Seattle

I decided to arrange a trip to visit my aunt and uncle who live in Seattle. This later developed into a two-week trip to include Vancouver. I was pleasantly surprised at how accessible both Seattle and Vancouver are compared to other places I visited.there was however, a huge amount of planning and a lot of help from my family.


We flew with British Airways. I'm pretty familiar with flying now and at the time of booking booked a "bulkhead seat" this means there's plenty of room in front of me so I can lean forwards to take the pressure off my bottom from time to time. I will write a separate post about flying with the wheelchair as it can be quite palaver!as is sometimes the case, the groundstaff at Seattle didn't realise I needed my power wheelchair at the door of the plane so it took an extra hour or so sitting on the plane waiting for them to bring that the door. I had explained to the staff at Heathrow that I needed that the message doesn't always get through.

After the long flight we were collected by my aunt and drove to the apartment that we had rented. We rented a wheelchair accessible van which was an absolute must to get about in Seattle.Unfortunately, and we can laugh about it now, on arrival at the hotel we realised we had left our passports at the airport in all messing around with going through customs and sorting wheelchairs as well as being tired. Thankfully my boyfriend and uncle went back to the airport and were able to find them but it wasn't particularly funny at the time!

We stayed at Larkspur Landing in Bellevue principally because it was close to my aunt and we had transport. They ran a shuttle service to the bus station but unfortunately it wasn't wheelchair accessible. The suite/apartment however met all my needs and had plenty of room for the powered wheelchair to get around. I also took my manual wheelchair as a backup and it doubled up as a shower chair. There was also a wet room but we had to stipulate at the time of booking whether we wanted a level access shower or a tub(more commonly known as the bath!).They had basic cooking facilities and also offered an inclusive "healthy/lightweight" breakfast as well as unlimited tea and coffee which was great the value compared to some of the other hotels we had looked at.

I'd been to the states before and had to buy a new wheelchair charger as they use a different voltage so check with your wheelchair manufacturer whether your charger work in the states.

ATTRACTIONS VISITED:

1.Crystal Mountain

                        

This is a ski resort in the winter, but has some fantastic views. Which got the cable car up to the top. It was really easy getting into the gondola is a stop to all so that I could get in easily.

It works slightly different in the UK as you would usually get a free or at least discounted carer ticket which isn't the case in most of the attractions with visited.


A short journey and we are at the top, the views were certainly worth it.we had a lovely lunch at the top of the mountain taking the views of Mount Rainier and learning about how you should tip America! Find out more about Crystal Mountain here.

2. Pike Place market

Crazy busy on Saturday but well worth a visit.it was all very accessible if you don't mind running over some toes!

There were hundreds of stores ranging from a craft market, fresh fruit and vegetables from local farmers, fish(including fish throwers), bakeries butchers and speciality food stores. So much to see and taste. 

There is also a wall of art made up entirely of chewing gum!pretty gross but well worth seeing.

3.American Diner Breakfast

I had to sample a typical American breakfast pancakes bacon and maple syrup! All of the restaurants we tried had wheelchair access throughout the trip in Seattle which was great and a refreshing change from being in the UK..

4.Tour of Seattle Seahawks American Football Stadium

I knew nothing about American football, but my boyfriend was really keen to have a look at the stadium. The entire tour was totally accessible and I was surprised at how interested I was! I was relieved however that was no match on has apparently they go one for five hours due to all the commercial breaks.

    
 

5.Chittenden Locks

This was really interesting, and well worth a visit particularly as it is free! They have built a fish ladder for the salmon to move from Lake Washington to Puget Sound. Salmon and steelhead hatch and partially grow up in rivers and streams. They then journey to the sea, spending most of their adult lives. Near the end of their life cycle, the few surviving salmon journey back to spawn in the streams where they were hatched years before.When they built the locks they had to incorporate the fish ladder so that the salmon could return to the streams that they were hatched-Puget Sound.We visited in early August and the salmon were just starting to climb the ladder but late August is the best time to visit. For more information click here chittenden locks

5.Snoqualmie Falls

These were beautiful waterfalls, approximately half an hour drive from where we were. They had had a really dry summer so the falls weren't as spectacular as they apparently usually are. All of the viewing platforms were wheelchair accessible however, I couldn't do the walk down to the bottom at the power plant due to the steep and and uneven  hill. I try most things but was skidding halfway down on the gravel. At this point we decided to give up and I had to get pushed up with the help of strangers. The falls themselves are very pretty and again it was free entry. On a separate day I tried going for a walk/wheel with a picnic that promised to have good views of the falls. Unfortunately when we got the viewing area, all we saw was trees but we had a good picnic! The cycle trails were really easy for me to roll along.

6.Boat trip to Tillicum Village to learn about native Americans

This was very much tourist attraction, but good fun nonetheless. We paid for a boat trip of approximately 40 min which took in some good views of Seattle. The boat was accessible however it didn't have an accessible bathroom and I only had access to downstairs. On arrival at the village there was a gravel pathway which I needed a bit of a push on. It turned out that the gravel was actually crashed clamshells which we had as a starter and then had fun rolling over and stamping on to add to the pathway. We had salmon cooked in a traditional manner and some entertainment and education about Native Americans. The journey home allowed us to see the sunset over Seattle which was beautiful.

7.Space Needle and Chihuly  Glass

The space needle is the iconic structure of Seattle and gave some great views from the top. We booked this online as it was slightly cheaper and bought a combined ticket with Chihuly glass. We went early in the morning again because it was cheaper but there are a lot less crowds. By 11 o'clock the queues are enormous. The lift took us right to the top however a powered wheelchair was not able to access the outside section at the top which was disappointing. Apparently manual wheelchairs can but they were concerned about the weight limit on the lift with powered chairs. They do offer a 15%discount for wheelchair users but you have to buy the tickets at the gate and we didn't want to queue particularly as we got a  discount by booking online.

We then spent some time in a nearby park which had this awesome water fountain that was time to music. I could have gone right into the fountain as it was totally accessible but I know electric wheelchair and water doesn`t turn out so good!

Chihuly glass was something we hadn't expected to be quite as amazing as it was. When it was mentioned that we would look at glass sculptures, neither of us quite knew what to expect. We spent around two hours walking round this exhibition. I was very careful with my chair not to damage anything! There were boats and flower gardens made out of glass to name a few. Click here for a link to their website