.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: And now they are the home of the Seattle Kraken and the Seattle Storm. Right? So Seattle Kraken is our hockey team, and the Seattle storm is our women's basketball team. So we have the WNBA. We still don't have our sonics back. We will someday have our sonics back. Okay, I'm putting it out there, manifesting.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: I hear the home team rousted the visiting team, and then. So let's take one more hop, skip, and a jump, because after that, we got to get in the car, I think.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: Well, I think we still need to get to Mohai, Brian.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: That's where I was headed with my hop, skip, and a jump to South Lake union. So South Lake union. Seattle is a tricky city for transportation because we have tons and tons and tons of water. So we've got the Puget sound. We've got Lake Union. Lake Washington, which is a massive lake. Calling it a lake is almost comical. It's huge. And so over on Lake Union, which is on the downtown west side of the downtown west side, we're on the east side. It's on the west side, Seattle side. On the south end of Lake Union, they've got the float planes coming in and out, which is really fun to see. Again. It's a hub of activity for locals in the area with small boats and watercraft. Tons of floating homes over there, including the one that was used in sleepless in Seattle. And at the very south end, there's the Mojai, which is the Museum of History and Industry. Yeah, our son just took a field trip there. Had a fabulous time. Loved it. Matthew, I see your question about boat tours. Yes, there are pleasure cruise dinner tours, sunset sails out on the Puget Sound. On South Lake Union, there's kayaks you can rent. There's duffy boats, electric boats you can rent with a small group and just tool around the lakes. And then there are actually now floating hot tubs that you can rent. And if you want to sit in a hot tub and float around Lake Union, you can.
[00:27:42] Speaker B: If you're looking for a boat tour on sort of that larger. You're looking for Argosy. Argosy tours is they run most of those boat tours out of either downtown or on Lake Union because you can do one or the other. They're two different. There's different itineraries you can do depending upon what you want to see. If you want to see the houseboats on Lake Union, you'll want to sail on Lake Union. If you want to see sort of the downtown Seattle skyline, you'll want to go out of downtown. So it depends on what you want to do.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: And then on the north end of that lake, there's a couple of fun things happening. One is there's a small neighborhood. Seattle is a town of neighborhoods. So we talked about Belltown in the downtown area. Lower Queen Anne is another neighborhood. There's a huge hill to the north of downtown called Queen Anne Hill, which is a very expensive and nice neighborhood. Lots of great stuff happening on the top of the hill. If you are up for the strenuous hike to get to the top of the hill, or you have a car, and then as you come down the other side, you start to hit two neighborhoods that are really popular spots for people to live, which are Fremont, which is a very bohemian neighborhood, has record shops and coffee shops, and just. It's an eclectic neighborhood. They have farmers markets in all of these neighborhoods. By the way, if you happen to be here over a weekend, and if you go a little further out, you hit Ballard, which is the norwegian neighborhood that was sort of settled by Norwegians in the area. It's where they have all the fishing boats, the crab boats that go up to Alaska. If you remember the deadliest catch, there's a set of locks out there to get people from the lake.
[00:29:16] Speaker C: Yeah, there's locks. Super interesting.
[00:29:18] Speaker B: Yeah, the Ballard locks are a great thing to, if you're really interested in, like, fish, salmon ladders and stuff like that. But it's actually really cool to go and watch, especially on a nice day, sit and watch the locks open and.
[00:29:30] Speaker A: Close in those neighborhoods, tons of restaurants, very eclectic restaurants. These aren't like chain restaurants. Tons of music and bars is really, really popular in those neighborhoods. If you hear, like, adults only and want to catch some live music, and then if you come back in toward the lake, on the north end of the lake, there is, um, there's a park called Gasworks park, which is huge with locals. So when the sun is out, that park is just filled with people. It sits right on what we call the Burke Gilman trail. It's a major walking biking path that goes kind of all over the city, is very bikeable, very walkable outside of downtown.
[00:30:07] Speaker B: It was also in a movie.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: Yes, it was. In ten things I hate about you.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: Yeah. So with the paintball scene where they're playing, where they're throwing, there is no paintball, of course.
[00:30:15] Speaker A: There's no balloon paintball at Gasworks park. But that was the park that they were at. Yes. And the lake that they were on in the little two person paddle Wheeler was Lake Union. So, yeah, so, yeah, if you head then inland from Lake Union, you get to the university district, which is home to the University of Washington.
[00:30:33] Speaker B: Go huskies.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: Go huskies. They do a lot of rowing over there. You can catch. You know, if you're into rowing, you can catch them doing rowing practice when school's in session through what they call the Lake Washington cut, which is. Connects Lake Union over to Lake Washington, which a much bigger body of water. But if you head over to the university district, you can. Ashley, I think you said in your pre show notes, you can relive your nineties college days, because university district has not. Not changed in the same way that some other parts of the city have. So lots of great old record stores, cheap eats, bookstores, coffee shops, all that sort of. And the university Washington campus. University Washington campus is second to none to walk around, especially if you happen to be here for whatever reason, during the cherry blossom season, they have tons of cherry blossoms on their campus to walk around and see. So, um. So those. Those are great, great spots. Uh, last neighborhood I'll just hit on really fast is Capitol Hill.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: I was, like, wondering, are you going to talk about Capitol Hill?
[00:31:27] Speaker A: Go for Capitol Hill.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: Okay. Capitol Hill is actually. So the first neighborhood we moved to when we first lived in Seattle is Capitol Hill. It's a super hip neighborhood. It is known for.
