Stuck at the Airport is headquartered in Seattle and this week we’re spending a couple of days working out of a charming two-bedroom (!) suite at Level South Lake Union.
Part of a growing chain of upscale short and extended-stay, pet-friendly properties with additional locations in Los Angeles, Chicago and Steveston, a fishing village near Vancouver, British Columbia, Level offers apartment-style suites with a full kitchen, in-suite laundry, a patio and plenty of space.
The Seattle property is co-located with residential towers and the hotel’s amenity fee offer guests access to a snazzy array of amenities, including indoor and outdoor pools, a sauna and steam room, and an expansive and fully-equipped fitness facility that includes a yoga studio and a spin studio with Peloton bikes.
There’s also an indoor basketball court, an indoor climbing wall, game rooms, a music studio with a piano and a drum set, a karaoke studio, an indoor/outdoor play space for kids and multiple other entertainment and hangout spaces.
The property was described as a “cruise ship on land” and an urban resort. And the descriptions fit.
Food tour of Seattle’s Pike Place Market
During our Seattle staycation, we took a tasting tour of the famed Seattle’s Pike Place Market with Savor Seattle.
We’d seen tourists on these tours and wondered what those tour guides were really telling visitors about our town.
But no need to worry.
We are delighted with how much insider information our tour guide, Matthew, could share and how much we jaded but proud locals learned.
We were impressed with how much love our guide showered on the food, flower and craft vendors who are truly the heart of the market.
And, of course, we loved all the food samples we ate.
We even had a just-for-us performance from the guys who throw the fish.
This is an ever-so-slightly version of the Seattle guide for business travelers we put together for CNBC.
Starbucks, Amazon, Costco Wholesale, Microsoft and many other major companies call the greater Seattle-area home.
So it’s no surprise that Visit Seattle reports that at times 25% of the city’s more than 14,000 downtown hotel rooms are filled with business travelers in town to take meetings and make deals.
If you’re in the Emerald City with a few spare hours after a meeting, these tips and ideas might help you make the most of your time in a city well-known for its caffeine-fueled culture, its seafood and its green spaces.
Downtown Seattle
Take a pre-meeting walk or run through the
Seattle Art Museum’s 9-acre waterfront Olympic Sculpture Park (Admission: free;
adjacent to Myrtle Edwards Park) and be rewarded with views of the Olympic
Mountains and Puget Sound while passing artwork by Richard Serra, Louise
Nevelson, Alexander Calder and many others.
Or show up early at the historic Pike
Place Market to stroll by fruit, vegetable, seafood and craft vendors
setting up before the crowds arrive; especially during cruise season, which
runs May through September. Guided tours and downloadable Market walking guides are available.
Starbucks’ first store opened in the
Market in 1971 and you can grab a coffee, get a souvenir, and take a selfie at the
1st & Pike store that recreates the ground(s)-breaking first branch.
Better yet, skip the Starbucks (you can drink
that at home) and pop into one of Seattle’s many independent coffee shops. Seattle Coffee Works (108 Pine
Street), Victrola (3rd and Pine) and Storyville Coffee (1st
& Pike; Top floor of the Corner Market bldg.) are all nearby.
For breakfast, grab a pastry at Le Panier, the Market’s
French bakery. Or order a Dungeness Crab Omelet or Hangtown Fry with oysters at
Lowell’s, a casual Market
mainstay ($$) with a waterfront view that’s been “Almost Classy since 1957.”
Tip: Don’t miss the MarketFront public plaza, overlooking
the newly revitalized downtown waterfront area. And be sure to bring along some
quarters to view the odd and outsize shoes displayed behind sideshow-style
curtains at the Giant Shoe Museum in the Market’s “down under” shopping area,
next to Old Seattle Paperworks.
From the Market, head downhill (use the Pike Street HillClimb or take the
elevators from the parking garage) to the Seattle waterfront, which is lined
with restaurants, shops and attractions that include the Seattle Aquarium, the Seattle Great Wheel and the flying
ride Wings
Over Washington. An underground tunnel recently replaced a noisy double-decker
freeway running along and above the waterfront and new park and public spaces
are being developed in what is already a much quieter and far more pleasant
part of the city to visit.
Tip: Tucked in among the waterfront shops selling
mugs, magnets and Sleepless in Seattle nightshirts (still!) is the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on Pier 54,
which dates back to1899. Part souvenir store/part cabinet of wonder, the shop’s
displays include natural history oddities and can’t-look-away objects that
include shrunken heads, mummies and a four-legged chicken.
Want to see more traditional art?
More than 200 works of public art dot
Seattle’s downtown neighborhoods. This guide will lead you to
them. The Seattle Public Library system’s 11-story glass and steel Central Library building
(between 4th and 5th Avenues and Madison & Spring
Streets) is a must-see stop for fans of architecture and, of course, books. Designed
by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and LMN Architects, the building has a multi-floor
“Book Spiral,” one all-red floor and great viewing spots from the 10th-floor
reading room.
