What should I see/do in Seattle and Vancouver?

[jbach]

So I made a New Year's resolution to travel to a new place every month this year and I've picked Seattle for February. I'm heading up there this weekend (Fri-Tues) and will be staying downtown, so if anybody has some suggestions on good restaurants/bars/things to do, etc, post them up.

I was also thinking of taking the Amtrak Cascades up to Vancouver for a few days, so suggestions there would be good too. Anybody ever taken the train? I'll be car-less the whole time so I'm not sure if I'll have time to make it up to the hills for any skiing, but meeting up for drinks or something could be arranged.

[FJ62]

In terms of drinking and dining:
--take a look at Salumi (awesome sandwich shop down in the international district owned by Mario Batali's dad). Not too pricey, either... just open for lunch.
--Matt's in the Market used to be a cute little bistro, now it's a bit bigger but fancier... still good, nice meals (lunch and dinner)
--bar-wise, the zig-zag cafe down below the pike market is pretty cool. i also like the rendezvous in belltown. if you want to do some serious people watching, go hang out on first ave in belltown on a friday or saturday and watch the chicas stroll by...
--if you want to see live music at a local club, check out the stranger online or three imaginary girls and get some recommendations.
--jump on a ferry and go to bainbridge island if the weather is okay. pretty amazing views of rainier and you can walk to the town of bainbridge, grab a drink or food, and walk back onto the next ferry back to seattle. pretty cheap.

I never did the train, but there's a bus that can take you to Vancouver, too. Good luck.. you'll have a great time.

[Hugh Conway]

rent/hitch/steal a car and get into the hills

[bedoe]

Must eat at Pesos, see U2-3D in IMAX at the Pacific Science Center, (close to Pesos) do you know where you are staying? We have lots of little favorites in Seattle.

[char]

Get on a boat and do Duck Dodge on Lake Union.

Take a ferry.

Drink at Zebra Bar.

People watch on Capitol Hill.

Spend too much money to get to the top of the Space Needle.

Buy beer from around the world at BottleWorks.

Check out Pike Place for exactly 30 minutes.

Go to Evo.

[jbach]

I'll be roughing it at the Green Tortoise hostel near Pike Place, but it sounds like it won't be far to any of these places and I'll have more money to blow on the good stuff.

[char]

Oh, and eat some terribly greasy hangover food at Beth's on Aurora.

Read a book and have a cup of coffee at Elliot Bay Book Company.

Walk through the Olympic Sculpture Park on Western.

The train is really easy to get to from the Tortoise and service was always good from PDX to Seattle. Better than driving, IMO.