[00:31:37] Speaker A: We were hip. We were with it then.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: We were. Yeah, we were not that hip. We lived in. Listen, we lived in Capitol Hill, and we lived in Fremont, which is the bohemian neighborhood that Brian was describing. Not too long. So we were once in upon a time, kind of hip. Not anymore, but, yeah, Capitol Hill is.
Capitol Hill is super fun. There's a ton of. I would say Capitol Hill is most well known for its bars and restaurants, and it is also known for being the gayest neighborhood in Seattle. I'm just going to say it that way. It is super LGBTQ friendly. Tons of bars and restaurants that have very LGBTQ friendly flags outside. It's a really fun neighborhood. Lots of great little shops, and, you know, it's. It's just a fun place to walk around. And the food and the bars are, I would say, bar none, the best probably, in Seattle.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: So. So, Josh, I think if. If you only had a single day pre cruise in Seattle, a. You've flown out too late. You should have. You should be here at least a day for transit up to Vancouver just in case. But. But b, I'd go back to the beginning of the show and just say, like, the places you have to hit are pike place market and the waterfront. And then if you have time, I would head over to Seattle center for the space needle. Those are all walkable and together. And you could do that in a.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: Day, day and a half. Right. These other things are that we're talking about as we go get into the show. More and more is, are further out of the downtown corridor. Even though they're not far, they're, you know, maybe ten minutes away or whatnot. But you might have to take a bus or an Uber to get and. Thank you, Drew. Save our sonic.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Yeah. From your lips to God's ears, my friend. Cause I would love an NBA team back in this town.
[00:33:19] Speaker B: I do want to bring up Matthew's comment about leavenworth, about an old bavarian style area. It is great, but it's several hours away. So this is not. This is not. If you have a trip to Seattle and you're coming for two or three, even three days, you're not going to leavenworth. Leavenworth is a wonderful town, and the best.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: The best time to visit leavenworth is actually in the wintertime because they do a big Christmas festival out there, and so you're not going to be out here for that. And then I would say it's not only 3 hours away, it's like 3 hours of, like, winding mountain roads to get out to leavenworth. So. So if there's an accident or you hit traffic, like, you're going to be stuck for a while. So. Good. It is a good place to go visit. We've been there, but I'd say that's like a. You're coming to Seattle for a week or two weeks or something like that. It's much more of a destination for people who live out here than anything else. So, yeah.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:06] Speaker C: Um, you forgot the one thing that was on my husband's to do list when we just had a day, and that was the original Rei, multi story rei store where you can test out the kayaks and the mountain bikes and all of that. So, yes, very important.
[00:34:20] Speaker A: The original rei is not to be missed. Is.
[00:34:22] Speaker B: I love that answer. But that's for the people who want to buy stuff at Rei. I feel like not everybody is.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: If you have a member dividend, we can take care of it for you. So, yes.
All right, let's talk. Let's talk about, actually, one other thing.
CT here is asking about the value of the city pass. I mean, I don't think it's any different than any other city pass in any other city. Right. I mean, it's. It is. If you're going to use it, if you're going to actually get to all the stops in it, it probably more than pays for itself. But if you're just going to hit a couple of things.
Seattle so walkable. It's so short distance between things. And most of this stuff doesn't require an experience guide to really see it, so I think you'd be okay. And there's not a lot of hop on, hop off bus kind of stuff. Seattle's not a city with a ton of those sites spread out everywhere. It's like pike place Market, although you.
[00:35:12] Speaker B: Can ride the duck boats if you really want to.
[00:35:15] Speaker A: Please don't. Please don't ride the ducks.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: They're really annoying.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: Well, and somebody got killed on one here. Remember that? Yes.
[00:35:22] Speaker B: There was a big accident years ago. So it's.
[00:35:24] Speaker A: I will say downtown. If there's something. If you're really. If you're already downtown and you're looking to go see something. The downtown library is actually kind of an interesting building. It was built by, it's not a gaudy building, but it was built by a famous architect whose name is escaping me at the moment. But it's a really cool building with all this glass cantilevered and everything, so. Yeah. All right, Sam, let's get in the car. Let's get in the car. Let's get out of town. Let's get to some things that are not. Not walkable. You got to have a car to get to them, but they're well worth the time. I want to start with CT. Was asking about museum of flight. Yes. That's a famous CT. We talked about Mojai just a second ago on the south end of Lake Union. Museum of flight, another place I literally used to spend, like, every other weekend at the museum of flight with Nathan because Microsoft employees got this insane discount to go there. So it was like $5 and he was free or something. So we would just go in and he just have a great old time. It is, in my opinion, is well worth the trip. Uh, it is at Boeing Field, BFI field, which is in the heart of downtown. Um.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: And well south of downtown.
[00:36:28] Speaker A: South of downtown.
[00:36:29] Speaker B: It's where the private minute drive.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: Yeah. It's one of Boeing's facilities where they would fly planes in and out for repair. It's also a private airport now. And they've got an amazing collection of airplanes over there, an old air force one and a Concorde.
[00:36:42] Speaker B: And if the president comes to Seattle, that's actually where they fly into. They don't fly into to seacheck. They fly into Boeing.
[00:36:48] Speaker A: I highly, highly recommend the museum of flight. I think it is a great thing if you've got a car and if you've done some of these other sites to head down there and see it. And I will see your museum of flight ct and raise you the Boeing Everett, we call it Boeing Everett factory has a tour.