The Seattle Art Museum (Admission: $29.99, including all exhibits) has a permanent
collection of more than 25,000 works of art. SAM is free the first Thursday of
each month and many downtown hotels offer packages that include museum passes
for special exhibitions.
Tip: Save your SAM ticket. Should you have extra
time, your Seattle Art Museum ticket is good for entry (within a week) to the Asian Art Museum in Volunteer
Park in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. The museum reopens February 8
after a $56 million renovation.
Fun at the former fairgrounds
The site of the 1962 World’s Fair is now a 74-acre urban park known as Seattle Center. You can walk there from the downtown core, but it’s faster and more fun to take the 2-minute ride on the Seattle Center Monorail, another souvenir of the fair. Board at Westlake Center Mall (5th Avenue and Pine St.)
In addition to free attractions, such as the International Fountain, Seattle Center offers time-pressed visitors a cluster of worthy activities to choose from, including the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), which will appeal to fans of music and science fiction, and the Pacific Science Center, which is ideal if your family is in tow. Artist Dale Chihuly’s creations and collections fill eight color-filled galleries at Chihuly Garden and Glass and spill into the adjacent Collections Café, which has Dungeness crab cakes and other Northwest fare on the menu and is a charming and convenient place to stop for lunch ($$).
Seattle’s 605-foot-tall Space Needle, another, now iconic space-age souvenir of the 1962 World’s Fair, is at Seattle Center too. The Space Needle has two recently renovated observation decks, including one with the world’s only revolving glass floor.
Tips:Chihuly Garden and Glass and the Space Needle are often crowded, but both offer discounts for visits during less crowded off-hours. The 902-foot-tall downtown Sky View Observatory is a less expensive, less crowded alternative to the Space Needle.
Where to Stay:
Many business travelers land at Seattle’s large convention-friendly properties such as the Hyatt Regency (1260 guestrooms) and the Sheraton Grand Seattle (1236 guestrooms). Seattle also has a growing list of hip, boutique properties such as the 90-room State Hotel, with a rooftop terrace, wall of doorknobs and colorful multi-story mural and the Hotel Theodore where rooms and hallways are decorated with artifacts and images curated by Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry.
Where to eat
Seattle has an exciting and evolving
dining and drinking scene, with many nationally known venues and chefs. Here
are just a few to check out.
Start – or end – the evening with a
cocktail at restaurateur Renee Erickson’s below-ground, curio-filled Deep Dive in the Amazon Spheres. The menu at this
speakeasy-style bar includes upscale classic cocktails, rare spirits and
creative concoctions with names such as Mixtape, Hans Solo, Curiosity Killed
and Love through Space and Time.
There are excellent breweries.
brewpubs and distilleries in many Seattle’s neighborhoods and a good selection
right downtown, including Pike Place Brewing’s Pike Pub, Old Stove Brewing and Copperworks Distilling Co.
Move on to a downtown dinner at Loulay Kitchen & Bar in the Sheraton
Grand Seattle (6th and Pike). The creation of Thierry
Rautureau, “The Chef in The Hat,” Loulay’s menu favorites include French
cuisine classics, crab fritters, seafood stew, sturgeon and cheeseburgers
topped with duck egg or foie gras. ($$$).
Tip: If you haven’t quite mastered the art of dining out alone, make
a reservation for Loulay’s balcony level table for one, which overlooks the busy
restaurant and the kitchen.
To impress visitors, Brian McGowan, CEO of
Greater Seattle Partners books dinner at “the legendary Canlis, whose view,
cuisine and service are equally amazing.” The iconic fine-dining destination
has views of Seattle, Lake Union and the Cascade mountain range and four course
dinners for $135/person.
And what about the rain?
Yes, Seattle has a well-deserved reputation for being gray
and drizzly. But the city’s annual average precipitation of 38.17” is less than
Boston (43.13”), Houston (51.12”), Miami (59.61”) and New York (45.73”). More
drizzles than downpours just give Seattle more days of moist and cloudy
weather.
Tip: You won’t see many locals carrying umbrellas. To blend in, pack a rain jacket, a cap and wear water-resistant shoes.
Seattle’s space-age inspired Space Needle marked a milestone in its $100 million makeover this week, with the unveiling of the first batch of specially-slanted clear glass benches on the outdoor Observation Deck at the 520-foot level.
The benches, dubbed “Skyrisers” are attached to some of the viewing deck’s newly-installed 11-foot tall glass windows and invite visitors to lean back and snap selfies that will make them appear to be floating out over the landscape.
