Trip planning.

[agilebrit]

The Hubby has 11 days off at the end of the month, so we're taking the Cessna up to Seattle for a week and then stopping in Kalispell, MT, for a few days on the way home.

Hotels there are expensive, y'all. I found one on Hotwire the other day for $64 a night, but the Hubby wasn't home and I wanted to ask him before I booked it, so I didn't, and then I went back to the site yesterday and the cheapest one was $93! EEP!

So, I toddled over to either Expedia or Travelocity (I get them mixed up), and they had the Sutton Suites Extended Stay for $77. Which was better, but still more than I wanted to pay. Because I am CHEAP, yo. So I toddled over to Sutton's actual website, and they had a weekly rate for $65 a night. YAY, sez I, and booked that puppy before it disappeared.

We got a rental car for an insanely inexpensive rate through Hertz, of all places; they usually charge the most. Not this time, especially with our AOPA discount. So, we have a room and a car.

Now I need to call the whale-watching place and get set up on a sunset tour. Done.

Right now our tentative schedule looks like this (with handy links):
Sat 21: Travel, landing at the Renton Airport
Sun 22: Zoo (either Seattle or Tacoma)
Mon 23: Boeing Museum of Flight
Tue 24: other zoo
Wed 25: Science Center, Science Fiction Museum, and Space Needle, which are all in close proximity to each other
Thu 26: whale watching at sunset with San Juan Safaris, along with a day on that island, after taking the 11:05 ferry
Fri 27: Aquarium, Harbor Tour
Sat 28: Travel to Kalispell
Sun 29, Mon 30: wander around Glacier Nat'l Park, balloon flight
Tue 31: Travel home

The CityPass gives us admission to the Aquarium, the Harbor Tour, the Museum of Flight, and the Science Center, along with the Woodland Park Zoo (which we already get into for free with our Hogle Zoo membership). It'll cost us $39.50 rather than $64.25 apiece for the Hubby and me, and $24 rather than $38 for Da Boy. That saves us over $60, so I call that a WIN.

And I just found the Seattle Metro Trip Planner, so we can take the bus downtown rather than trying to drive there and park, which is always a nightmare no matter what city you're in.

Mostly, this entry is for helping me keep track of where we're going, which day, with linkage, so I don't get confuzzled.

Now, I'm nearly positive that some of you live in that area...

Comments

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

You're coming to Seattle?!? Yay!!! If you have some free time, I'd love to get together at some point... maybe for dinner? We could either recommend a good restaurant or maybe even just whip up something for you here.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Ooo, a good local restaurant would be fabulous. We know about all the old reliable chains and stuff, but you local folks know the out-of-the-way places that we might not consider trying. :)

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

We can definitely come up with some good recommendations for that!

And I just found the Seattle Metro Trip Planner, so we can take the bus downtown rather than trying to drive there and park

I just had a moment to check out that link... I'd never been to that site before, but then I don't take the bus anywhere (I might start though, since getting into the city to go to Pike's Place in the middle of the week is a bit of a pain). After fiddling with it a bit, I have one big piece of advice... find the Park & Ride closest to where you'll be staying and do all of your lookups based off that.

I just checked for routes from our house to Pike Place Market... and it had me bouncing all over creation, with bus transfers galore (some of which departed only a minute after the previous bus's arrival) and it was going to take nearly two hours to get from here to there! But I noticed that the great big Park & Ride just a few blocks from my house wasn't mentioned anywhere in the itinerary. So, I plugged in the P&R address, and suddenly it's a straight shot with no transfers that will take 45 minutes -- in the middle of the day on a weekday, it normally takes me about 20-25 minutes by car, assuming no wonky traffic, so that's not too horrible a difference.

Moral of the story, their software kind of sucks, so do a bit of looking around first to find the best starting place. :-)

Oh, and the icon I'm using here is of the Fremont Troll... something else to go see while you're here, if you have the time. Heck, Fremont is something to be experienced, if you never have. They've elevated "quirky" to a high art form.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Me again! This time with a link the Fremont Chamber of Commerce with a rundown on some of the funky things you can see there!

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Apparently the bus to the Space Needle stops a couple of blocks from the hotel, so we can just walk there. And there's just one transfer. I think we're going to try doing that rather than hunting (and paying for!) parking downtown--and then see if we still want to take the bus to the harbor for the aquarium and harbor tour. I have no idea what the parking is like for that... *googles* Looks like you have to pay for it, and if we're going to be there all day and then do the harbor tour, the bus might be our best bet.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Hee! Maybe we'll do that the day we land. :) Thanks!