Hemispheres Magazine

DAY THREE / Start your day off with room service; then take the town car to Seattle Asian Art Museum. The historical art deco building features a collection of Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian works of art. Explore the East, and then head to some of the best real estate in the city. The Olympic Sculpture Park opened a year ago on a former petroleum-distribution site that took 10 years to clean up. Start at the Western Avenue entrance and walk downhill along the Z-shaped path linking three land parcels. The art ranges from playful (huge eyeball chairs, a typewriter eraser) to earnest. Sit on the benches by the shore and take in the glittering artistry of the Puget Sound and the distant Olympic Mountains.

Lunch is served at Entre Nous, a friendly French tapas and fondue café, where owner and chef Stephane Ohayon uses recipes from his grandmother in Nice. Partake of the salade confetti—finely chopped fennel, bell peppers, baby spinach, pears, and Gouda tossed in lemon vinaigrette.

If you need a little something sweet, stop by the Chocolate Box on Pine Street between First and Second avenues on your way to Ummelina International Day Spa. The entrance to Ummelina is tucked in between City Kitchens and a Hallmark store. The spa is removed from the street, and the package treatments lure you even farther away. In The Equator, you start under a waterfall, then enter the steamy rain forest for a salt scrub and massage, continue on to the desert for a mud treatment, and end in a monsoon to wash away any remaining bit of stress. Afterward, lounge in the Tea Spa and sip herbal tea.

Eat an early dinner at Steelhead Diner in Pike Place Market. Note the museum-quality fishing lures tied by Pacific Northwest masters. Your appetizer must be the crab cakes with huge chunks of meat. For the main course, try kasu-marinated black cod with baby bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, and ginger salad, or simply order anything the servers recommend. Chef Kevin Davis creates exquisite, complex dishes that can leave you giddy from sensory overload. But keep some of your senses about you for dessert. Try the quadruple-layer chocolate cake with almonds and coconut ice cream or a dessert cocktail such as the oatmeal cookie cocktail or the chocolate pudding martini.

Dinner done, wander down to Emerald City Charters at Pier 54 for a 2.5-hour sail around Elliott Bay. The two high-performance, 70-foot sloops offer views of Seattle’s skyline and summer’s late sunsets.

Goodbyes are hard. Prolong yours from the observation deck of the city’s odd Space Needle. Here you can relive your three perfect days as you walk around the perimeter and look at the city below you. Rest your eyes on Elliott Bay, where just a little while before you were skimming across the water and planning your next trip to Seattle.

Lisa K. Fann is HEMISPHERES’ Seattle-based contributing editor.

Seattle Weather

Seattle’s gray, wet reputation takes a summer vacation when the polar jet stream, responsible for the Pacific Northwest’s soggy winter season, heads north. Plentiful sunshine and pleasant temperatures are the rewards. Temperatures range from the 50s in the morning to the 70s in the late afternoon. July is both the sunniest and driest month of the year. The Pacific storm track returns in earnest late in the fall, delivering bouts of rain and wind.

The Weather Channel

Weather information is provided by The Weather Channel. For more Seattle climatological details, visit weather.com.

Getting Around

Forgo a rental car; nothing is very far away, and there are several public-transportation options for when your feet fail you. The commercial core of the city—bounded by the waterfront and Interstate 5 to the west and east, by Jackson Street to the south, and by Battery Street to the north— is a free-ride zone on the bus. The Waterfront Streetcar runs, predictably, along the waterfront, and the monorail runs from the shopping district to Seattle Center.

Seattle for Kids

A Center for Wooden Boats (cwb.org) A hands-on maritime heritage museum.
B Twisted Flicks (twistedflicks.com) Standup comedians improvise dialogue to cheesy “B” movies.
C Carkeek Park (seattle. gov/parks/environment/carkeek.htm) Trails, a playground, the beach, and views of passing trains.
D Seattle Aquarium (seattleaquarium.org) Sea otters and other wildlife and an underwater dome.

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