Now it's about 90 minutes to 90 minutes or so outside of downtown to get up there north on I five. But they, that is the.
[00:37:15] Speaker B: I don't even think it's that far, Brian. I think it's probably more like an.
[00:37:18] Speaker A: Hour in traffic on a weekend maybe. But once you, once you get off the freeway, you got to drive a little bit west. But anyway, it's the, where they actually manufactured the 747, this 777, I think it was. And you could see they have an assembly line. They have an actual moving assembly line to make the airplanes. It just crawl. I mean, is it a crawl? Crawl speed. But they show you how the planes are made. Uh, they've got tons. They've got the original 747 parked out there. It is really worth a trip. We got to take a trip up there one time with a law firm I worked at, and it was just, it was well worth, uh, the experience. So that's a, that's another great one, Sam. I'm going to get off of planes and, and throw it over to you. Like where, where would you head if you had a car?
[00:37:59] Speaker B: I feel like we hit the places, Brian, I.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: No hiking? No mountaineer? No.
[00:38:06] Speaker B: I mean, I'm thinking.
[00:38:08] Speaker A: All right, Ashley, Ashley, you go have a few days. Brian, put your hand down in the back of the class. Sam, Ashley's got you covered to hold. Hold her beer for a second.
[00:38:15] Speaker C: You can either. If you want to go hiking, go. Go see the mountain. Go to Mount Rainier. It's, we did it as a day drive twice. And then I hear there's great cabins, if you want to rent some cabins out there. But it's absolutely gorgeous. I love when it's in the middle of the summer and you're hot and you're hiking and then you end up on snow. You see these people that are all packed out coming from the summit. And so great, great day trip to go out there and overnight. But my favorite, and this is if you're driving to Vancouver, it's on your way. See, I'm using my air cords. It's on your way. The San Juan Islands, about halfway between Seattle and Vancouver. And it is just magic. It is the magical little collection of islands that you have to take a ferry, you board a ferry on your car, or you just park your car and do a day trip. And Friday harbor orchest islands, the most amazing seafood. And there is just gorgeous place to go. Walk around, see whales. You can go ahead and check whale watching off of your. Off of your bucket list before going on your Alaska cruise. Just absolutely gorgeous. We've done it as a day trip and as a multi night stopover. And you could easily do it as a stopping point on your way to or from your cruise.
[00:39:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. Okay, now I can also.
[00:39:30] Speaker A: Wait, hold on. You can also take a float plane from South Lake Union to fly you out to the San Juan.
[00:39:35] Speaker C: Or drive like I do.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: Or drive. Yeah. Well, so now that. Now that Beth gave. Beth actually helped me out with another idea outside of Seattle. So down in Tacoma, which is about 40 miles south of Seattle, there is a wonderful museum. It's the museum of glass, where you can go see glass exhibits, and you can see artists actually creating glass art right there.
There are some local places in Seattle that you can find that also you can see glassblowing, but the Museum of glass has these huge, you know, kilns. Kilns that you can watch, and you can watch them firing their glass right there. So that's a pretty cool thing to do as well. It is, you know, about an hour drive down to Shacoma to do a really great place. And of course, Seattle is a very big glassblowing culture. It's the main, you know, not just because of Chihuly, but there are many glass artists that sort of started their careers in the Seattle and Tacoma areas. So fascinating to watch opportunities. Yes, absolutely. Yeah.
[00:40:44] Speaker A: Hey, DCL duo fans, you know, we get the question all the time. Should I use a travel agent to book my next Disney Cruise or should I just book with Disney directly? And I'm going to tell you, if you have that question in the back of your mind right now, you should stop what you're doing and head over to mypath unwinding.com. Dclduo the folks over at MyPath unwinding provide an amazing service. They are so knowledgeable and so friendly. We rely on them ourselves to book our family vacations, and they provide an. An amazing service. And the best part is you don't pay anything extra for it. Disney, other tour providers and other cruise lines have built the cost of their commission into their pricing. So if you're booking directly, you are just paying that money back to the provider when you could be spending it on the kind of service you would get. From my path, unwinding travel, you've heard from their agents on our show. They are so knowledgeable, so giving of their time. They know so much about Disney Cruise line, sailing, concierge, other cruise lines, other all inclusive vacations and adventures by disney that if you have a vacation in mind, they are the ones to book it for you. So again, head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo so they know we sent you their way. Thanks my path unwinding for sponsoring the show. And with that, back to our episode.
All right, I want. I want to segue us. We've got a little under 20 minutes left, which seems hardly fair for food. So for food, I know. I'm going to segue us to food because I know one of sam's picks. I'm going to segue us to food by one last activity recommendation, which is, uh, if you're coming out here in the summer, check the schedule for the sounders fc. Fantastic. Uh, soccer club out here. Football club. And, um, and the Seattle rain.
[00:42:19] Speaker B: Don't forget the Seattle rain.
Yeah, the female football club.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: Yes. But go catch it. You can go catch a soccer game. It's a great thing to do. I actually know a friend of ours, uh, who's coming out here to do just that with his family before they head up to Alaska, uh, to cruise. And I love going to the soccer matches because it's like 90 minutes. It's not, it's not an all day kind of thing. So, um. So, yeah, so, all right. I know I went there, Sam, because, you know, just like a stone's throw away is the international district. So as we talk about food, Sam loves all the asian food, all of it that she can get her hands on. And so, like, the international district is like her little playground.
