Background
After traveling to warmer climates the last few summers, we decided to hit remix and do something completely different in 2026 – a few days in the PNW followed by a cruise up to Alaska. This checks several “new” boxes for us – first time to Seattle for Meghann, Sage and Vivi (I’ve been once on a work trip), first time on a cruise for Sage, Vivi and I (Meg went on a few as a kid), and first time to Alaska for all.
While the trip was primarily for the cruise, we arrived in Seattle a couple days prior to embarkation to we could explore the city, something that’s been on Meg’s bucket list for a while. Despite only being in Seattle for ~2 full days, the packed itinerary included a visit to the famous Space Needle, a day trip to Mt. Rainier, and several restaurants and other tourist spots around Seattle.
PHX —> SEA
After last year’s stressful airport parking debacle, I stopped doing the airport drive and park thing and switched over to Uber rides. This one, like several prior, was smooth and without issue. We were picked up at 5am, flew through security, and made it to our gate with an hour before boarding. Airport was not terribly busy despite being a couple days ahead of the 4th holiday weekend. Most “exciting” part of the journey was having to repack a 50+lb suitcase in the check-in. I think that’s two years in a row! Packing for a colder climate is more challenging than a warm one. Another wildcard ahead – Seattle is hosting World Cup matches, including one with the US team on July 6th! Fortunately we’ll be out to sea by that point.
As the plane started to descend, we opened the window and by chance just happened to be passing by Mt. Rainier with a perfect view! Between the massive size and snowy caps, it’s a far departure from the mountains we see across Phoenix. It was very beautiful and built some excitement for the trip ahead.
Once landed, we caught a cab to the hotel. We booked the Thompson in Seattle through a special deal on our credit card. The location turned out to be amazing, with everywhere we needed to be in walking distance: adjacent to Pikes Place Market, a short walk to our cruise dock, near our excursion pickup, and even the Space Needle was walkable. They were able to get us an early check-in time around 12:30 which let us get cleaned up prior to a late lunch.
Seattle Day One: The Pink Door, Space Needle, Dinner
Once settled, we changed and headed over to The Pink Door, an Italian restaurant in Pike Place. We entered through a very inconspicuous door (Sage kept saying peach, not pink) in an alleyway, which opened to stairs leading down to a dining area. There was a cool stage with a piano and lots of clown decor – Meg’s favorite. We had reservations, and after a brief wait they led us outside to eat at a nice patio area. Meg had a lemon drop, I had a beer, and we started with the bruschetta. I’m always fascinated by how much this dish varies – this version was toast in oil with a thick tomato slice on top. I enjoyed it, the girls not so much. We also had bread and oil that was more popular with the group.
For entrees, Meg and I decided to split the Pink Door Lasagna, Vivienne had the Rigatoni and Meatballs, and Sage had the Pappardelle. We all ended up sharing the three dishes and they were excellent. I also appreciated the portions were reasonable and not massive.
After lunch, we walked through Pike Place and grabbed a few (delicious, large) cookies at a stand we passed. From there we started the ~one mile walk to the Space Needle. The walk contained quite a few hills and a crow eating a dead rat in the middle of the sidewalk. As we approached the space needle, we snapped a few photos from the street.
Getting into the Space Needle was easy – it was clearly built much longer queues than we were up against. We didn’t actually hit a line until 2/3 of the way through the queue area, and it had a lot of cool history on how the Space Needle was built. We waited in the elevator line for about 10 minutes before boarding and heading up.
The Space Needle had a coffee stand, bar and restaurant around the perimeter, as well as an outdoor viewing area where you could walk around for a 360 view of Seattle. The bottom floor slowly rotated for the outer portion. The Space Needle was very cool to see from a historical landmark standpoint, although the visit itself amounted to a taking some photos and doing a lap around the outside before we were ready to head down through the gift shop and exit.
