Sunday was our last day in Seattle and I was excited to do the number one thing on my list besides Pike Place market; visit the Chihuly Garden and Glass.

Dale Chihuly is a famous glass artist whose works are displayed around the world. I’ve seen his pieces in various places before and went to a fantastic exhibition of his work at the RISD Museum in Providence several years ago. Seattle is Chihuly’s hometown and so at the base of Seattle’s most famous landmark, the Spaceneedle, sits the Chihuly Garden and Glass. It’s an interior museum and exhibition hall of Chihuly’s works with a beautiful garden filled with his glass art outside. It definitely live up to my expectations.

Indoor sculpture

Glass artwork ceiling

Reflection from glass art ceiling

Gardens

Since the Chihuly Garden and Glass was at the base of the Spaceneedle we bought a combo ticket that would also get us to the top of the Spaceneedle because why not? I highly recommend the Chihuly Glass and Gardens as you not only get to appreciate these beautiful glass pieces, you also learn about the process which is fascinating. I would not however, recommend the Spaceneedle. It was ok, but not worth the money. Also, neither Chris or I are particularly prone to motion sickness, but we both got really dizzy up there.

After the Gardens and Spaceneedle we were ready for a snack. We wanted to keep it light since we’d ate so poorly the day before and we planned on dinner at a gastropub that night. We headed back to Emmett Watson’s Oyster Bar in Pike Place and kept it simple. I ordered 6 oysters and 6 peal and eat shrimp while Chris ordered the smoked salmon Havarti and bread plate.  I still contend that East Coast oysters are more flavorful than West Coast oysters, but the shrimp were really delicious and it was a great snack.

With our bellies full, we stopped by Rachel’s Ginger Beer bar because I loved it so much and wanted another ginger concoction before I left. This time I had the El Diablo; ginger beer with cassis and tequila. Chris opted for the Montana Mule, a Moscow Mule made with whiskey instead of vodka. Both were delicious! I really hope Rachel’s Ginger Beer expands to New York.

Now that we were refreshed and slightly buzzed so we headed off to Pioneer Square, a neighborhood which I’d read about before visiting Seattle. The neighborhood was really cute, but we were disappointed that most of the stores were closed and the street were pretty empty. As New Yorkers, it’s hard for us to imagine store being closed on Sundays or, well, ever. Luckily we were still able to take the Pioneer Square Underground Tour.

Here’s the extremely abridged version of the tour, which we enjoyed. Pioneer Square was the first neighborhood where Seattle’s founder’s settled. In 1889 there was a fire that decimated the neighborhood. A new neighborhood was then built on top of the old one.

After another nice walk and discovering that a whole lot of Seattle shuts down on Sunday we headed to Quinn’s Pub for dinner. Funny enough my parents are planning a trip to Seattle next month. In my mom’s research on Seattle she stumbled on a mention of Quinn’s and thought it sounded like a place that Chris and I would love and she was right. Quinn’s is a cool gastropub with great food and fantastic craft beers.

We started out by splitting the soft pretzel with Welsh rarebit. The pretzel actually had more of the flavor and texture of a baguette, but it was still super delish because really, who doesn’t love a baguette. The Welsh rarebit dipping sauce was amazing. After we finished the pretzel I may have dipped my fork straight in to the sauce and licked it off a couple of times.

For our main courses Chris ordered the burger and I went with the fish and chips. Both were delicious. Chris’s burger was perfectly cooked, juicy and packed with flavor. My fish and chips were wonderfully season, the fish was fresh and the coating was light and crisp and not at all greasy. The fries were great too.

For dessert we split the ginger and jalapeno sorbet which I forgot to take a picture of. It was really tasty and super refreshing though it  could’ve used a bit more kick from the jalapeno.

Our flight to Denver was at 7am the next morning so after dinner we grabbed our bags from the hotel where we had been staying, checked in to an airport hotel for the night and went to bed.

Chris and I both agreed that Seattle was a cool city with a great vibe, but our time there was so short and we were both exhausted the whole time; he from his flight delays and then not adjusting to the time difference and me from just coming off of a work conference. Since we liked the city so much though, we’re already thinking about a Pacific Northwest vacation in the future where we’d hit up Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. I can’t wait!

Have you ever been to Portland or Vancouver? Did you enjoy those cities?