[00:42:58] Speaker B: Let me just be clear. It's called the international district. It's formerly called Chinatown. So it was formerly Chinatown. The food culture, the asian food culture in Seattle is vibrant and very diverse. It started primarily as chinese immigrants and japanese immigrants in Seattle. And so that's a ton of the restaurants are chinese and japanese. There's also even. There are several asian art museums in Seattle as well, which, unfortunately, we haven't had a chance to talk about. But there's amazing asian art as well. As the food. But the international district has everything, so there are other asian restaurants outside of the international district. There's quite a few in Belltown as well. But I would tell you that if you're coming to Seattle, you know, you can get great dim sum in international district. You can get great sushi all throughout Seattle. You can get great thai food, great vietnamese food, great laotian food. I mean, there's just every kind of asian food you can imagine is here in Seattle.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: I think this would be a good time to highlight Drew's recommendation. A place that we took them to dinner.
[00:44:09] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:44:09] Speaker A: There's a great sort of asian fusion restaurant here in town. Um, that is. It's a sit down dinner I want to highlight for everyone. There is literally no place in Seattle except for, like, one restaurant of which I'm aware, and maybe, like, one dinner club that would require you to dress up at all.
And so. And the one restaurant is fabulous. We've eaten there. It's can less if me. If I think, uh, who was it? Uh, CT was looking for a romantic spot. If you're looking for a romantic spot, you don't mind spending a little money. Canless, gorgeous views up on a cliff close to downtown. Looks out on the lake. Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous food. Wonderful.
[00:44:46] Speaker B: That's the one place that I would say, if you're coming with kids, maybe don't go there. Not that they're not welcome there, but I would just say that's not like all the other restaurant recommendations we're giving are totally appropriate for adults only families.
[00:45:02] Speaker A: Wild ginger. To come back to this, they've opened several locations in the Seattle area because they are insanely popular, and the food is really, really, really good. I can't speak highly enough of the seven flavor beef.
What's the soup? That seven element soup.
[00:45:15] Speaker B: Seven element soup. There's a theme here with seven green curry.
[00:45:20] Speaker A: They just have really, really good food.
[00:45:22] Speaker B: They're fragrant duck. It's like a peking duck, but it's served with those kind of bow buns instead of the wraps that normally peking duck comes in. It's so freaking good. I can't even. Yeah, but I want to put a plug in there for my favorite dim sum place called Harbor City, which is in the international district. I would go there for brunch, and it's gonna, you know, it's gonna be one of those, like, traditional dim sum places. Fantastic.
[00:45:47] Speaker A: Although we're getting a whatchamacallit soon from Vancouver. There's a restaurant in Vancouver that we love for dim sum. That's coming down to the Seattle area called Sun Tsui Wah.
[00:45:57] Speaker B: So, but it's gonna be on this side of town, so it's not gonna be in downtown Seattle. So I'm not gonna send people there because it's gonna be too far off the beaten path for, for anyone who's visiting just Seattle proper. But actually, what is.
[00:46:07] Speaker A: Ashley, where did you, where did you head for food? Like, what did you think was particularly good?
[00:46:13] Speaker C: We ate our way around Pike street market. So that was one meal. And then Queen Anne Beer hall. It had amazing burgers and great fun drinks as well.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: And people love that.
[00:46:24] Speaker C: Families. Yeah. Very family friendly. And it was right next to our hotel. Fantastic french fries. So I think my one food recommendation is just make sure that you get some seafood in and don't go to a chain place, like, just enjoy the local delicious food.
[00:46:41] Speaker A: And look there. There are a whole, like, hole in the walls. The wrong place. There are, there's a. There are ten restaurants on every block, and some of them are small. Um, I love to go look at eater and other sites to look for, like, you know, um, you know, really good places that people are loving. We've got a couple of, you know, restaurant tours out here. Anything. Tom Douglas is generally going to be a solid, solid choice. Is it, like, the most inventive food you'll ever meet? No, but he is a huge restaurateur out here who has tons of specialty kind of restaurants and spots. They're all good. We haven't had a bad meal at a Tom Douglas restaurant. We haven't had the. I wouldn't say we had the greatest meal. The other chef I would watch out for is Ethan stoll. Uh, s t o w e l l. He's got quite a few restaurants in the area and growing, and we have had some really amazing food out of Ethan Stoll's restaurant.
[00:47:31] Speaker B: The other thing that I feel like we have to hit is if you come to Seattle, and if you eat fish, you must eat cedar plank salmon. You must. Yeah, you must have, you must have at least one meal that involves cedar plank salmon. That is like the thing in Seattle. You also, if you eat sushi, you also must eat sushi, because these are, like, two things that Seattle does better than, like, anyone in the world. And I don't know why. It's just how it is.
[00:47:59] Speaker A: We should give. So we have, we have a, we have a couple of strong recommendations. So if you were into, like, very inventive sushi rolls, uh, there's a place in downtown called umi. U m, I, um, sake house. Fabulous, fabulous rolls, huge menu of sushi. Yeah. They also have noodle dishes and things.
[00:48:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Sister restaurant.
[00:48:19] Speaker A: I wouldn't call it sister.
[00:48:21] Speaker B: It's in south Lake union, and it's a sister restaurant.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: I don't know that's a sister restaurant. I think one of the chefs walked out.
