After living in downtown Portland, Maine for a couple of years (we now live in boring northern Virginia), my wife has retrospectively fallen in love with the place and conveniently forgotten about the horrible winters we suffered through. We live in the suburbs now and we both miss the two-minute walk to downtown.
She’s thinking about settling down there (which would be great, as long as we had a winter home somewhere - anywhere - else). I liked it in Portland also, but not as much as I did on Whidbey Island, where I spent a few years before she came along. So I’m taking her to Seattle this summer to show her an alternative to Maine.
When I lived up there, I didn’t spend much time off the island, so I’m not very familiar with the Seattle area. I think the PNW has much more to offer than Maine, with much milder winters (I’d rather have rain for weeks on end than sun, bitter cold, and two feet of snow to shovel), plus much better scenery. Here’s what I’m hoping to show her:
*Areas where we could live that are metro/trendy, like Portland
Places where we can drive/hike to see the mountains (e.g., Sauk Mt)
Touristy things to do, or non-touristy things (and why you’d recommend it)
Touristy things we should stay away from
Ferry rides/destinations
Recommendations on where to stay in Seattle (something with a view)
Anything else we should definitely do while we’re there (she wants to see Mt St Helen’s-- is it worth the drive?)
Links are welcome. Thanks in advance!
*Hereare a couple of photos of downtown Portland. I’m looking for areas like this to drive through, either downtown or somewhere like Queen Anne. This is probably the most important part of the whole trip.
My standard answer for visitor/touristy stuff: Underground Tour! Now that that’s out of the way, lemme think about it and see if I can come up with some more “convince someone to move here” ideas.
Seattle’s a perfectly nice city, and from everything I know has better weather than Maine (though of course it’s still not Hawaii.)
I don’t know anything about Portland, Maine, but to do my best answering your questions:
*Areas where we could live that are metro/trendy, like Portland
Your pictures look a lot like Union Square and Southern 1st street. But those are right downtown, so I’m not sure how livable that would be. Fremont is usually targetted as the “trendy” area, and it has a sort of small-town feel to it. Between Bell Town and Queen Anne is fairly nice as well.
Places where we can drive/hike to see the mountains (e.g., Sauk Mt)
Dunno.
Touristy things to do, or non-touristy things (and why you’d recommend it)
I’d say if you walk around Pike’s Place Market, Union Square, and Fremont you’ll find a pretty good amount of stuff to do. But you should definitely go to the Space Needle, it has a mini-carnival below it, and the Experience Music Project is there as well.
If you can get tickets to Teatro Zinzanni, you should do that.
West Seattle has a nice beach, and walking up and down the strip is pretty fun. Similarly, in Fremont you can hang out at the boating locks on the grass and watch the boats go through.
Not sure what sports are played during which part of the year, but the Seattle Mariners (baseball) and the Supersonics (basketball) are both pretty good teams from what I understand, so if you all are interested in either of those sports, that would be something to do.
There’s also the 5th Avenue Theater and the Paramount Theater which house the touring musicals, so you could check to see what’s playing.
Touristy things we should stay away from
Dunno.
Ferry rides/destinations
You can take a ferry up to Victoria and see the Butchart Gardens (as well as Victoria itself), though that would be a day trip, really. There’s also a ferry to Bainbridge Island, of course, but I’m not sure what all there is to do there.
Recommendations on where to stay in Seattle (something with a view)
Dunno.
Anything else we should definitely do while we’re there (she wants to see Mt St Helen’s-- is it worth the drive?)
No idea.
Thanks for giving it some thought, Aguecheek. I actually have done the Underground, and found it pretty cool.
Sage Rat, I’m not sure how much snow Maine usually gets, but it’s a sh**load. Seattle definitely has better weather, and I think spring starts a bit earlier there. In Maine it seems to start in late May or early June.
I’ve also done the Butchart Gardens thing, but that was before 9/11. Have you been up to Canada recently? I’m not sure I want to deal with the hassle of the border crossing nowadays. Thanks for the gouge on Fremont–I’ll check it out.
Not since 9/11, admittedly, but I don’t think customs would be too bad. You don’t need to take any baggage or anything if you’re just going for a day, so outside of looking at your passport, there’s not a lot they can do security-wise to check you out.
I love your photos of Portland (ME). For walkable mixed-use neighborhoods like that, you may be better off in Portland (OR) than in Seattle, though we’ve got a few. Areas that might interest you (only for a few blocks at a time, alas) are in Ballard, Fremont, Queen Anne (upper and lower), and Capitol Hill. A book called Seattle City Walks is a good guide for exploring neighborhoods on foot. You’ll learn more that way than by doing touristy things.
Mt St Helens, in my opinion, is worth the drive (ca. 2.5 hours from Seattle) if it’s a clear day. There are oodles of other mountain/hiking choices somewhat closer in.
I last crossed into Canada in 2003 (not terribly recent, but after 9/11). Had passport, no problem.
A really cool way to see some of downtown without just wandering around aimlessly: the Seattle Clock Walk. Totally self directed, so you can amble to your heart’s content and stop at whatever you like along the way.
