Grunge and Glorious
Seattle May 2026
My husband has worked for a Seattle based company for nearly 20 years. For the last 15 years he has made at least one trip per year to the company HQ in Seattle. Despite my infatuation with this city, dating back to the early days of Grunge, this is the first time I have been able to join him. He took Friday and Monday off work, and we spent a long weekend exploring the city and surrounding area. Bonus points for spending Mother’s Day away from home (it’s the best way to ensure nobody asks you to do a single thing!)
Our itinerary included a Chef Guided Tour of Pike Place Market, an Underground Seattle History Tour, an excursion to Mt. Rainier, and tickets to iconic Seattle sites: Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass, Elliot Bay cruise, and the Seattle Aquarium. We stayed at The Westin downtown within walking distance to all the sites we visited inside the city.
For those that don’t want to read any further, here’s the TLDR on my top recommendations.
Places to See:
Seattle Space Needle
Chihuly Garden and Glass
Things to Do:
Eat Seattle Chef Guided Tour of Pike Place Market
Beneath the Streets Underground History Tour
Full Day Mt. Rainier Highlights Tour by Customized Tours
Where to Eat and Drink:
Lowell’s
The Nest
What to Budget:
$150 per person per day for food, add an extra $50 if you drink custom coffees and cocktails
$175-200 for Uber rides from the airport to downtown (near $100 each way)
$250+/night downtown hotel
$350 per person for guided tours and activities
My Seattle Adventure
I flew in late on Thursday night. Given our experience in Orlando in January, when we expected to get an Uber to the hotel from the airport only to find no Ubers were available at 11pm, I pre-arranged my Uber pick up. Uber is supposed to track your flight and adjust accordingly if there are any delays. My flight was delayed slightly (20 minutes or so), not enough to make a big difference in my pick-up time. Regardless, I notified the driver when I was ready and I waited, and waited, and waited. My estimated time to pick-up time jumped from 12-minutes, to 19, to 30, and up to 40. At that point I cancelled the Uber, paying the $30 cancellation fee, and grabbed one of the several available taxis. The taxi fare plus cancellation fee was about what the Uber would have cost.
I had a full day planned for Friday. I purchased the City Pass 5. For $141 per person, we got tickets to 5 of Seattle’s top sites. The bundled package saved us $70 each vs purchasing each ticket individually. Most of the sites require timed entry reservations. Being early May we didn’t have any issues getting the times we wanted, and we even arrived early at one stop, and made last-minute changes on another.
We started with The Space Needle. My family always makes a trip to the tallest, or most touristy tall, structure in any city we visit: Willis Tower in Chicago, the Shard in London, the Arch in St. Louis. Even though the Space Needle is no longer the tallest spot in Seattle, it is a great place to take some photos and imagine what the city looked like back when they were planning what future visitors might see during their visit to The Emerald City.
Following the futurism of the Space Needle we went directly over to Chihuly Garden and Glass. Talk about imagination! While city officials were planning and building their vision of the future, Dale Chihuly was seeing the world of the past and contemplating the wonders of nature. His dedication to his craft and vision for interpreting culture, places, and creation left me in awe. Seeing these two Seattle icons on my first day in the city set the tone for the rest of my visit. Seattle is a city that looks fearlessly into the future, with a deep respect for the natural beauty, people and cultures of its past.
It goes without saying that the sky was cloudy and the wind had a mean chill to it. Instead of walking back to the hotel, we decided to make one more stop with our City Pass ticket. Just around the corner from the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden is the MOPOP, the Museum of Pop Culture. We grabbed lunch in the museum café (it was overpriced museum food, but the latte was decent), then started exploring.
Drew was not very interested in this museum. It wasn’t a spot that required a reservation, and it was not busy at all. But the first thing we saw after the ticket scanner was a huge tower of guitars and other musical instruments. My husband was hooked. We ventured through the guitar gallery, where they exhibited the guitars of musicians from all genres of music—indy-punk and grunge, old time country, blues, and classic rock. The Jimmy Hendrix exhibit had original hand-written lyrics jotted on hotel stationery. But it wasn’t just music memorabilia. The museum had exhibits dedicated to Fantasy, Sci-Fi (cue Star Trek and Star Wars fans), Horror, and even video games. To curate pop culture artifacts without feeling like a Planet Hollywood or Hard Rock Café is an admirable and worthwhile endeavor.
