If you missed my first 3 posts from our Pacific Northwest trip, here’s the links to those:
– Pacific NW Trip: Quinault Rainforest to Olympic National Park
– Pacific NW Trip: Seattle Mariners Game and the Waterfront
– Pacific Northwest Trip: Sightseeing in Seattle
We took the hotel shuttle to the Seattle Center, where we stopped the day before, but Alex wanted to play on the playground some more.
As I mentioned in my last post, the Seattle Center is a really interesting place. The playground is like nothing I’ve seen before. On one side is the colorful and oddly shaped MoPOP on one side with the Space Needle lurking from above on the other side. Just around the corner is the Chihuly Garden and Glass, which is on my list for the next trip to Seattle.
For lunch, we ended up at the Armory, which has a food court. We ate at the Blue Water Grill.
Here’s the Space Needle from a different angel. Here I’m standing in a grassy area with a stage and of course the Space Needle in the background. Just about 100 yards away is the very eye-catching entrance to the Pacific Science Center.
I had noticed on Google Maps that there was a fountain nearby, so we headed that direction. This is the International Fountain. Unfortunately while we were there, it was under repair.
Here you can see a maintenance guy on the phone with someone. Some water started to flow, but just enough for it to roll off.
After that I gave my phone to Alex and told him to map us to the Amazon Go Store. From the fountain, it was about a mile. We passed lots of construction, but in a big city like that they have covered walkways to ensure safety. I loved this Car Wash sign.
Before you go to the Amazon store, you need to download the app. You open the app and pull up a QR code, scan yourself in along with any people that are shopping with you. You need to bring your own shopping bags, or you can purchase a bag there for 99 cents, which we did because we didn’t have a bag. This gave me the idea of collecting these as a cheap souvenir.
The Amazon Go Store is no bigger that a gas station convenient store at about 1800 square feet. They have lots of pre-gathered meals that you can easily take home and cook as well as pretty much anything else you find a regular grocery store. Some sections have more variety than others. Alex and I picked up a couple snacks and then headed out. You leave through the gates. No lines, no wait. Just leave. The system sees you are no longer in the store. It sees what is going out with you and then you get an email receipt within about an hour of leaving. Just such a cool concept! I believe there are now a total of 13 Amazon Go Stores in Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, and New York City.
After leaving there, just around the corner are the Spheres. They are part of Amazon’s Seattle headquarters campus, which houses the employee lounge and workspace. We didn’t go in because my initial research told me it was only open to the public by tour certain days of the week.
We sat near the entrance of the office building which is just across from the Spheres. We sat overlooking a dog park area. Apparently, Amazon employees are allowed to bring dogs to work, so the employees have to take breaks throughout the day to take their dogs out.
Here’s a picture as Alex and I walked from the Amazon Go Store towards the Spheres. They were having a market so that’s why there’s tents set up.
Interesting art we passed by on our way back to catch the hotel shuttle.
That evening we met up with Rob and his coworker. We ate dinner at Orange Chicken.
1411 NE 42nd St
Seattle, WA 98105
We had Rob’s coworker with us. The 3 of us enjoyed the Teriyaki Chicken. Alex had the Orange Chicken. It was good, but nothing to write home about.
After dinner, our next stop was the REI Flagship Store.
After that we were off to the Space Needle!
We were there at the perfect time. We had a little bit of daylight and then we had night.
This is such a cool picture of the reflection in the windows.
This is looking down on the top of the MoPop Museum.
Standing on the edge.
Beautiful night views
The Space Needle from our car.
To see more pics from this day click here>>>>Pacific NW 2019-Day 4 Pics
I highly recommend spending time in Seattle. My next travel post will be about Alex and my trip to Snowqualmie Falls and a riverboat trip on Lake Union and Salmon Bay.