<p>Hoping there might be some Seattle folks here with suggestions.</p>
<p>S1 finished his ROTC training at Fort Lewis and heads home tonight. He will have a few hours (5 or 6 ?) between leaving the base and the time his flight leaves from Seattle airport.</p>
<p>Probably a crazy question, but is there any place, any area of Seattle that he could tour fairly quickly to get a small taste of the city? It would be late afternoon and evening. He’s hoping to check his gear at the airport and get a cab into the city. Probably a lot of traffic on the weekend, but he’d love to see at least a bit of it–</p>
<p>When I visit Seattle (great city) I like to walk around Pike Place Market and then stroll south towards the Pioneer Square/Elliot Bay Bookstore area. I think its around a mile between the 2 areas.</p>
<p>One last question - he has two huge packs of army stuff that he couldn’t possibly carry around. Do airports have anyplace where you can check bags hours ahead of time? I’m guessing that might be troublesome - for security reasons…</p>
<p>lspf - can he call the airline and ask if he can check his luggage earlier? Or he can try this service (as linked on the official Seatac website in the cruise ship FAQ section):</p>
<p>Light Rail from the airport to the center of downtown is a very quick and effcient way to get between the two places. It costs $2.50 and takes about 40-45 min one way, and the final destination is smack in the middle of downtown in the bus tunnel under the Westlake Center/Flagship Nordstrom Store. You son can explore Pike place Market from there and the rest of the downtown, then go back into the tunnel, board the train and end up at Seatac.</p>
<p>If he only has 5 hours, it might be hard for him to see much. He needs to budget at least 1 hr for travel from Fort Lewis and he needs to be back at the airport one hour prior to his flight’s departure to pass through the security checkpoints and such.</p>
<p>The new train from SeaTac works very nicely for getting to downtown.</p>
<p>If he’d prefer to stay near the airport, the Southcenter Mall is nice. It has a Cheesecake Factory, Rainforest Cafe, etc. and is an easy taxi ride from the airport. Not really all that authentic Seattle, but it’s a decent place to kill time.</p>
<p>This might be a dumb question, but would your son be eligible to use USO facilities? They might have some kind of bag storage…</p>
<p>BunsenBurner - I was just getting ready to call the airport when he called–
Noimaginationmust have ESP–
He and a few others left their bags at the USO and are right now headed into the city on the train.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your suggestions, everyone!</p>
Im a little sad. I like the Pioneer Square area and loved Elliot Bay Bookstore it had that old book smell. But I can understand why they felt the need to move Seattle and especially that area has a lot of bums. </p>
<p>lspf72, I hope son and his friends enjoy Seattle.</p>
<p>I don’t think it was the panhandlers, I think it was the rent went way up- they didn’t own the building.</p>
<p>I liked Elliott Bay, but actually I like the Third Place Bookstores better ( owned by former Elliott Bay owner Ron Sher-) I like being able to find used books- Elliott Bay had very few or they were the same price practically as new- plus, some books are out of print and it is fun @ Powells or other bookstores to find them.</p>
<p>There is probably going to be a lot more foot traffic in it’s new location.</p>
<p>Hope they have a good time- they have gotten really good weather.</p>
But I can understand why they felt the need to move Seattle and especially that area has a lot of bums. </p>