Seattle like a local

Jennifer asked via Instagram where she could go in Seattle to get away from the tourist areas and get a more local feel.

Finding Local Flavor Wherever You Travel

One key to doing this anywhere is simply finding the touristy part(s) of town and then removing yourself from there. If you’re still seeing postcard stands on the streets, cutesy building facades, and/or things to pose next to for photos, keep going.

Once you start to see grocery stores, permanent residences, and/or less picturesque streets, you’ve probably crossed over to the local zone.

Seattle’s Local Flavor

In Seattle, a lot of the top attractions are grouped together, which makes it easy to see the sights – and then to escape them. Get out of downtown and away from the University District (which locals call the “U District”), and you’re likely to find yourself where locals live, work, run errands, relax, and drink coffee. (Coffee gets its own category because we’re talking about Seattle here.)

The timing of Jennifer’s question was great, since my Seattle experts happened to be in town. So we brainstormed and came up with a few suggestions of where to go for Seattle’s local flavor:

The photo that prompted the question was from Pike Place Market, which I recently wrote about as being a place you’ll find both tourists and locals. There are tons of places to eat, drink, shop, and explore.
I’ve also mentioned the Fremont Sunday Market, which is a great local thing to do if you happen to be in town on a Sunday.
Starbucks is not Seattle’s only homegrown coffee shop, so you may want to branch out and try something that isn’t available in your hometown. There are tons of locally-based alternatives. I enjoyed drinking Medicis (orange mochas) from Caffe Ladro, a 14-location, Washington-only chain.
Full Tilt has all-natural ice cream, local art, and pinball. Yep. Pinball.
Hang out at Golden Gardens Park.
During the summer (and even this week), there are outdoor movies and concerts.

Finally, I’ll mention again my friend Luz’s post on things to do in Seattle, since she includes a lot of great ideas beyond the typical touristy fare.

How do you like to go local when you travel?

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Thanks to Ian Smith and Christine Smith for help on this post!

August 27, 2014August 27, 2014

Wandering Pike Place Market

There’s nothing wrong with seeing the highlights of a place, the well-known “must-see” spots. But it’s always great when you can go beyond that, get off the beaten path, take the side streets.

Pike Place Market isn’t just a tourist attraction. Locals also frequent the farmers’ market, shops, cafes, and bars. It’s brimming with quirky Seattle flavor. The Market rewards those who are willing to explore, to keep their eyes open.

Of course, it’s fun to watch the guys throwing fish, and then stroll down the main arcade checking out the fruit and flowers. But you don’t have to stop there. Try chocolate pasta. Peruse the busker bulletin board.

If you don’t want to wait in line at the original Starbucks, you can try a new kind of crumpet.

Go down a level or two and you’ll find a magic shop, a record store, a place that sells squirrel underwear.

Around the corner from the famous Gum Wall, there’s an alley covered with posters, stickers, and street art. (I’m always on the lookout for art in unexpected places – including alleys.)

A paste-up of a man wearing a business suit and a space helmet caught my eye. He’s the Clastronaut and is inspired by the feeling of never being at home.

That makes sense to me. We’re all travelers.

So you might as well wander around, get lost, and see what’s around the corner.

Pike Place Market is one fantastic place to do that.

August 14, 2014

Handcrafted postcards

My favorite souvenirs aren’t mass produced. They’re things like a scarf from a street fair or wildflowers from the Rockies.

I didn’t do much shopping on my SeaSFBlog trip, but I did get a chance to stop by the Fremont Sunday Market. The market is held rain or shine, which is good, because, you know, Seattle does have 58 days a year of sunshine.

One vendor was called Fun Junk: Piles of Old Stuff. True to their word, the tables held mounds of skeleton keys, patches, watch faces, and stacks of what looked like miniature paintings. It turned out they basically were. The owner finds vintage paintings in thrift stores, cuts them into sections, and stamps “POST CARD” across the back. The result is these beautiful, one-of-a-kind, mailable works of art.

It made me think about what else I could pick up along the way (when I’m not in Seattle) to make impromptu postcards. Travel brochures? Booklet covers? Maps? Gift boxes or packaging? It might be a good idea to pack some labels to stick over items without a blank space to write on.

You could mail pages of an on-the-go travel journal back to yourself and bind them together when you get back. Or mail a note to a friend.

As long as you meet the post office mailing guidelines for the country you’re in and make sure your postcard/letter/package is sturdy enough to handle shipping, you can really get creative with what you mail!