[00:48:27] Speaker B: No, it's not. You're thinking Japanesea. Brian. Japanese is actually a chef who left Umi and started their own umi.
[00:48:34] Speaker A: But, um, and Japonesa are all great. If you want really, really traditional sushi, just, you know, take a peek at some recommendations. There's a new sushi restaurant that opened in Pike Place market about a year ago now that has one of, uh, if you've seen Netflix, Euro dreams, uh, gyro dreams of sushi, one of his sous chefs came over here and opened that restaurant. And so you're talking about out. It's all omakase sushi, meaning the chef just serves you whatever he wants to serve you.
[00:49:00] Speaker B: And I'm not eating there, and Ashley's not eating there, because if you have any kind of food preferences or food allergies, it's not a good place for you.
[00:49:06] Speaker A: But there's a lot of those places.
[00:49:08] Speaker C: And wine place.
[00:49:09] Speaker B: Sam, we'll go get some beecher's Mac and cheese. Absolutely.
[00:49:12] Speaker A: I remember the name of the place that we used to go to. It was Shiro's, which is also opened by a former Jiro dreams of sushi sous chef kind of person.
They all serve much more what I call traditional sushi. So whereas Momiji, uh, and the others serve these, like, fantastic rolls with like, multiple fishes and seared and sauces and drizzles and all this stuff, these are going to serve much more, like standard sushi fare. They're all great. Highly, highly recommend the sushi here in the Seattle area.
[00:49:39] Speaker B: So, yeah, if you, if you're also interested in vietnamese dumplings, like soup dumplings, xiao lung bao, that's what they're called. Soup dumplings. Um, the best place. And they only have them in Washington and California, I believe. But it's actually, um, very popular. Popular in Asia is this. It's a chain, technically. It's called din tai fung. And there's one right in the heart of downtown at Pacific Place mall. And it is fantastic.
[00:50:10] Speaker A: And coming to downtown Disney. Coming to downtown downtown Disney at Disneyland.
[00:50:15] Speaker B: Disneyland. At Disneyland. Downtown Disneyland, yeah. But it is a fantastic place for you can eat brunch there. You can eat dinner there. It's the same food, it doesn't matter. But it's just. Just. It's actually technically my favorite restaurant.
[00:50:27] Speaker A: So if you want to get my.
[00:50:29] Speaker B: Favorite restaurant, if you are a steak.
[00:50:31] Speaker A: Eater, like, we know Chris Braga is, uh, out there. Um, and you're looking for a fabulous steak. Uh, skip Ruth's. Chris. Skip the metropolitan grill and head, uh, straight to. No, sorry. Skip.
[00:50:43] Speaker B: Skip the capitol grill.
[00:50:44] Speaker A: Skip the capitol grill and head straight to the metropolitan grill. That is the local Seattle steakhouse here. Uh, again, if you're looking for a really nice dinner out, you don't have to get dressed up. I mean, something better than shorts is probably advisable for the metropolitan grill, but you don't need, like, a coat and tie. That is a great spot for a really good, traditional steakhouse dinner here in the Seattle area.
So food to avoid. We do not get the world's greatest mexican food in the Seattle area properly.
[00:51:13] Speaker C: Barbecue is a no.
[00:51:15] Speaker B: Barbecue is a no. Don't.
[00:51:16] Speaker A: There's some hole in the wall, joy, but you're gonna have to go pretty far off the beaten path, and you.
[00:51:20] Speaker B: Gotta know where to go. Yeah, you got. You can't just go to any place. Yeah. There is not. We're not known for that. We're known for our fish. We're known for our seafood or our sushi. We're known for our asian food.
And as Brian said, you can certainly. You can get a great burger. You can get, you know, I mean, you can even find a lot of, like, alternative types of meats as well. That's definitely a big thing here in Seattle. There are some great. If you are vegetarian or vegan, like, there are some great restaurants as well. They're not really mostly in downtown, but there are some great ones in the Seattle area. And if you do reach out and we can try and point you in.
[00:51:57] Speaker A: That direction, and I'll say another tough meal for us in the Pacific Northwest is brunch. Not because we don't have places that do good brunch, but because they're all, like, jam packed, and so you don't have enough. Clearly, we don't have enough. We don't have enough.
[00:52:12] Speaker B: You're going to wait a long time, or you need a reservation. That is the other thing that, for dinners, I will say for sit down restaurants, reservations are key. So make those reservations at least a couple of weeks in advance.
[00:52:25] Speaker A: I got to put in one more plug. I can't believe we forgot this. I got to put one more plug in, which is, if you're into wine, welcome to the next wine capital of the United States. So, like, as the climate changes, people have been buying land in Oregon and Washington. Oregon makes some really great pinot noirs, and Washington makes some really good cabernets. And so when you're up here and you're looking at a menu, I implore you to order a Washington cab or an Oregon pinot. If you want some recommendations, hit us up. DCL Duochrome. Yeah, there's some great, great wine. And if you're really into wine, if you do have a car and you can come over to the east side of town to an area called Woodinville, they have a bunch of these, like, what I'll call storage shed wineries, where it's. It's outposts of wine. It's tasting rooms from wineries that are based in western Washington or, sorry, eastern Washington. Eastern Washington that you're not going to want to make the drive out to Yakima or Walla Walla or those sorts of places. And so they bring the wine over, and you can just go from tasting room to tasting room to tasting room. It's fantastic. You can organize a limo tour, one of those. And there are some actually fabulous restaurants over in the Woodinville area. So you can get some really good wine and then have some really good food, and then, you know, have them drive you back to your Seattle hotel.
