Pacific Northwest and Western Canada Road Trip: Seattle and Spokane (Days 3-8)

The northern Washington coast during the drive from Vancouver to Seattle.

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Five Days in Washington: Seattle and Spokane

This post will be far more spare than five days spread across these two cities suggests because the bulk of our time in these spots was to visit with family - first to attend a wedding in Seattle and then to visit other relatives at their home in Spokane.

That doesn’t mean that we didn’t see anything at all, though!

One of our favorite parts of the time in Washington state was actually spent on the road. The drive from Vancouver to Seattle was absolutely gorgeous - set in and among towering coastal evergreens until we got to the outskirts of the city. The drive itself is just under three hours and we were well on track to make the trek in that amount of time until we hit the infamous Seattle rush hour. Yikes! The spot we were headed towards was in a central part of the city, and we sat in traffic for well over an hour longer than anticipated. The neighborhoods around the highway felt crammed in; in fact, Seattle overall felt fairly claustrophobic to us, even compared to other large cities we have been to.

Our next main drive - from Seattle to Spokane - was about four hours and took us from the coastal region that looks like what we envision the pacific northwest looking like to a different environment - drier, desert adjacent, even though there are still a lot of evergreen trees.

Seattle

By the time we arrived from Vancouver and made our way through rush hour, we arrived in the evening. We took the time to wander around - find the wedding venue we would attend the next day and locate a nearby grocery store within walking distance so we could pick up an easy dinner to eat in our room. We had only two nights scheduled for our Seattle visit.

We stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott Seattle Downtown/Lake Union, right next to the Lake Union Park Bridge, a pedestrian bridge, that we could follow to the Museum of History and Industry, the venue for the wedding we were attending. The location was nice and convenient for our purposes.

Lake Union Park, which houses the Museum of History and Industry, is a 12-acre urban park right on the shores of Lake Union. From this park, visitors can explore historic ships or rent a boat to take out on the water. One of the main attractions in the park is the large building that houses the museum, which features history and industry of the Seattle and Puget Sound regions. The large atrium in the museum features the Boeing B-1 plane from 1919, the first commercial plane built by Bill Boeing. Today, Boeing is the largest aerospace company in the world, but in 1916, it was just getting started in Seattle.

Pike Place Market is a well-known farmer’s market in Seattle, in fact one of the oldest continually running markets in the US, and it combines both outside stalls and vendors with over 500 vendors. Since it opened in 1907, Pike Place has been a place for locals and visitors alike to explore eateries, flower shops, jewelry, crafts, books, and endless unique spots. The market itself is a rabbit warren of different levels and narrow walkways and stairwells. In fact, it was impossible to even track how many levels it was when we were there. According to the market’s website, it covers 9 acres and is on 10 levels. That doesn’t mean that it is 10 stories high but that there are places where a floor may end, you need to go up a level to continue and then can travel back down again. The market was crowded and smelled like a place that has a lot of people in it. For those who love the crush of sights, sounds, and humanity and enjoy shopping - or at least window shopping - you will enjoy this experience. For us, it was a worthwhile experience but probably not the best pick for our main activity in the city.

spokane

After a nice breakfast in Seattle at a place within walking distance from the hotel (and which appears to have since closed), we got on the road for our 4-hour drive to Spokane.

Spokane sits near the eastern edge of Washington, just about twenty miles away from Idaho. Canada is two hours away. The city is situated on Spokane River, which runs right through downtown, and is home to about 230,000 people, the second largest city in Washington, behind Seattle (which is far larger!).

The three days we spent in Spokane were to visit with family, who live just a bit outside of downtown. We wandered around along the river, picked strawberries at a local pick-your-own farm, and enjoyed exploring downtown Spokane.

Right near downtown Spokane, the Spokane River widens enough to accommodate a small peninsula that juts out into it as well as a small island, Canada Island. This area has been made into Riverfront Park, a lovely 100-acre mass of nature with vistas of downtown and Spokane Falls, coincidentally the original name of the town, created by water dropping over a man-made dam. It is the second longest urban waterfall in the US. Pedestrian footbridges allow visitors to get close to the falls safely. The park itself has a variety of features including walking paths, pavilion, the Great Northern clock tower, and a carousel. There are also gondolas for an aerial view of the area. We enjoyed watching large groups of geese, ducks, and other birds enjoy their lazy day at the park.