Our last stop on Friday was “Beneath the Streets” Seattle Underground History Tour. I booked this tour on Viator, which has become my go-to site for booking tours and excursions since it allows refunds for cancellations made at least 24 hrs in advance. We lucked out with this tour, having a professional actor as our tour guide. Patti was our guide and she has a deep knowledge of the history of the city, and a passion for bringing it to life. She was engaging, captivating, and very funny. And her tour reiterated what I had observed earlier in the day: Seattle is a city that fearlessly (and sometimes foolishly) faces the future and still has deep respect for the people and cultures of the past and the natural beauty that surrounds it. The founders tried to build the city on a sandbar. It failed. Then the new city burned to the ground. Then they literally moved the mountain and raised the streets 30-feet above ground and tried using ladders to cross the street. I won’t try to steal Patti’s thunder, but this city has heart, grit, and determination.
By the end of the day, we were exhausted and ready for a drink and dinner. We had a cocktail at the Nest, the rooftop bar at the Thompson. Cocktails run about $20-$25 but the view of Elliot Bay was spectacular. We contemplated staying for sunset, but neither of us had the energy for that. We returned to the hotel and ate dinner there. Simple, expensive, but delicious.
Speaking of food. Every meal in Seattle is expensive. Don’t think that breakfast and lunch are the time to save a little money. The hotel breakfast buffet was $42 per person. I got the coconut chia pudding for $18. I was expecting a sorry little cup of mush with some fruit on top. My expectations were far exceeded. What I was served was a generous sized bowl of mush with fruit on top. Just kidding. It was a large bowl, but not “just mush.” The chia pudding was decadent, and the fruit was fresh, sweet and juicy. Very much worth the $18. There was so much food I couldn’t finish the dish. And I was hungry! Friday morning, I was coming off a long night of travel. My dinner salad, much like the morning chia pudding, far exceeded expectations. Super fresh, crispy greens; a perfectly cooked chicken breast that tasted like real chicken (no added flavors or preservatives), and plenty of it.
More about food later…actually, more food on Saturday morning.
Saturday started with a Chef Guided Food Tour of Pike Place Market. We hit the lottery again with a fun and engaging guide. Though not an actor, Will was enthusiastic, personable, and obviously an expert of his craft (both as a chef and tour guide). Pike Place Market is a public market covering 9 acres and 10 floors of vendors, shops and restaurants. It’s amazing and overwhelming. Knowing we only had a couple of days to spend in the city I wanted to make sure we got the most out of our time and that we had a good experience—no hangry wandering and waiting in long lines!
In addition to the food samples, we also got to meet some of the vendors and learn more about their history and their connection to the food they make, serve, and sell. My favorite was the story of Hellenika Cultured Creamery. Started by Greek-Australian siblings, the fresh churned gelato is made with a yeast culture that is over 100 years old. Talk about keeping Oma’s starter living for the next generation! It’s also easy to find. You’ll see a long line of people outside the original Starbucks storefront, then another long line of people outside Piroshky Piroshky. Pass both of those. We’ve all had Starbucks, and the Piroshky pastries aren’t that good. If you want a savory bite before your gelato, stop in at Maiz for a delicious street taco. Then Hellenika is the next shop with an outdoor queue. I promise it is worth the wait.
After the food tour we had some time to kill before our next activity, Seattle’s Original Harbor Cruise by Argosy Cruises. With full bellies and plenty of steps from the market tour we decided to grab a coffee and sit by the pier.