[00:53:43] Speaker B: And there's Woodinville whiskey, if you're into whiskey.
[00:53:45] Speaker A: So as a Kentucky native, I'm gonna give thumbs down to Woodinville whiskey. I've had it. It's not great, but I was gonna say, if you're downtown and you're into wine, there's a restaurant that. That is popular with locals called, what am I? Purple? Purple wine bar is what it's called. And they have some. Some really good food and a huge wine list. Great place. It's very casual. It's a nice spot to go get dinner. Kids would be totally fine at purple. So it's a really, really great spot.
[00:54:12] Speaker B: So, yeah, we've got to bring up. Jackie's got two comments that I think are really key, that we.
[00:54:17] Speaker A: Hold on, hold on. I got one more comment I got to put up.
Is this one of them?
[00:54:23] Speaker B: Yes, that's one of them.
[00:54:24] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:54:28] Speaker B: Jackie must be a local because her recommendations are clearly from a local. So Elanos is a greek yogurt, but they make all of these, like, different flavored yogurts. They've got an outpost in pike place market. You can get their yogurt there. You can even find it in some of our local supermarkets as well. But I would say, yeah, this is.
[00:54:48] Speaker A: Not a health conscious yogurt. This orders on ice cream. And it is delicious.
[00:54:53] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:54:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:54:54] Speaker B: Um, and then her other recommendation is Molly moons for some great ice cream. Molly Moons is a local chain. Um, we've got, you know, they have, I think, five or six stores around the Seattle area, and they have fantastic ice cream. They have their everyday flavors, and then they have seasonal rotating flavors. It is not a baskin Robbins. They do not have. You will not have a choice of, like, 40 flavors. You have a choice of, like, maybe eight to ten flavors.
[00:55:20] Speaker A: Their flavors are more like. Like, they'll have a vanilla ish, but they'll have, like, an Earl gray texture.
[00:55:25] Speaker B: It'll be called sweet cream. Yeah. Their vanilla is called sweet cream ice cream.
[00:55:30] Speaker A: My two favorites are yeti, which is a vanilla ice cream with caramel swirl. And I forget what else in.
[00:55:36] Speaker B: It's like oats and granola.
[00:55:39] Speaker A: Granola. Granola. And then they make a special flavor version of yeti called sasquatch. So yeti is the white one and sasquatch is the brown one. So that's chocolate ice cream with all the filling from yeti in it. And.
[00:55:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:55:53] Speaker A: It's a really good place. Our son loves Molly mousse ice cream.
[00:55:57] Speaker B: And my favorite there is always their coffee flavored ice cream. It's fantastic. They also do great seasonal salted caramel as well, so. Fantastic.
[00:56:06] Speaker A: There you go. Jackie's saying she's a former local. Former local.
[00:56:09] Speaker B: Jackie, there you go. Well, come back, Jackie, because clearly you're missing the food here in Seattle.
[00:56:16] Speaker A: All right, so we got around us, we got five minutes left. Let me just pause and say, are there any food recommendations that we really missed? Sam? There's just so much food. Great food around.
[00:56:25] Speaker B: So much great food. I mean, if folks are looking for something specific, feel free, as we said, to reach out to us either on Facebook or by email, however, makes sense, and we are happy to give you more specific recommendations. If there's a particular kind of food you're looking for or as I said, if you're looking for vegetarian or vegan options, there are tons of. There's tons of stuff available. It's just not as easily accessible to the downtown corridor, which is where we're kind of focusing our discussions today.
[00:56:56] Speaker A: So we got to round out the show with a little bit of planes, trains, and automobiles here. So you've come to Seattle, you've had a fabulous time. You're Jonesy on that Disney cruise. Though, up in Vancouver. How are you going to get there?
You've actually got pre show. We were saying, well, you're really good. You've got a couple. You've got a bunch of options. Let me just put it out there. One that we've not really tried, and I can't give you a firm recommendation around is, like a bus, but there are buses that run between. And I'm not talking about, like, greyhound. There are, like, you know, know, east coast style bolt buses that just go from Seattle up to Vancouver. And that's what they do. Just encourage you to research those. If you've got a lot of luggage with you, it may be a little bit harder to deal with. Not my preferred method to get you from Seattle to Vancouver and the comfort you deserve before a Disney cruise.
[00:57:42] Speaker B: But, Brian, let's ask Ashley. Which. What way she.
[00:57:45] Speaker A: How did you get up there?
[00:57:46] Speaker B: Got up to Vancouver? Yes.
[00:57:47] Speaker C: Well, we had a rental car because we wanted to make sure that we could get around on our own. And so, yeah, we had the rental car. And I'll say that crossing into Canada, it looks like you're in the Canada pavilion at Epcot. Like, it's just a bigger version of all the beautiful flowers. And it is a gorgeous crossing. You're going to sit in the car for a while, so make sure you have some snacks. But that was just absolutely lovely. And then our friends took the train, they took the Amtrak Cascades line, and it was very easy. They all had. Had. They could wield their own luggage and then just took a cab or Uber once they got to Vancouver. But that was a great way to do it because you could see the beautiful, just gorgeous scenery. I will say, though, that you'll want to check the times because I think there was a big delay between when they got off the boat in Vancouver and then when the next train back down to Seattle was. And then, especially if you're trying to get over to the airport, there can.
