Alrighty … here I go again with another travel series.

This is the long promised series on Seattle. During the school spring break last month, we decided that we make a short 5-day trip with the primary purpose of checking out a little bit of the food scene in Seattle.

Seattle is sometimes known as the emerald city in reference to the lush green evergreen trees around the area. In many ways, Seattle reminds me of Vancouver. The healthy people and especially the rainy climate are so similar. The big difference is that it the city is much bigger economically than Vancouver. It is after all the home to Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks, Amazon.com, and Costco to name a few.

There were almost no pre-planning done for this trip. I had been so busy at work these days, I had no real time for myself, let alone plan for vacation. So, this time, I depended almost entirely on the recommendations of the readers of chowtimes.

About a month before the trip, we left a posting on the blog asking for recommendations. The response were astounding to say the least. As a matter of fact, that posting was the SECOND most commented blog entry we had with 44 comments. So, I took some of the most interesting recommendations and updated it on a Google Spreadsheet above. So, in many respect, this trip would not had been so much fun if not for all your recommendations.

Direction-wise, we relied entirely on the GPS — no more paper maps to struggle with. Let me tell you this … the GPS is God-sent. I kid you not when I swear that the GPS is the single most important device for lowering divorce rates in the world.

He he he … you know how it is right? For some unknown reason, all females in the world are utterly hopeless in reading maps and telling direction. Guys, don’t you agree? [Ladies need not answer …]

Oh, also being a guy … well … I NEVER stop to ask for direction. It’s a guy thing … REAL guys never ask for directions. They just know the way to everywhere. it’s just that sometimes it takes longer than usual.

Oh yeah … one other cool thing. Being an occasional travel blogger, we asked for complimentary CityPasses. It’s amazing we got them and we are considered MEDIA. Cool, huh? It was cool until one place actually asked us for a Media ID and I had a hard time explaining that Suanne and I are travel bloggers.

With the CityPasses, we get entrances to 5 attractions in Seattle. That includes the following:

• Museum of Flight
• Seattle Harbor Cruise
• Seattle Aquarium
• Pacific Science Center
• Woodland Park Zoo

We had been to many of those places before but it was many many years ago. It was great to check them out again.

I really hope you will enjoy the next 2-3 weeks of our series to Seattle.