Seattle, our first port of call, is a city on Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest. It is surrounded by water, mountains and evergreen forests, and contains thousands of acres of parkland. Washington State’s largest city is where some of the USA’s major and best known companies, such as Boeing, Starbucks and Amazon are headquartered.

Here are some photos from 8 days spent in this lovely city.

Very close to our accommodation was Gas Works Park. The 19-acre public park, on the site of the former Seattle Gas Light Company works, is located on the north shore of Lake Union. The park offers great views of the city’s skyline and the iconic Space Needle.

The Seattle skyline viewed across Lake Union

Space Needle

The old gas works

To get a better understanding of Seattle’s location and surrounding landscape we took a ride to the top of the Space Needle.

The 605 ft. tall structure was built for the 1962 World’s Fair; whose theme was ‘The Age of Space’. The tower’s futuristic design was inspired by the idea that the fair needed a structure to symbolize humanity’s Space Age aspirations. It provides a fantastic 360 deg view of the city and the landscape around Seattle.

Eleven foot tall sloping glass walls and glass benches provide unobstructed views of Seattle from the observation deck. The view shows the city skyline next to Lake Washington and Charlotte enjoying a rest!

View across Puget Sound to the Olympic Mountains. Seattle is a popular stop for cruise ships, two of which are docked, and many Alaskan cruises start from here.

At the foot of Space Needle is Chihuly Gardens and Glass, an exhibit showcasing the studio glass of world-renowned Dale Chihuly. Opened in May 2012, this fascinating attraction consists of an art museum and gardens where glass sculptures are arranged throughout the plants, shrubs and trees.

‘Mille Fiori’

Glasshouse Sculpture – the Space Needle can be seen outside

Continuing our tour of downtown Seattle, took us to Pike Place Market. Founded in 1907, the Market is one of the oldest and largest continuously operating public markets in the United States. Considered by many to be ‘the soul of Seattle,’ the Market spans 9 acres in the centre of downtown where locals and tourists shop, visit, eat and discover.

Main entrance to the Market

Seafood is a speciality of the Market

Gum Wall – Down an unassuming alleyway in Pike Place Market is a hidden work of art dubbed The Gum Wall. It started in the 1990s when local patrons and performers at ‘Unexpected Productions’ stuck their used gum on the wall. Since those days, the wall has grown piece by piece to cover an enormous expanse of brick.

The story of Starbucks begins in 1971 along the cobblestone streets of Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market. It was here where Starbucks opened its first store, offering fresh-roasted coffee beans, tea and spices for its customers to take home. Starbucks now has over 30,000 coffee shops worldwide.

On Thursday evening we went to the T-Mobile Park stadium to watch the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team play against the Tampa Bay Rays. Unfortunately the Mariners lost 4-3. However, it was a great opportunity to see how Americans engage with sports, in particular how the game seems secondary to the important task of consuming vast quantities of junk food and beer – a highly entertaining evening.

The T-Mobile Park stadium with its retractable roof closed to protect the players and fans from the rain

Charlotte is disappointed that she can’t fit Moose, the Mariner’s mascot, into her luggage!

A very wet day in Seattle (very common!), gave us the opportunity to visit the Museum of Flight. This was clearly more for Graham; however it was an excellent museum that Charlotte thoroughly enjoyed as well. Located next to Boeing Field in south Seattle, the museum included an extensive collection covering aviation and space, including some rare and unique commercial and military aircraft, such as Concorde, the very first 747 and the first jet Air Force One.

Air Force One – The first presidential jet plane was based on the Boeing 707-120 and was delivered in 1959 to replace Eisenhower’s Super Constellation

Apollo – This exhibit details the Space Race, featuring the first public display of a rocket engine that launched Apollo 11 to the moon.

Covering an area of 534 acres, Discovery Park is the largest city park in Seattle. Situated on Magnolia Bluff overlooking Puget Sound, Discovery Park offers spectacular views of both the Cascade and the Olympic Mountain ranges. The secluded site includes two miles of protected tidal beaches as well as open meadow lands, sea cliffs, forest, sand dunes and over 11 miles of walking tracks. We walked a lovely 5-mile circular route around the shoreline.

Driftwood is strewn across many of the beaches, creating an interesting foreground to the waters of Puget Sound and the Olympic mountain range.

The West Point Lighthouse with the dramatic background of the Olympic Mountains

Storm clouds gathering over Puget Sound

On a lovely sunny day we strolled down the shoreline of Puget Sound in downtown Seattle and visited the Olympic Sculpture Park. Created and operated by the Seattle Art Museum, it is a public park with modern and contemporary sculptures. The park consists of a 9-acre outdoor museum, an indoor pavilion and a beach on Puget Sound.

Seattle Cloud Cover – Charlotte walks along the glass bridge, which invites viewers to take cover and to look down to the railroad below through images of changing skies. It is made from saturated colour photographs, sandwiched in glass.

The Eagle – The sculpture nicely frames the Space Needle in the distance.

Wake – The Sculpture is composed of five identical towering, curved-steel forms, each with paired S shapes – gently curving serpentines of convex and concave sections suggesting tidal waves or profiles of battleships.

A short drive east of Seattle is Snoqualmie Falls. At 270-feet tall, the waterfall is more than twice as high as Niagara Falls and is one of the most visited natural landmarks in Washington State.

The 270-foot drop of the Snoqualmie Falls

Snoqualmie River rapids

Charlotte enjoying the Snoqualmie River downstream from the falls

On our last day in Seattle we decided to visit the Seattle History Museum and take in one last vista of the Seattle skyline.

The Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) is housed in a lovely building on the southern end of Lake Union. It was built in 1942 and for 50 years since WWII it was a naval training facility, before becoming a museum. Lake Union is a freshwater lake located entirely within the city limits of Seattle and is a major part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal.

MOHAI building viewed from pond in Lake Union Park

A float plane taking off from Lake Union and heading north over Gas Works Park

After the museum we walked to Kerry Park. The park is located in the hills in the south of the city in the well-healed area of West Holland drive, with its US$ 5m+ houses. The small community park offers fantastic views across the city and the Southern Cascade Mountains.

Tomorrow we are leaving Seattle and driving west to explore the Olympic Peninsula.

Read Part 2 >