[00:58:48] Speaker A: Also be a big delay. So out here on the west coast, the Amtrak trains share the. Share the railway with the freight traffic. And so, um, they will be.
[00:58:55] Speaker B: And freight has priority.
[00:58:57] Speaker A: Yeah. They will be forced to pull off to let freight go by. So a lot of times, your train can get delayed between Seattle and Vancouver just for freight traffic.
[00:59:05] Speaker C: But if you have a whole day, you'll be fine.
[00:59:07] Speaker A: Yeah. No, you'll be fine. Yeah. Just. Just don't, like, don't, don't white knuckle the, like, leave the morning of on a mid afternoon train expecting, like, that. That's not going to help. That's not going to work for you. Um, on the car. On the car side of things, one thing I wanted to mention is make sure if you're renting a car and you intend to take it into Canada, that the rental car company will let you, because there are some companies that don't allow their cars to cross the border. And if they do cross the border, the company gets an alert and reports the car stolen. And then you can have a really fun experience coming back into the United States from, from Canada. So just double check that you can take the car outside of the US.
And I would say also border crossing. Ashley, to your point, sometimes you just breeze right through. Sometimes you're going to wait in line. On the way up to the border, there will be sort of tote signs that are giving you different border crossing points and the times. So you can peel off the main highway and go to a lesser used border crossing. It may take you a little bit out of the way and you'll have to navigate back. But I would say just pay attention to those times on the way back. Leave plenty, plenty, plenty of time to get back into the United States. The US side of the border is much, usually much more backed up than the canadian side to get in.
[01:00:23] Speaker C: Do not fly out same day if you're driving back down to Seatac.
[01:00:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So just, just watch out. Just watch out for that.
[01:00:30] Speaker B: Yeah. So to be clear, so we have a question from Matthew. How far of a drive is it in between from the city of Seattle to the city of Vancouver? It's about a three hour drive. Of course, if you have building stops and then border crossing, you're talking about additional time. So that's. I'm not, I'm talking, I'm not counting stops and I'm not counting the border crossing because the border crossing is super variable, as Brian mentioned. You can, you know, I would say in general, it is a short wait to get from, across from the US to Canada, and it is a long wait in general from Canada to the US. So you might be waiting in that border crossing to come back to the US for an hour sitting in the car right in traffic. So that is something that is not an unusual wait time when you're coming back across from and traffic on both.
[01:01:14] Speaker C: Sides in the cities, too.
[01:01:16] Speaker B: Traffic.
[01:01:17] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
[01:01:18] Speaker B: So and then Seatac is another 30 minutes drive south of Seattle. So if you're going straight to sea tech and that build that too, and that varies by traffic, that can be.
[01:01:29] Speaker A: Wildly variable I five through Seattle narrows significantly down to, like, from, like, five lanes down to, like, two, three lanes. And, yeah, it can get very, very backed up. So just plan a lot of extra time to get to the airport, because if it's a weekend, if it's a summer weekend and people been out, like, it can back up really quickly. Two other just sort of pro tips I want to give. Just remember, when you cross into Canada, you're in kilometers, not miles per hour. So just, you know, use that other dial on the speedometer.
[01:01:58] Speaker B: And the gas is in liters, too, by the way.
[01:02:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't buy gas in Canada. Oh, my God. I don't know what's going on.
And then the other thing I was gonna say is, if you happen to live in a state that borders Canada, there is a special program that you can sign up for called Nexus. You can sign up for it. You can go. You have to do an interview in person. You get a Nexus card, but it's essentially like trusted traveler. So you get all the benefits of global entry and the TSA pre check and all that sort of stuff. Special card to enter and exit Canada more quickly.
[01:02:30] Speaker B: Uh, so everyone in your car has to have that?
[01:02:33] Speaker A: Everyone has to have it.
[01:02:34] Speaker B: So if you've got one person in your car that doesn't have it, you can't go in the Nexus lane. You have to go in the regular lane. So it's something actually available to folks who live on border states, to Mexico as well. So if you live on border state.
[01:02:45] Speaker A: It'S not called Nexus.
[01:02:46] Speaker B: It's not called Nexus. It has a different right. It has a different name. It's a different program. But there. This is a. It is really actually quite nice for those of us who live in, like, Washington and those who live in New York, those who live in Minnesota, to get that quick crossing between the US and Canada.
[01:03:02] Speaker A: Last thing I want to say is, we've talked about. We've talked about trains, we've talked about automobiles, we've talked about buses. I don't want to discount. You can take a short hop flight between either Seatac and Vancouver or Everett, which is north of Seattle and has a lovely, lovely small airport that is a dream to go through. It's like an executive airport with coffee shop vibes. They'll have a short hopper flight from Everett up to Vancouver. So you can take a plane to get up there.
There is a way to take a.
[01:03:36] Speaker B: Ferry not to Vancouver, the city, though. You could take it to Victoria. Victoria would have to then get to Vancouver so Victoria is on Vancouver island, but not in the city of Vancouver. That's very confusing for people. They're not the same place. Let me just be clear. So you, you can't really take a ferry directly to Vancouver.
[01:03:55] Speaker A: There's also. Yeah, if, if you're in Seattle and you're wanting to check out Victoria, because sometimes the cruises stop in Victoria. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they stop, like, late at night for, like an hour as a, like, a technical stop, and then they go back to Vancouver. If you're wanting to check out Victoria, which is a fabulous city in and of its own, uh, bouchard gardens is up there. The empress hotel is up there that does a fabulous afternoon tea. It's right on a bay. It's gorgeous. There's a jet boat that leaves from downtown Seattle and will take you up to Victoria. And I think about 90 minutes, maybe 2 hours.
