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Seattle people (or people who know a lot about Seattle) - I am thinking about flying up a few days early for PaizoCon and doing some sightseeing, including renting a car and driving up to Vancouver one day. Any suggestions for a first time visitor? Money saving advice?
I have wanted to visit the Pacific Northwest ever since I fell in love with the scenery in X-Files and Stargate SG-1.
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Pike Market is awesome, especially if you like to eat all day. You can park down at the Space Needle, spend half a day at City Center seeing the sights, museums, etc... and then take the tram down to Pike Market.
While at Pike Market, I recommend the Pink Door Italian restaurant and the Irish Pub across the alley. There are no signs for the Pink Door so you have to go on a mission to find it but is well worth it if you do.
There are also quite a few food tours throughout Pike Market, including a Chocolate tour!
Vancouver is a two hour drive north so be prepared for 4-5 hours round trip just in driving.
If you like beer and ale, I highly suggest Red Hook Brewery tours. The tour cost $1 but you definitely drink much more than that in samples during the tour. They also have a good restaurant co-located with it.
If wine is more your thing, there are quite a few wineries in the local area in and around Woodinville. JM Cellars is a good, small, local winery with very limited tour schedule.
If you like soccer, and can't get into the banquet, there is a Sounders match that night (July 7) vs. the Rapids at 8 pm.
It depends on where you want to stay. The University Inn in the U District is inexpensive, is in a safe part of town, has a breakfast bar, and a free shuttle to several downtown locations and the zoo.
You might also consider taking the train up to Vancouver—it's slower (4 hours instead of 3), but the border bizzo goes much faster (this can take hours when driving on holiday weekends), it only costs about $90 round trip, there's wifi on the train, and the view is gorgeous, since the tracks run right on the coast almost all the way up. Once you're there, downtown Vancouver is small and walkable, and public transportation seems pretty fast and reliable, so not having a car shouldn't pose too many difficulties.
In terms of Seattle things to do, the 3rd–5th are the International Beerfest, and you should check out the fireworks on the 4th:
http://seattle.about.com/od/artsevents/a/SeattleJulyEvents.htm
The best view for fireworks is in Wallingford, either in Gasworks Park itself or on Wallingford Avenue (they close all the streets below 40th, so people just sit and hang out on the street itself—last year there were fire jugglers!). I'd walk/bus in from another neighborhood, though (U District is walkable if you're staying there), since they shut down many streets and the traffic is nightmarish.
My personal fav is the underground tour in Seattle... I would highly recommend getting it in (and even recommend picking up the Sons of Profit book that they sell).
Sean
Ok. Now I'm crying. My wife and I are flying in the 4th and going straight to the hotel that evening. We're doing the Seattle tour post con. The beerfest would have been icing on the cake for the trip. Oh well, looks like there is tons of other things in Seattle to do.
My personal fav is the underground tour in Seattle...
I did this my second year at PaizoCon. Very interesting. And, for those who like spoilers and behind-the-scenes information on Paizo products...
The Seattle Underground tour became the main inspiration for how I portrayed the vampire underground in the city of Caliphas from Ashes at Dawn in the Carrion Crown adventure path.
does anyone know if july is season for whale watching in puget sound and where to go to do it? ,y research so far has found a place called Anacortes, is there a whale watching habro nearer to Seattle?
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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I don't think any whale watching tours actually leave from Seattle. The orca pods live up around the San Juan Islands and the Strait of Juan de Fuca (westward to the Pacific) and Strait of Georgia (between Vancouver Island and mainland Washington/B.C.), so the whale-watching tours typically leave from Victoria, BC, Anacortes, or Friday Harbor (which is actually in the San Juans). It's a pretty long drive up to Anacortes, which is your closest option, probably 2 hours.
Chief Technical Officer
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I don't think any whale watching tours actually leave from Seattle.
The Victoria Clipper launches tours from Seattle.
July can be good for Orcas.
My personal fav is the underground tour in Seattle...I did this my second year at PaizoCon. Very interesting. And, for those who like spoilers and behind-the-scenes information on Paizo products...
** spoiler omitted **
For those 21 and over, they do a night time version of the tour called the Underworld Tour. It's nifty :D
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As a regular visitor to Vancouver, I highly recommend both Science World
and The Vancouver Aquarium.
As a Victoria native, as people have mentioned there's the Whale watching tours, there's also Butchart Gardens, the Museum and Inner Harbour, Ogden Point, Arts/Crafts and buskers, Golf all over the place, more night clubs than you can shake a stick at, the Symphony,the Supernatural tour, and well .. tons more.
It's a tourist trap for a reason. If you have extra days, there's plenty of places up the island worth seeing too (Tofino).