The View from Above: The Sky View Observatory in the Columbia Tower

The natural beauty of the Puget Sound and the surrounding mountains is undeniable. It's part of what makes Seattle, Seattle and there are some things that just never get old, like seeing Mt. Rainier in the morning light. We are also a hilly city, which means that there are many vantage points where you can see the city and the surrounding landscape. Kerry Park (below) is home to one of the most iconic images of Seattle, as one example.

More recently, man made vantage points have given a new look at the region. The most well known is, obviously, the Space Needle and the views from there are, indeed, spectacular. However, there are other options like the Smith Tower and, in particular, the newly remodeled Sky View Observatory in the Columbia Center to consider.

This observation deck provides the highest public observation deck on the west coast (and west of the Mississippi) and the new enhancements make it a much more tourist friendly visit than before. It now offers a full 360 degree view around Seattle and there is more information for people who want to know what they are seeing. The down side is that prices went up: Regular tickets are now $12.50 a person ($9 for students, military, and seniors).

Not feeling like spending the money, but you are in the area anyways? The Columbia Tower also has what is known as "skybucks": A Starbucks located on the skylobby level of the building (floor 40). The view is not the same, but it is the cheapest way to enjoy a view from above inside of the downtown core of buildings.

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival: Holland or the Pacific Northwest?

Spring is always one of my top seasons for Seattle. The city feels fresh, the UW cherry trees stand in bloom, and the weather is hinting at the warmth of summer to come. On top of all of the flowers and trees in the city, we also have the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon. It is about an hour and a half to the north and offers a taste of what Holland is like around this time.

If you are planning on heading up, the time is almost right. The fields are in the process of blooming and should be at full bloom within the next couple of weens (4/12 to 4/20). Right now, there are more than enough to be surrounded by flowers and for them to be a sight to see, but in a week or two it will be overwhelming. It really is quite pretty and for $5 (including parking), this is a pretty inexpensive excursion.

For more information, click here to check out their website and here to see a map of the fields that are currently in bloom!

After the break, nine more pictures of the fields and flowers! Click just below to see the rest!

Touring while Local: Chihuly Garden and Glass

Dale Chihuly is widely known as being a master of squiggly glass sculptures. While today he is not directly involved in the production of the glass that he is known for (He considers himself more of a "director"), the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the Seattle Center contains the bulk of his corpus of work. If you are a fan of Chihuly, this is your place.*

The price to get in is $19, which is a buck more than going up the Space Needle. There are combo passes available that make it slightly cheaper to do both ($33 for both. If you are coming all the way to Seattle and doing the tourist sites, how could you not do the Space Needle?). King County residents get in for the low, low price of $15 per person (and they didn't even check our IDs to confirm it). Once inside, there is about an hour plus of things to see, perhaps a little more if you become absorbed into the artwork.

I can definitely see how much of this was groundbreaking and experimental when it was first coming out and becoming popular. There are plenty of vivid colors and shapes that come together to create the scenes and the larger sculptures are impressive from a technical standpoint: There are hundreds of pieces suspended from a metal "skeleton" and each time it is moved to a new location, the exact shape and composition of the sculpture changes. On the other hand, it does feel a little like his work is pretty mainstream now and the video at the end of him "directing" feels a little ludicrous: 15 minutes of someone telling a team of minions "No, move it three inches to the left" is supposed to be mind altering art? At times the museum comes off as a little too pretentious. As if anything done by Chihuly is automatically the highest example of art that you have ever had the honor of witnessing.

Being from Seattle, I think that there is a bit of Chihuly burnout. We have had his stuff all over Seattle and the region for years, but for many people this may be their first time seeing it. It IS impressive and many people who visit Seattle visit the museum rate it very highly. In fact, right now this is the number one attraction in Seattle on TripAdvisor.

*If you like glass in general and would like to see a broader collection, you may also consider the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. While there, there is also the new LeMay Car Museum and the Tacoma Museum of Art. 

Touring while Local: Argosy Locks Cruise

Seattle is a city permeated with water. There is the Puget Sound to the west, Lake Union in the middle, and Lake Washington to the East, all of which are connected by cuts and canals. Before highways, planes, and trains the water was the way to get around the Puget Sound. At one time, Seattle was a hub for a mosquito fleet that could take you anywhere around the Sound. While those days are gone, Seattle's maritime tradition and natural beauty remain an asset to the city.

