Pikes Place for Kids Seatle

Well we went in Dec to go see Pikes place in Seatle while we waited for our flight we loved it with a few downers if your taking kids.

On the highway strip near the airport there are a lot of hotels that you can rent all of them you will hear the planes just a fact of life people. We stayed at Best Western was really nice and clean make sure not to get near icemachines too loud!

Daves place great place to eat on that strip, had good fish and chips dont eat the steak there they dont know how to make a good steak like Texas can hahaha...also verrazanos http://www.verrazanos.com/ great italian restaurant that had seafood a bit pricy but all italian restaurants can be pricey. It was worth it.

They have restaurant at hotel but we went to IHOP instead less crowded then Dennies down the way and the service was grand!

Hotel was near bus line if you wanted to use bus, word of caution make sure to come back in winter before 4:30pm it gets really dark fast. Rained most the night and morning but luckily by the time we went to Pikes place it had stopped.

We went to space needle..cost for family of 4 over $56 wow..daughter got really sick going up..word of advice if your afraid of heights make sure your not near the glass window going up in elevator it scared both of us.

Husband and son loved it took me awhile to let go of rail near building kept feeling I was tilting towards the other rail awful feeling.

Went to Children museum that was a waste for us kids are too big for it. If you have a kid older then 8yrs they will be really bored worse if you have a teenager. This is for really little kids they will have a blast.

We took monarail that is right near Space needle downtown towards Pikes place, Make sure to put your round trip tickets someplace you can find it later. It was fun.

It dropped us in a really nice mall we went down a few flights and hit the streets. Pikes place was 4 blocks down and I mean down. As soon as we hit the street my mom alert hit full force. You know what I mean the mom alert saying there is too many people, around that you can't vouch for.... that look suspious, the mom alert that makes you grab your kids hands and look where your older kids are at telling them to keep close. The mom alert that makes you stop smiling and put on a If you get near my kids I will bite your head off face expression" :)

Maybe if your from a city you are used to it but coming from a small town and living out in country I felt it full force. So anyways making sure Tommy had my hand and Randy was close to her dad we traveled downwards looking for a fish diner to eat. There was tons everywhere! Just a warning a lot of diners around Wash have bars in it too its just the fact of life down that way I noticed.

I found one couldnt remember the name of it If I find the receit I will write it down they had the best clam chowder I had yet in Wash state very friendly service, great fish! Oh and the deserts! all and every kind of culture you can think of is there at Pikes place, russian, french, american, chinese etc...try something different its a blast to your taste buds I even carried one with me to take on plane :)

The markets were great! The freshiest stuff I have ever seen in a long time, veggies, fruits, fish and even pasta. Even the fish they will pack it for you and put in container to take with you on the plane! Good for two days!

We loved all the shops looking out to the sea

Word of advice with kids you might want to explain to them.

Pikes place is full of homeless people, you can see them and not to be mean here but you sometimes can even smell some of them. This is just a warning so you can explain some facts of life to the kids. DO NOT let them use public bathrooms unless an adult goes with them even then you DONT want to do this. If your eating down there like at Seatles coffee shop or smaller restaurants ask to use their bathrooms instead.

The public bathroom my husband said had homeless people living in the stalls. I didnt check out the females probably the same thing. Some parts of the Pikes place was too scary and no one really down there that got my mom alert up again. I never saw any cops down there just outside on horses watch where you go or you might end up all alone.

On the up side there was a lot of talented homeless people playing guitar for money, playing all kinds of instruments, one man had two cats out on the sidewalk they both had sweaters on he said he was collecting for a cat society but you kind of know better. The cats were sweet he let my kids pet them one had two extra toes on her. We left him some money and had always some to give to the musicians.

Ok we left it was almost getting dark we didnt watch the time bad thing in seatle during winter it gets dark at 4:30pm. We rushed back to parking lot in this car garage was really scary I didnt see guards just female attendent. Make sure to take ticket with you so you can punch it in when you come back walking works different there then here in San Antonio where you pay as you drive out.

Thats about it. The hotel had a shuttle but our Enterprise where we rented was just down the street and they had their own shuttle. By the way we rented a SUV and it had automatic heated seats talk about pleasure in 40' weather hahaha. Look for hotels and car rentals during the day not at night because prices rise at night people are desperate and they know this!

Had a good time will love to go again at Pikes place

Sam