Our stay in Washington

We chose to stay in Washington at an RV site in Everett. Maple Grove RV Park was well-priced, had full hookups, and bathrooms. Upon arriving, we discovered it is located in an industrial area, which we weren't expecting. However, after our stay, I can say that you wouldn't know it as the park is very quiet, other than the odd plane flying over. The sites are quite tight, and we barely squeezed in our 39 ft Rig and full-size truck into our site. Our check-in was easy, and the staff are great. The park has security cameras that show most of the park and are monitored by the front desk staff. Overall, the park appeared clean and well-maintained and is located about a 50-minute drive to Seattle.

Our stay in Washington was short as we made it a pit stop on our our way down to the Oregon Coast, so we only got one day in Seattle. The drive was easy; however, finding parking for a full-size truck proved to be a challenge. There were tons of parkades, but none that our truck could fit under the height guidelines. After some circling around, we found a gem of a surface parking lot, which we'll share its location at the bottom of the post. It was super cheap to park all day at $20 and just a five-minute walk to Pike Place Market. The only other surface lot we came across, which was further away from Pike Place located down by the Ferris wheel and boardwalk, was $100 per day... CRAZY!!!

I'd recommend getting to town earlier as you'll find parking easier, as well as allowing you more time in the day to do more things.

We did Bill Speidel's underground tour, which we enjoyed http://www.undergroundtour.com/

The Ferris wheel - Here's a tip: if you go when there's little to no lineup, you get more time on the wheel. They told us we'd get three spins around the wheel, but we got 5 because there was no line waiting to get on, so they kept the Ferris wheel going until enough people lined up. We went on a Tuesday afternoon around 3:30 pm.

There are so many great places to eat and tons of seafood spots. We looked around Pike Place but didn't get there until the end of the day, and by 4 pm most of the vendors had packed up, so go earlier rather than later. What we missed, we'll get to see when we come back through in the Spring.

The city has a great walkability score, but be prepared for some uphill walks depending on what you plan to see. We put on about 8 km on our feet that day.

Onward to Oregon... thanks Seattle for the great visit.

Bill & Cat

As mentioned, we had a hard time finding a parkade that would fit our Ford F350. We did find this surface lot, and parking all day was $20.