Getting on to the water is a great way to see Seattle from a different angle. I've written about the half-hour excursion to Bainbridge Island several times before (here, here, here, and here), but another popular way to get on the water in Seattle is provided by Argosy Cruises. As part of my effort to tour while local, I tried out their Lake Union and Ballard Locks Cruise.

The tour starts out on the waterfront. This is the main dock for Argosy cruises and most cruises leave from here. However, this particular one starts out with a short bus ride from the waterfront to Lake Union. Once there, you board near Kenmore Air just across from the Museum of History and Industry. In the photo above, you can also see the Virginia V which is one of the last remaining mosquito fleet steamers.

The tour takes you from Lake Union, by the houseboat from Sleepless in Seattle, under the Fremont bridge, past the Alaskan fishing boats, through the Ballard Locks, and finally out into the Sound to come back to the waterfront. All the while, staff gives the story of that things that are sailing past you.

Once past fisherman's wharf, it is off to the Ballard Locks. The Locks, a piece of infrastructure, are actually one of the top tourist destinations for the city (number 15 on TripAdvisor) and the cruise is a unique way to experience it. In order to leave the lake and go into the Puget Sound, the boat must go through the Locks. Completed in 1917, the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks as they are officially know allow boats to traverse the 20+ foot sea level difference between the lake and the Sound.

Once outside of the Ballard Locks, you are on the Puget Sound where you will round Magnolia and head into Elliot Bay to the waterfront. On a clear day, the sound will give beautiful views of the Olympic Mountains, Mt. Rainier, and the city itself. Mt. Rainier in particular seems to loom larger than usual from right around the tip of Magnolia. Coming closer, you'll get excellent views of the Space Needle and the cityscape when you draw near to the docks and the end of the tour.

This particular tour goes for $41. If you are visiting and looking to save some money, Washington State ferries provide another way to get on the water. At $8 per person on foot round trip (there is no fare headed west for foot passengers), it doesn't show off the city to the same degree but does lend itself to afternoon trips to Bainbridge Island. A middle option that still offers a guided tour with less cost and time commitment is the harbor cruise that Argosy offers for $24 a person. It is their most popular tour and you still get the views of the mountain, sound, and city. Either way, seeing the city from the water is sure to give a unique perspective on the city and be a fun afternoon.

Touring while Local: Tour de Chocolate with the Chocolate Box

The Northwest has gone through a boom in all things sugar related: Cupcakes, ice cream, macarons, and, yes, chocolate. In one of my previous posts, I called out Indi Chocolate as a great new addition to the Pike Place Market, but just outside of the market itself is another haven for chocolate: The Chocolate Box.

In addition to being a shop featuring Northwest chocolates (and wine), the Chocolate Box also offers tours featuring the favorite confection. In my case, I went on the Tour de Chocolate, one of their most popular options. It features a hands on (literally) chocolate making course, drinking chocolate, a "Cocoa 101" short course on the origins of chocolate, and a chauffeured trip and tour of the Theo Chocolate factory in Fremont (complete with lots of samples). It was two and a half hours of guided chocolate tasting, viewing, and making all starting from a convenient location next to the Market. For visitors tight on time and with love of chocolate, this is a good way to taste some of the local chocolates and visit Theo chocolate without the hassle of a bus or renting a car.

The tour starts out at the shop where the owner, the knowledgeable and passionate Michel Brotman (seen above with his wife and fellow chocolate lover, Valerie), provides everyone with a taste of drinking chocolate and leads a 15-20 minute discussion on chocolate and the origins of chocolate, the cocoa plant. You'll get a feel of the process of making chocolate from fruit to bean before heading off to see one of Seattle's best known chocolate factories.

If you have never heard of Theo Chocolate... they're good. Really good. This part of the tour is similar to the regular factory tour offered by Theo, but does give a behind the scenes look at a gourmet, fair trade, bean-to-bar production line. Led by the experts from Theo, you work your way through all of the different stages of making their chocolate bars until you get to... the gift shop, which features samples of everything. My personal favorites are fig, fennel, and almond and vanilla nib (which may be limited time). For the more adventurous, there is also coconut curry and spicy chili chocolate! I haven't seen a curry chocolate bar anywhere else, so this is a must try (although maybe not a must buy).

Once the tour is over, we head back to the Chocolate Box for the hands-on part of the tour. Every tour ends with you going home with a bar of chocolate, but the twist is that you make your own. There are tons of toppings to choose from to come up with your own style of chocolate bar. You also get to temper your own chocolate by hand, resulting in a tour full of messy hands. Then again, everyone secretly wants to do this, right? How often are you encouraged to get your hands covered in chocolate and then not to waste any of the chocolate?