Included with the Space Needle were tickets to the adjacent Chihuly Garden and Glass Exhibit. This exhibit featured a lot of cool blown glass exhibits from artist Dale Chuhuly, a Washington native who also wears a cool eyepatch. We spent another thirty minutes walking through this exhibit, admiring the work and taking some more photos. We were all quite tired at this point having been on the go since our 5am pickup, so we decided to Uber back to the hotel and rest.
We ended up falling asleep for a few hours, waking up a little after 8pm. After looking at dinner options, we decided to walk over to Old Stove Brewing Co., which was right on the ocean. We had the pretzel bite appetizer (good), I had the pizza (also good), Vivi and Sage each had the kids burgers (mid). I had an Old Stove Lager which was delicious! After dinner, we walked back to the hotel to get to sleep ahead of an early morning pickup!
Seattle Day Two: Mt. Rainier Tour, Dinner at Von’s 1000Spirits
The day started with a 6:45am pickup, only a couple blocks away from the hotel. We boarded a “Tours Northwest” bus, which seated ~24 and ended up with 19 passengers. Sage and Vivienne were the only kids, and we were joined by a variety of other travelers. Interestingly one was visiting from Ukraine – she had arrived to take a cruise but was denied boarding due to lack of a visa to enter Canada. About an hour in to the bus ride, we stopped by a “QFC” grocery store, which was a Kroger chain. My Fry’s card number even worked! We grabbed breakfast, drinks, and lunch for later before continuing on our almost 2.5 hour journey to the trail.
The rest of the bus ride was fairly uneventful, with a few scenic stops on the way up. As we got closer, we took the Stevens Canyon entrance to the Southeast and headed towards the Paradise corridor, which included a visitor center and several trailheads. This area was so busy that the bus got stuck in traffic. Rather than wait, we all decided to “abandon bus” and walk the last half mile or so up the road to get in more time to hike. The road was totally empty past the traffic point, which was cool.
While the peak was covered in clouds, it was a “sunny day” for the area and the clouds parted several times revealing a beautiful view of the peak. While there were several trail options, we had limited time and decided to do the Myrtle Falls trail which held scenic landscape views with a few amazing waterfalls. The weather was perfect – 55 degrees and sunny. We were all comfortable (slightly warm) in pants and long sleeves.
After walking the trail, we headed back to the visitor center, ate some lunch, and boarded the bus to head back. We had a few more brief photo stops, and then took the long ride back to our drop-off point by the hotel.
After the hotel, we had a short rest before heading out to dinner. We decided on a place called Von’s 1000Spirits, which was a 10 minute walk south. On the way, we passed by a bakery and Meg stopped in to grab some dessert for later.
We had a short wait, but the food here was notably amazing. We had a Southwestern Dip appetizer (was OK) but the menu featured several sourdough-based options – I had the “Original Mac and Four Cheeses” (+Chicken) and Meg had the Lil’ Pep Pizza. Both were amazing, and some of the best food I’ve had in recent memory.
During dinner, the girls convinced Meg to ride “The Seattle Great Wheel”. After dinner, we walked down the pier and boarded the Ferris Wheel. It was a neat experience, although our hotel room is a bit higher with the same view. Meg notably does NOT like Ferris Wheels, which made the ride all the more exciting. After surviving the ~5 rotations, we began the walk back. We made a quick photo stop by the Seattle sign, as well as the Seattle Gum Wall (ew, not my thing). We made it back to the hotel, watched Top Gun Maverick on TV, and tried to fall asleep while the club thumped on the floor above us.
Seattle Day Three (Morning pre-departure): Breakfast and Pike Place Market
We took our time getting up and around, with the girls and I hanging in the room (blog writing!) while Meg went down to the gym. Our first stop was to get breakfast at “Biscuit Bitch”, however it ended up having a longer wait than we wanted. So instead we went down to the farmers market, grabbed some donuts, and wandered through the stalls. It was a very cool walk – people throwing fish, lots of art, different foods to sample. We ended up grabbing Apple Cider from a vendor with 10 different kinds you could walk around and sample. The girls found some stickers at a small shop, and then we headed back to the room to pack up.
Up next – boarding and first day at sea! More to come…
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