The Harbor Cruise was part of our City Pass bundle. The tour operator, Argosy Cruises, has been offering this particular cruise for the last 76 years. The weather was nice so we were able to sit outside on the deck; but there was plenty of interior cabin space should we have needed it. As promised from the description, the cruise offered nice views of the city and the guide narrated what we were seeing as we sailed around the harbor. Overall, though, the cruise didn’t offer much more than what you would get from taking a ferry across the bay (something I wish we had done instead). I was hoping for a water tour similar to the architecture river tour in Chicago. There just wasn’t as much to see on this tour: mountains, skyline, cargo ships, and cruise ships, all of which you can see from any high place in the city.
Our final stop of the day was the Seattle Aquarium. This was our 5th and final use of the City Pass bundle. I was excited to see the Giant Pacific Octopus and marine mammals. Especially with “Remarkably Bright Creatures” coming out on Netflix, I really wanted to see the octopus up close.
Unfortunately, the octopus they have right now is brand new to the aquarium. He’s only been there about 2 weeks and is still too shy to come out from under the rocks in his tank. Being a remarkably bright creature, he can hear all the noise and see all the traffic in the hall. He’s just not ready to make his full debut to the public just yet. At least I got a glimpse of one of the tentacles.
The marine mammals were swimming and playing and were just good, cute fun. It goes without saying that there were touch pools, coral reef exhibits and tanks, and information about the local marine ecosystems in the Puget Sound.
My husband was not overly impressed with the aquarium. His take is that once you’ve been to one aquarium, you’ve essentially been to all aquariums. But I think he may have just been suffering from a drastic drop in blood sugar. The food tour was sort of our brunch, and we hadn’t eaten anything since.
We moseyed back over to the market to find dinner. We decided to try the Sound View Café. I have to admit that I didn’t love it. This was the least impressive meal of our trip. We both ordered the salmon and it was (shockingly) overcooked! Or maybe wild caught just has less fat and is more tough? It really seemed overcooked. After dinner we tried a new place for cocktails. We found the Fog Room. Another rooftop bar, similar to the Nest. Seating was more comfortable and my cocktail there was much better. Still expect to pay $20+ per drink.
Sunday—Mother’s Day. We had no plans for the day, except to go to church. There was a downtown Catholic church just a block or two from our hotel. The church itself was interesting in that it was just an old city building that had been converted into a church—a reversal of the typical trend of converting old churches into hotels or event venues.
Going to church in different cities is one of my favorite aspects of travel. In the Roman Catholic tradition, the scripture readings are the same all over the world. But the people and languages and parish nuances are all so unique. This parish has a special mission being downtown: to serve the unhoused, the underserved, and transients in the city. The transients, the people just passing through, in this case include tourists like me. All were welcomed as part of their own unique community.
After church we went back to Pike Place for brunch. We were lucky to get a table at historic Lowell’s Restaurant. Their slogan is “Almost classy since 1957.” And I sure am glad they haven’t quite made it classy yet. The vibe there is busy, but efficient. They’ll get your order to you quickly but won’t rush you out the door. They have hard-fixed hours for breakfast, lunch and dinner, no exceptions; and there’s a 30-minute break between meals. Don’t show up at 11:15 wanting to go ahead and order from the lunch menu. They’ll send you away and tell you to come back at noon (I know this, I saw them do it).
We ate just before 11am, so technically breakfast, not brunch since they don’t combine the two meals. We both ordered omelets. They were gigantic, filled with fresh veggies. We each cleaned our plates. When we left, we decided to get dessert. But we couldn't decide where to go for dessert. We both wanted to go back to Hellenika and to an Ethopian bakery, Lands of Origin, that we had tried on our food tour.
Since it was Mother’s Day and we had no other plans, we got dessert at both places. At Lands of Origin I got a pastry (can’t remember what it’s called) with light phyllo dough shaped into a cone, filled with rose and pistachio cream. It looked heavy but was so light and delicious. At Hellenika, again I couldn’t decide which flavor to choose, so I got two: Ube Coconut and Honey Lavendar. I told my husband I felt like I was eating my flower bouquet for Mother’s Day.
Pike Place Market Flower Festival was also Mother’s Day weekend. Maybe that’s why I kept wanting to go back to the market, it was filled with the biggest, freshest, most fragrant blooms I’ve ever seen.
