This latter half of the weekend, Roanna of @foodiegramca and I took the 3.5 hour drive down to Seattle for a two night and three day trip.
When making our vehicle of choice, I gravitated towards the 2025 Mazda CX50 for its compact size, luxury comfort, and acclaimed fuel economy. And in all this, it did not disappoint.
We made the trip out on Sunday late morning, with a planned stop in Alderwood to be able to stretch my legs after the 45 minutes it took for me to drive from my home in Burnaby to Roanna’s in White Rock, then the 20 minutes to the border and the subsequent 2 hours plus to our pit stop.
There, we discovered World Market and its amazing selection of unique products, from around the world, as its name suggests. However, we didn’t pick up much considering it was our first stop and I was trying to be on the frugal side with this trip, especially given the current exchange rate between Canada and the US.
We did grab a couple of bottles of wine to be able to drink in our hotel room. Decent sounding labels that were deceptively inexpensive.
We also swung by Target, but was disappointed by the selection. Picked over post Halloween and Black Friday goods. I didn’t notice any door crasher sales or anything worth spending money on.
For lunch we stopped at Shake Shack. I got their classic burger with one patty, and made it a combo with cheesy crinkle cut fries and bacon bits, plus fountain drink. The combo doesn’t let you substitute it for a shake so I missed out on that. Overall a decent smash, but not anything I would be clamouring for again? anytime soon.
Then it was an under 45 minutes drive to Seattle and our two night stay at Theodore Hotel in the heart of downtown. This is a boutique hotel so it doesn’t have much in terms of amenities. No pool, and a small 24 hour fitness room we did not use.
The lobby did have a nice communal living room with art deco theme, ice water with plastic cups, and complimentary chocolate chip cookies at the front desk to help yourself to.
There is an on property cafe to serve the breakfast crowd from 9-2pm and a full restaurant: Rider that hosts dinner and room service after 5pm. We would have dinner on our first night at the latter, but more about that in its own post.
In suite, our two queen bed unit comes with a mini bar area with sink, coffee maker, and mini fridge. The former didn’t drain well and the latter served as our wine cooler. We would later ask for a microwave to be delivered to our room, for my leftover breakfasts and instant noodle lunches.
I liked the historic art in the room that included blueprints and patents of the space needle and group photos of the engineers who crafted it. The Victorian style blue and gold embroidered drapes, the iron and ironing board in the waredrobe, and the variety of light fixtures at our disposal.
I didn’t like the placement of the television screen, it was nice that they had Roanna’s name on it displayed in welcome, but there was no way to watch it from our beds. Nor was there much room to create a living room of sorts, and to be able to position chairs to watch said TV head on.
I did like the look of the washroom, slick black fixtures against white tile. I appreciated the thin robes hanging in the washroom, the abundance of towels, the strength of the hair dryer, and the night light built into the wall outlet. There was also communal bottles of hand soap, body lotion, shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel for use.
The hotel seemed lovely from afar, but where they lost me was with the details. This we would later learn more about, as we were given a tour of the the penthouse suite on the 19th floor, and discovered first hand what we were missing were only reserved for those staying within this space.
Whereas everything on the penthouse level was premium, we got use to mediocrity. Here, there was views from 3 sides, plenty of seating room, and a parlour just for television watching. There was a telescope, fully furnished kitchen for entertaining, plant and art to make the space feel lived in, and enough sprawling room so that you could have some alone time, while staying over with friends or family. No tub, but a tiled shower with a bench in the master bath and a powder room right by the elevators that lead right into the unit. Needless to say, this was an amazing suite and having to go back to our regular one after was a tease.
We asked for slippers for our regular room and found them lumpy in the soles. It was like the filling was cotton, and/or the slippers reused, washed and dried, causing the padding to shrink and wad up.
The hotel cups weren’t covered or wrapped to indicate that they were sanitized. No miniature bottles of products to take home, just a single make up remover wipe.
On our first full day in Seattle we made it a slow morning in true vacation style. Waking up as we pleased, naturally and taking our time to get up and ready.