[01:04:27] Speaker B: Yeah. It's called the Victoria Clipper.
[01:04:28] Speaker A: Clipper. Yeah. And so you can, there are a.
[01:04:30] Speaker B: Lot of people who get seasick on it, though, just to figure out it's moving fast.
[01:04:33] Speaker A: It's a jet boat. So you can, you can haul up to Victoria, do Victoria for a day, turn around, and come back to Seattle on the jet boat. But that is also an option. So. All right. I think we have covered all the way short of private helicopter or learjet to get you to Vancouver. I think we covered food, things to do, places to stay. Why you would even want to visit the Emerald City before your cruise. Have I missed anything? Sam, before we wrap up the show.
[01:04:57] Speaker B: I don't believe so. Beth is asking, what about Ivor's? We mentioned Ivor's towards the beginning of the show. It's on the waterfront. It's next door to Elliott's, both of which are great for your New England style clam chowder or your fish and chips. Those are also things that are quite popular in Seattle, even though obviously they're New England style clam chowder. So.
[01:05:16] Speaker A: Yeah. No way.
[01:05:17] Speaker C: Chip?
[01:05:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Fish and chips are great.
[01:05:19] Speaker A: So, no, no. Manhattan style clam chowder.
[01:05:22] Speaker B: No, there's not, that's not the solid chowder we eat here in Seattle. We eat New England style.
[01:05:26] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, so I wanted to, let's wrap up here first. I just want to let folks know we will be back this week. Thursday.
Sam is feeling well enough, so we're going to do the live Royal Caribbean download. For all of you out there, our trip report from the oasis of the seas. Thursday night, 04:30 p.m. Pacific 07:30 p.m.. Eastern. We will keep that show to an hour. It's going to be jam packed because we got to get our son out of an activity that he has later that evening. And then I was just going to. Oh, go ahead, Sam.
[01:05:54] Speaker B: I was going to say, for those who are wondering, Ashley's shirt is for our DCL duo inaugural podcast cruise. That's the logo for the podcast cruise. And so the shirt is available on teepublic if you're interested, but it is specifically for the inaugural podcast crew. So for those who are curious about that.
[01:06:15] Speaker A: So we will be back.
[01:06:16] Speaker C: Here we come.
[01:06:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right.
[01:06:19] Speaker A: All right, so we will be back on Thursday with a live show. We are taking a brief break on live shows the week following. And so the next live regular Monday show will be on May 6, I believe it is. We're going to be talking MSc Cruise lines with the incomparable Seth Kabirsky, who recently took a cruise on MSc. You might know Seth from our universal Orlando shows that we've done with him. He writes for touring plans and the unofficial guides. And so he took an MSc cruise and we wanted to have him on because we've had almost no one come talk to us about MSc cruising.
[01:06:53] Speaker B: So this Thursday will be on at 430 Pacific, 730 Eastern, and then you'll see us in two weeks, two weeks from today, Monday, May 6 at our normal time, 530 Pacific, 830 Eastern.
[01:07:08] Speaker A: Sharing and with that, I just want to tell our listeners, I hope you enjoyed the show and I want to thank Ashley for taking time out of her day to come on and share her fabulous experience and recommendations from Seattle. Hope they've been helpful, as we've said throughout the show. Just email us with any questions.
[email protected] and we will get back to you with some of our recommendations. We also have some fabulous recommendations for Vancouver. You can check in our back catalog for some of those. And we may do another live show in the future about Vancouver, uh, maybe after we actually get a chance to get back up there post pandemic for the first time. Uh, so, yes. But Ashley, thank you so, so much for coming on.
[01:07:45] Speaker B: Yeah, have a great evening.
[01:07:51] Speaker A: Well, a big thank you to all of you out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from the DCL duo each week. We'd also love it if you'd head over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a five star review. If you hit those five stars. That's great. If you leave us a written review along with a five star review, we will be sure to read it on the air at the end of one of our main episodes. If you're hovering over anything less than five stars, we really want you to reach out to us so we can take your feedback. Best way to do that? Head to dClduo.com to find all the ways to connect with us. It links to our podcast, our vlog. Our blog has all the ways you can can connect with us on social media. Has our Etsy store where you can find our fun beach bags and magnets that we designed as enthusiasts of each of the Disney cruise line ships. Has a link off to our Patreon if you'd like to help support the show we really, truly appreciate each and every one of our Patreons for helping to support the show. Each and every month has a link off to our show sponsor, Mypath Unwinding, where you can get more information about booking a fabulous vacation, which also really helps to support our show. All the things are there, including a way you can sign up to be a guest on the show if you'd like to share your Disney cruise line experience. Most importantly, you can always email
[email protected] if you'd like to connect with us or you can call our voicemail line if you'd like to leave us a message. We love to include the voices of our listeners in our show, just dial 4024-135-5590 that's 402-413-5590 and that will head straight to our Google voice voicemail line. The DCL Duel podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company, or the Disney family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflect the views of the Disney Company or Disney Cruise line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or a Disney vacation, please contact Disney directly or your own travel agent or the great folks over at Mypath unwinding travel. Thanks again for listening and well see you next time for another fabulous Disney adventure with the DCL duo. Good night.