Courtesy Space Needle LLC
Over the past year, while the Observation Deck remained open to the public, construction workers replaced the view-obstructing but structurally-necessary half wall and caging installed when the 605-foot-tall Space Needle was built – in just 400 days – as a centerpiece for the World’s Fair held in Seattle in 1962.
“We needed to update some of the aging mechanical and electrical systems in this 56-year-old building originally designed to look like a flying saucer on a stick,” said Karen Olson, chief marketing officer for Space Needle LLC, “And we figured, while we’re up there, let’s update the experience and expand the view.”
Seattle-based design firm Olson Kundig, the project architect, maintained the landmarked features of the building while significantly opening up the Observation Deck view with 48 floor-to-ceiling glass windows that are each 7 feet wide and 11 feet high.
The group also added direct viewing lines to the outside for everyone who steps off the elevator, a state-of-the art ADA lift that (finally) makes the outdoor deck fully accessible, an indoor café and the newly unveiled inclined glass “Skyrisers” that will make a trip to the top of the Space Needle super selfie-worthy.
While ten glass benches were unveiled this week in time for Memorial Day visitors, Space Needle officials say all 24 of the Observation Deck’s planned Skyrisers should be installed by the end of June.
Next phase: World’s first rotating glass floor
When the Space Needle opened at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962, it featured a rotating restaurant on the 500-foot level, just below the Observation Deck, that operated on turntable powered first by a 1 horsepower and, later, a 1.5 horsepower motor. (While novel, it wasn’t the world’s first rotating restaurant. That honor goes to a restaurant that operated in the Ala Moana shopping mall in Hawaii.)
Over the years there have been three different restaurant concepts in the rotating space and, when the current makeover is completed, there will be a fourth.
In the meantime, construction workers have built a grand, open circular staircase to connect the two decks and replaced the original rotating floor on the lower-deck with a 37-ton glass floor that is being billed as the world’s only rotating glass floor (in a building open to visitors).
Inspired by the (non-rotating) glass floor the Eiffel Tower opened in 2014 on its 1st floor, 187 feet above the ground and by the glass floors at Chicago’s Willis Tower and the Grand Canyon Skywalk, the rotating glass floor at the Space Needle will offer visitors a view down at the fountain, the green spaces and museums on the 74-acre Seattle Center grounds. The mechanics of the new turntable, now powered by a series of 12 motors, will also be visible through the see-floor flooring.
Space Needle officials expect the rotating glass floor (and wine bar) on the lower deck to be ready for visitors by the July 4th weekend. Details about the new restaurant concept to occupy the space are expected to be announced this fall.
Planning a visit
Admission: Entry costs for the Space Needle usually shift (up) to summer pricing on the Memorial Day weekend, but because the makeover is not fully complete on the upper deck, off-season/preview pricing of $26 for adults, $22 for seniors (65+) and $17 for kids (ages 5-12) is still in effect.
Around July 4, when both the upper deck (with the open-air observation area) and the lower deck (with the rotating glass floor) are open, admission prices will go up to $29 for adults; $24 for seniors and $22 for kids.
Discounted admission may be available with bundled attraction passes or some auto club and other organization memberships.
When to go: More than 1.3 million people visit the Space Needle each year, and lines can be especially long during the busy summer tourist season. The attraction is likely to get even more popular now that the Observation Deck renovations are nearing completion and once the rotating glass floor feature opens.
Consider purchasing a timed entry ticket online and visiting first thing in the morning (the Observation Deck opens at 9 a.m. Monday to Thursday and at 8 a.m. Friday through Sunday) or at the end of the evening: closing time is 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 12 a.m. Friday to Sunday, with the last entry 30 minutes prior to closing.
To get a unique view of the iconic 650-foot-tall Space Needle, plan a visit to the Sky View Observatory on the 73rd floor of the Columbia Tower, in downtown Seattle. At nearly 1000 feet, the observatory is the tallest public viewing area in the Pacific Northwest.
(My story about the reboot of the Seattle Space Needle first appeared on USA TODAY).
An exhibit honoring the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift opens today at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport with a ceremony honoring four Washington State veterans who participated in the airlift.
(A view of the “Friends Always” exhibition at a stop in Delaware. Photo: German Embassy)
The traveling exhibit “The Berlin Airlift – A Legacy of Friendship” commemorates what many agree is one of the greatest humanitarian efforts of all time, when U.S. and Allied forces saved more than two million men, women and children in Berlin during a Soviet Union blockade beginning in 1948.
More than 60 photo panels will be on display through December 31st next to the Airport Office Building elevators on the south end of the Seattle airport ticketing Level. After that, the exhibit moves over to Seattle’s Museum of Flight and, later in January, to Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Meyers. To learn more about the exhibition and find out if it will be on display at an airport or museum near you, check the dedicated “Friends Always” page