I had leftovers from our Fire & Ice Chef’s menu dinner at Rider the night before, for breakfast and accompanied it with the two glasses of wine we couldn’t finish then and brought up with us. All about that in a separate post.
When ready we did some sight seeing walking downtown and shopping at Nordstrom Rack, Walgreens, and Ross: dress for less. Nothing peaked my interest from the former and latter. And the pharmacy was a supply run for things I failed to pack.
I did purchase some food items from Uwajimaya, the large Japanese grocery store located in Seattle’s Chinatown. This was in order to qualify for free parking with $20 spent. Hello Kitty cup noodles for lunch later, specialty instant noodles, and weird snacks to try.
We then took the monorail from Westlake down to Seattle Centre, in order to utilize our Seattle Pass and take in some sights, all of which I have visited before, but my guess didn’t.
First Chihuly Garden and Glass for some hand blown beauty. I think I have visited this museum at least 4 times in my lifetime and it never gets old. From glass chandeliers to a garden of glass flowers, the place is a wonder. New is the ability to watch glass being blown live. Vases and ornament balls that you can then purchase from their gift shop.
They also now have a bar, named “The Bar”. Surprisingly it is not themed like the rest of the museum, but instead as collections. The entry way, ceilings, and walls showcase various collections. Bottle openers, clown masks, accordions, and kettles. And each table is basically a shadow box showcasing similar themed items like a collection of wooden fishing lures, a collection of shaving cream brushes, and a collection of vintage pocket radios.
We took a seat with every intention of grabbing one of their $20 cocktails, however were on a time crunch, and after seeing the lone server seat and serve other tables after us, we decided that we didn’t have the time to wait. So sadly left parched.
For the holiday season, the Chihuly glass museum, Space Needle, and Seattle Christmas Market are teaming up with a cost savings pass. Visiting all three, all in the same area will have you saving, so we did just that.
The Seattle Christmas Market is branded just like the one in Vancouver, BC except with a lot more square footage, it is able to host a lot more vendors and a lot more activations. All of which adds to a more richer market experience and is one that you can linger longer at. And we did just that. More about that experience and how it compares to the Vancouver Christmas Market to come in it’s own post.
After we lapped the space, ate, drank, and enjoyed merry; we rushed to make last call at the Seattle Space Needle, since we already in the vicinity.
Sadly, the view was hard to enjoy past the glass and all we got was our own reflection. Not to mention, I found Seattle’s landscape flat with little to hold my attention on.
Hungry and looking for dinner it was hard to find much open and something that we actually wanted to eat. We eventually decided on Dough Zone, a Shanghai style dumpling and noodle chain originating in Seattle. They were open late and bustling. More on our full late night dinner, plus my next day’s breakfast that I took to go, to come in its own post.
It was then back to our hotel room to spend our last night in Seattle sleeping early, followed by an early morning.
In the morning we found time to visit Pike Place, an under 10 minute walk from Theodore Hotel. There, we did all the cliché touristy things like contemplate lining up to enter the first ever Starbucks.
We watched the Pike Place Fish Co. toss their catch of the day from floor to counter.
Explored the many artisan shops hidden in nooks and crannies of the underground market.
And both marvelled and grew disguised by the famed gum wall that had expanded into a gum alley and corridor.
Roanna stopped at Pike Place Chowder for a cup of their famous New England clam chowder, that came with a sourdough roll and crackers. At $10 a cup she found the price steep, but worth it.
I would save my appetite for Chick-fil-A. I wanted to see what the buzz was all about for this popular American fast-food chain known for their chicken sandwiches and waffle fries. The latter was decent, but not unlike anything I have had else where.
Ironically the rest of our trip was spent grocery shopping. Where we visited and purchased items we might have been able to get in Vancouver. Instant noodles, limited edition chips, and anything weird and wacky that caught my eye. This included stops at H-Mart, Trader Joe’s, and T&T.
Overall this was a great little get away and thanks to the 2025 Mazda CX50 we got home safely.
