New United Club at Seattle International Airport

Last week, I had a chance to visit the new United Club lounge in Seattle International Airport (using those complimentary one-day passes from the Chase United card) for a 4-hour layover. Although this was my first time to an airline club lounge, my expectations weren't high as this was a US lounge so I wasn't expecting too much.

My initial impressions were not great heading to the lounge as it is located near gate A9 which was a decent walk even from the center of the terminal. It would have been much more convenient for passengers had they found a more central location in the airport (say near A1 for instance) as the airport has very few moving walkways or trains linking one end of the airport to the other.

Pike Place Market

Seattle is ever the rainy city, so it was fortunately only cloudy that afternoon when I went to the Pike Place Market, one of the oldest open air farmer's market in the US.

Din Tai Fung

Din Tai Fung, as you might know, is a pretty famous dumpling restaurant originated in Taiwan and now in various parts of Asia and the US. This was the one in Seatlle, one of their two US stores.

Silver Cloud Inn @ Redmond

I stayed at the Silver Cloud Inn at Redmond, WA (pretty near the Microsoft campus, which is huge btw in case anyone's interested) during my visit to Seattle. Silver Cloud Inns, a group of hotels in the Pacific Northwest, offer a very simple and straightforward Silver Rewards program that lets you redeem a free room after spending a certain amount at their hotels. In fact, they even transfer 1:1 over to Alaska Airlines (min. of 3k points required). If you stay in the Pacific Northwest area often, this definitely might be a hotel to consider.

Original Starbucks @ Seattle

I'm not really much of a coffee person but for curiosity's sake, I thought I'd stop by the relocated original Starbucks @ 1912 Pike Place, which is just a stone's throw away from Pike Place Market in Seattle.  Looks like they've even kept all the original lettering!