Overall, the tour is great fun for a chocolate lover and a very convenient way to see Theo Chocolate. For visitors who don't want to deal with the hassle of a car or the bus, getting to Fremont can be a bit of a detour but the transfer included with the tour can make that an easy and enjoyable side trip. In particular, the hands on activities are great for couples and kids (On our tour we had an aspiring chef who looked to be about 10 who was very interested in the whole process).

If you keep an eye out for deals and have a little luck, you can also score a deal on a tour with the Chocolate Box. Deals have been known to pop up online and most recently, the chocolate and wine tour was featured as a killer deal on HowAboutWe.com (which is a website offering deals on dates for couples). Alternatively, you can book a private tour for $299 for up to 10 people, giving you half off per person if you fill it up.

That's it for now! You can find out more about the Chocolate Box and the tours they offer on their website here.

Touring while Local: Savor Seattle's Pike Place Market Tour

The Pike Place Market is one of my favorite places in Seattle. It has that particular quality of place that brings it to life and offers a place where different worlds meet. As a visitor, you might be there to see it as a sight, while as a local you might be there for ingredients for dinner or the well known $10 bouquets. The ability of the market to be at once an authentic local destination and a feast for the senses for the visitor to get lost in is what makes the Market so wonderful.

Of course, if you don't live here the Market is a lot to take in: Three levels, lots of hidden nooks, hundreds of things to try, and plenty to explore. That can be overwhelming. On top of that, it would take multiple trips to the market to try the best of the best and weed out the places you don't like as much. It is work. Fun work, but work nonetheless. That's where Savor Seattle steps in: Their two hour tour of the market is well researched, includes a blend of history, sometimes cheesy jokes, and a selection of some of the places that I would pick out myself to show visitors. 

Oh, and one lucky person gets to catch a fish that is thrown at them by professional fish throwers (That guy with the fish flying towards him in the picture below was on the tour, not one of the fish guys).

The tour incorporates some of the best spots and gives you a bite of each: A donut or two at the Daily Dozen; A mini-cup of clam chowder and seafood bisque at Pike Place Chowder; A crabcakelette from Tom Douglas' Etta's; Piroshky from Piroshky Piroshky (and more). These are all great places to try and what is on their list is likely on yours (or will be once you start looking into it). You won't walk away hungry.

On top of the selection and the great personalities of the guides, there is one other big reason to consider the tour: Being part of Savor Seattle means that you skip the lines. Instead of waiting for a half hour in line to get a cup of chowder, it comes out to you. Piroshky Piroshky is also well known for having huge lines which are completely negated by the tour. The tour moves at a good clip and is a very efficient use of time. Less time in lines means more time exploring. One thing to note is that the morning and afternoon tours have one minor change in the schedule: Instead of Chukar Cherries and Piroshky Piroshky (which is on the morning tour), the afternoon tour visits BB Ranch for a little charcuterie and then to Pear for a taste of one of their sandwiches. 

If you look on TripAdvisor and Yelp, you'll see that these guys have a near perfect rating. Those types of scores just don't happen (especially when there are thousands of reviews). In this case, they deserve it for making some of the best of the Market accessible for visitors and the touring local alike. More information on Savor Seattle can be found on their website: http://www.savorseattletours.com/tours/pikeplacemarket/

After the break, more photos from the tour and from the Pike Place Market!

Touring while Local: The Seattle Tour Series

The Seattle that I see is usually quite different from what a visitor sees while staying in Seattle. As a local, I have a deep rooted knowledge of the area and it is usually only when a friend from out of town is visiting that I get the opportunity to experience a local tour. It's the paradox of being a local: When there is always the possibility of seeing one of the local attractions, then you tend to put it off until another day. As a result, sometimes visitors see things in your own city that you haven't seen or that you haven't done in awhile.

Of course, there are things that I do regularly here. I love the Pike Place Market. I visit at least once or twice a month and this year nearly all of my Christmas presents came from there. Riding the ferry to Bainbridge Island has an importance to me that goes beyond just the ride. Viewing the cherry trees in bloom on the quad is an annual tradition. These are all some of the things that make me love Seattle and living here. However, recently I have decided to take a look at some of our local tours and to see Seattle as others see it. So, for the next month or so, I will be touring while local.

We will take a look at Savor Seattle's Pike Place Market Tour, The Chocolate Box's Tour de Chocolate, and Argosy Cruise's Locks Tour (to start). Join me as we take a look around town through tours!