We did a bunch of nothing for the rest of the day but ventured out for cocktails later in the evening. We went back to the Fog Room since we had such a good experience the previous evening. Sad to say the service was terrible on Sunday evening. We ordered one drink and thought of trying one of their small plates. But our waiter never came back. Everyone’s drink was dry in our area. We had to cash out at the bar and leave.
We wound up at the Yard House for dinner. It was a loud, fast-moving sports bar. Unlike Lowell’s that gets your food to you fast but welcomes you to linger, the Yard House got our food to us fast and I wanted to leave as quickly as possible.
We had to be up early on Monday for our shuttle pick up to Mt. Rainier. This is another tour that I booked on Viator. A full day, guided tour of the Highlights of Mt. Rainier. We had to be outside at our meet up point by 7:40am. The planning guide recommended wearing waterproof hiking boots, but I didn’t want to pack or wear them, so I had my fingers crossed that regular sneakers would be sufficient for a highlights tour.
First of all, Mt. Rainier is a stunning phenomenon of nature. It’s an active volcano, home to nearly 30 glaciers, and so massive it has its own weather system. On a clear day in Seattle you might hear the locals say, “the mountain’s out,” because its only visible 80 days a year due to cloud cover.
We got lucky with the weather and had a perfectly clear day for this adventure. Our tour guide, Kevin, was another great guide narrating our day. He knew so much about the history of the area, the mountain, the best stops along the way (like a Ukrainian bakery). He had our day and stops mapped out to ensure we had enough time to explore, eat and use the restroom without ever getting into “emergency” situations. Despite costing $150 per person, this day might have been the least expensive of our entire trip because Kevin stopped at a grocery store on the drive up for us to stock up on lunch and snacks to avoid paying the high prices for low quality food inside the park.
The tour inside the park was other-worldly. Thinking back to the Chihuly Garden and looking at the vegetation, tree roots, rock formations, and the various colors and sounds of water bubbling, trickling, falling and roaring throughout the park, it’s no wonder where Dale Chihuly drew his inspiration and artistic vision.
Since there was still lots of snow on the ground, especially at Paradise visitor’s center where trails to the peak begin, there wasn’t much hiking to be done. So, my shoes were just fine for the day.
Even if you’re an avid hiker and nature lover, I would still recommend this tour if you are in the Seattle area. The mountain definitely deserves more than just a drive through experience, but if you’re short on time and close enough, it’s worth the early morning pick-up and long day on the road. You could rent a car and do it yourself, but it was nice not to have the responsibility of driving 3hrs there and back.
I flew home Tuesday morning. I requested my Uber to the airport at 6am and it arrived at 6:07. Thank goodness. My last meal in Seattle was breakfast at the airport. I got another $18 bowl of mush with fruit. But this bowl was warm oatmeal, not chia pudding. It was delicious, and much better than the $15 fruit and yogurt parfaits from the grab-and-go kiosks. An extra $3 makes a big difference!
In short, 5 nights in Seattle is a perfect amount of time to get a feel for the city and surrounding area, without feeling rushed. But it still leaves you with plenty of ideas to start planning what you’ll do on your next trip.
While we were there, we met several folks traveling before or after an Alaskan cruise. Seattle is the home port to several Alaskan itineraries, primarily roundtrip cruises sailing the Inside Passage. There are some excellent last-minute deals on remaining cabins for 2026 cruises. And plenty of cabins are available for summer 2027.
One final reflection of this trip: The Detroit airport (DTW) is my absolute favorite. My connection there and back was in DTW. Terminal A is a mile-long corridor, flooded with natural light, and surprisingly quiet despite the number of travelers and the train running overhead. There is just one underground tunnel that connects Terminal A to B and C. And the B/C terminal runs parallel to Terminal A. It’s so easy to navigate, it’s quiet and just pleasant. I had a 3 hr layover on my return flight and I walked the entire airport, just under 3 miles total. A great way to stretch your legs.