Resources

Fun Junk: locations | online shop (awesome typewriter key jewelry but no postcards at the moment)

USPS mailing guidelines: domestic | international

Creative mail inspriation: “Happy mail” by Giver’s Log

August 5, 2014December 4, 2021

Breaking: San Francisco has TWO bridges!

The Golden Gate Bridge is kind of like the Bay Bridge’s diva younger sister. Constantly in the spotlight, she’s been called the “most photographed bridge in the world” and is super high maintenance – with a staff of 34 devoted just to touch-ups.

Even though they both span across the San Francisco Bay, one of them gets all “I’m golden” about it and the other just tells it like it is. In fact, the often-overlooked Bay Bridge stretches 8.4 miles and helps 45 million people get to work every year without making a fuss.

I don’t mean to sound like their mother or anything, but, as iconic as the Golden Gate Bridge is, they’re both beautiful in their own way. And I have pictures of both of them ~~in my wallet.~~ in this post. Here are a few spots where I’ve caught a great view and what you need to know to travel across.

How to Cross that Bridge When You Come to It:

Golden Gate Bridge

In Your Own Car
The good news: You no longer need to stop at a toll booth.

The bad news: You still have to pay a toll for crossing southbound to San Francisco. You just don’t have to stop. It will be charged to you via your license plate with the new Pay-by-Plate program. (Convenient or creepy? You decide!) Currently, the toll is $7 for most cars, but check goldengatebridge.org for rates.

In a Rental Car
Since tolls are now collected via license plate and not on-site, make arrangements with your car rental company before you go.

Without a Car
You can walk the mile-and-a-half(ish) distance or take a (non-electric) bike or scooter during certain hours, as long as you stay on the sidewalk. Animals aren’t allowed, except, of course, for service animals. This is not the place to walk your chihuahua. His tiny little legs probably couldn’t make it that far anyway.

A few places I’ve enjoyed the view…

Baker Beach
Coit Tower (it’s in the distance of the photo above)
Marin County (a.k.a. the other side of the bridge)

Bay Bridge

The Bay Bridge now only accepts cash or FasTrak – no credit cards! The toll varies by time of day, currently $4-6. You don’t have to have exact change (although that’s quicker), but you do need to request a receipt if you want one.

Art
In addition to sculptures along the nearby Embarcadero, the bridge itself has become part of a giant art installation. 25,000 LED lights covering Bay Bridge cables twinkle in constantly-changing patterns. You can see The Bay Lights through 2015, although there’s an effort underway to keep them lit for another decade. If you can’t make it to San Francisco, there’s also a livestream every night.

A few places I’ve enjoyed the view…

The Embarcadero
Coit Tower
Oakland

What bridge(s) do you love? Where do you go for a good view?

A big thank you to local experts Julie, Matt, Isaiah, and Allie (whose new project is the San Francisco magazine Friendly Strangers)!

July 30, 2014

Tips for packing shoes

When I was repacking my suitcase to return home from my SeaSFBlog trip, I remembered seeing this trick of putting your shoes in a shower cap to keep the dirty soles off your clothes. I’ve never used a shower cap for my hair, so there was still one boxed up on the hotel bathroom counter that I could try out.

Before, I had just thrown my shoes in a plastic shopping bag, which ends up being this unwieldy, crinkly blob taking over a corner of your suitcase. The shower cap’s elastic edges made it fit snugly over my flats. There was room for a pair of wedges, as well. Then I got greedy and tried to add a pair of ankle boots, and the shower cap tore. So those went back into my shopping bag blob. The tear was small enough I could still use my shower cap, and now I’ve learned its limits. In the future, I’ll pack fewer shoes – or more shower caps.

Somewhere I read that the TSA recommended packing shoes around the edges of your bag, so they don’t block the x-ray or because terrorists pack shoes in the middle or something. (Although now it looks like they’re recommending packing them on top. Seriously, who can keep up with the TSA?!)

I also try to pack shoes and anything heavy in what will be the bottom half of my suitcase when it’s standing upright, so it’ll be more stable. Really, though, it usually ends up top heavy and constantly tipping over. On the occasions I manage to pack so it can stay up unassisted, I feel like the queen of the world!

The other shoe packing tip I see a lot is to pack smaller items inside of shoes. When it comes down to it, there are not a lot of things I want to put inside cavities made for holding feet. Socks maybe. But how short on space do you have to be to think it’s a good idea to pack your toothbrush inside your shoes? Am I the only one who’s not on board with stashing a few granola bars in your ballet slippers?

I’d love to hear your method for packing shoes and whether you ever pack anything inside them!