We originally planned a family trip to Seattle in March 2020. Unfortunately, we had to cancel (for obvious reasons) but we re-booked and went last week. D and I had visited the Emerald City once before, pre-kids. It was fun to introduce the kids to the sights we had been to and experience new ones as well. I did my usual thorough travel-planning and we had a packed 6 days/5 nights. If you are considering a visit to Seattle, I highly recommend it!
Flying Alaska Airlines During Covid
I know some people are still weary about air travel right now, but I felt comfortable. We brought sanitizing wipes for the airplane seats and sprayed our hands with hand sanitizer often. All of our fellow passengers dutifully wore their masks, and the flight attendants reminded people to cover their noses.
I thought everything was going smoothly and our plane would take off on time. However, after waiting on the runway for a while, the pilot made an announcement that we had to turn around and go back to our gate. Our plane had been re-routed due to heavy air traffic so we needed a fill-up of more than 1,000 pounds of additional fuel! The whole process delayed us by about an hour. I felt sorry for the passengers who had a connecting flight.
We flew on Alaska Airlines and this was our snack.
k noted that the message on the napkin made a lot more sense than the message on the pamphlet (haha).
The snack mix on our way home included plane-shaped pretzels. Cute, right?
Seattle Light Rail
Instead of renting a car, we relied on public transportation and walking. Lots of walking.
Seattle’s light rail system took us straight from SEA-TAC airport to a block away from our hotel.
Courtyard Marriott Seattle Downtown/Pioneer Square
The Courtyard by Marriott Seattle Downtown/Pioneer Square proved to be an excellent home base for our exploration of the city. I really appreciated being able to walk to many attractions and that the light rail station was so close by. Shout out to Raul, who was at the front desk and checked us in. His enthusiastic love for the city was quite evident and welcoming.
I am not sure if it is because we had a corner unit, but our room was larger than I expected.
One thing that we were not prepared for during this Covid time was that housekeeping needed to be requested. D was able to do this easily by texting the front desk through the Marriott app. (He was also able to reserve the fitness room and the pool through the app which was very convenient). We just requested our basic needs: fresh towels, emptying of trash bins and coffee.
It is always nice to have a refrigerator and microwave. This coffee machine also received a lot of use even though we had plenty of coffee-drinking opportunities elsewhere.
I don’t think we ever heard any noise from other hotel guests during our entire stay. However, the noise from the streets (trash trucks, alarms, random yelling) was pretty loud at times. That’s life in the big city, I guess.
Our view wasn’t the greatest, but I kind of liked this window facing a brick wall. k said it had character. I ended up taking a lot of food pics here, as you will see in future posts. More to come…