We checked in to our room at the Hyatt Place hotel a bit early. Luckily it was ready for us. I've detailed our Hyatt Place experience here in a different post.
Hotel: Hyatt Place by the Seattle Center
Proximity: 4 blocks to the Space Needle
Address: 110 6th Ave N
Seattle, WA 98109
Rooms: Larger rooms that accommodate six people, 2 queens + pull out double sofa bed
Amenities: Indoor pool, free breakfast, free WiFi, free hotel shuttle
Parking: $22.00 per night added to your room bill
After checking into our hotel, we walked over to the Seattle Center and strolled the grounds for about half an hour. The kids always like to go to the big fountain when we come here! It was a sunny day in the mid-50s but with a chilly breeze and the kids got a little wet. Oops!
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| Not a cloud in this beautiful cobalt blue sky! |
From the Seattle Center, we rode on the monorail to Westlake shopping center. We bought round trip tickets which were $4.50 per adult and $2.00 per child for a total cost of $15. Waiting five minutes for the monorail took longer than the 2 minute ride but it was fun and the kids enjoyed the street view from up above. Once at Westlake we noticed there was a Daiso store (Japanese $1.50 shop) and we stopped in to buy a couple of packs of Japanses gum and a mango Calpico yogurt drink. :)
From Westlake shopping center, we walked a few blocks to Gameworks. This was going to be our first time at Gameworks and I had checked out their website online ahead of time. Gameworks has about 25% ticket prize games and 75% other arcade style games.
Their entire system is based on pre-paid magnetic stripe cards of which they have two types - one that has a paid dollar value and one that is for a block of time. If you want to play ticket award games, you must purchase a paid dollar value card. You can use this card at all of the machines. The cards that allow you to play any games for a one, two or three hour block of time are limited to the arcade games only. If you have a younger child whose interest will mostly lay on the ticket award games, I would make sure to purchase a dollar value card. There are different amounts you can pre-load onto the card and the higher up you go, the greater the bonus amount is added onto it. One thing to note is that they will also charge you a $2 "activation fee" for the initial purchase and use of a paid dollar value card.
Since we knew we were going to be there on a Sunday, I decided that we would go for the Sunday Family Deal which was a large 1 topping pizza and four one hour game cards for $39.99. The pizza was ok - we've definitely had better but it was not awful. It took about 15 minutes to arrive, though luckily it was just an afternoon snack for us to share and not a meal. Our server very helpfully clued us in to our 1 hour cards worked. Once swiped into a machine, they would become activated and start counting down the one hour. If we did not swipe the card, we could save the one hour of play time for a future visit. We decided we would make do with sharing 2 cards and save 2 cards for later.
Since we knew we were going to be there on a Sunday, I decided that we would go for the Sunday Family Deal which was a large 1 topping pizza and four one hour game cards for $39.99. The pizza was ok - we've definitely had better but it was not awful. It took about 15 minutes to arrive, though luckily it was just an afternoon snack for us to share and not a meal. Our server very helpfully clued us in to our 1 hour cards worked. Once swiped into a machine, they would become activated and start counting down the one hour. If we did not swipe the card, we could save the one hour of play time for a future visit. We decided we would make do with sharing 2 cards and save 2 cards for later.
One thing to note, is that you can not swipe the cards continuously through machines. There is a wait time of about 5 minutes between swipes. This is to prevent overuse but also it gets in the way of some shooting games where you use up your lives very quickly. If you die before 5 minutes is up, you can't swipe your card again to continue. Because of the 5 minute timer between swipes, you aren't really getting an unlimited number of games - it's more likely that you'll get 10-12 games out of each card due to timing.
After we finished our game time at Gameworks, it was time to take the monorail back to our hotel for some swimming time! We swam for about an hour and us girls went back up to the room ahead of the boys so we could take a bath in the tub.
It was about 7:30 by the time we were ready to head out for dinner. We checked Yelp for diner ideas. Some restaurants close early and some are closed entirely on Sundays. From our hotel, we walked 1/4 of a mile to a Thai restaurant called Ti22. It was mostly empty and was very narrow following the length of a bar top. Most of the tables were small and seated two. We decided it didn't quite feel right for our family and walked another 1/4 mile to Kushibar where my husband and I have been once before.
Kushibar serves fantastic Japanese street-foods! We ordered yakitori sticks (teriyaki chicken in a skewer), takoyaki (fried doughballs with chopped bits of octopus), yakisoba, tonkotsu ramen and a donburi bowl. Everything was good though the takoyaki was not a hit with my seafood loving son like I thought it would be. I think the yakisoba was the best dish of the night! The noodles were just the right amount of chew, seasoned well and a good mix of veggies and pork. Our bill total came out to a reasonable $82.00 before tip and included a house sake and lychee lemonade cocktail for $9.00 each.
After dinner we walked about half a mile back to our hotel. It was getting pretty chilly by then. Before heading back up to our room, we stopped at the front counter to pick up a chocolate chip cookie, chocolate peanut butter cup cookie and a chocolate chip brownie. Cookies with tax were $10.95 and warmed up for our eating enjoyment. :)
We spent an uneventful evening in our room and I set the alarm for 9am so we could wake up in time for the free breakfast offered downstairs. On our way to breakfast, I stopped at the front counter to ask about getting complimentary late check out which was granted for 1pm instead of the usual 11am. After the kids and I were done eating downstairs, we brought a plate of food and to-go cup of coffee upstairs for dad who got some extra quiet time to sleep in.
It was about 10:45am by the time we were ready to head out again. It's a good thing we got an extension on our check out time! I had forgotten all about the free shuttle service but saw the van sitting outside and we caught a ride back down to Gameworks! We arrived just at 11:00 when they opened for business and the place was practically empty. Since we still had our two remaining 1 hour game cards in hand, we were able to skip the front counter and head straight to the games that we didn't get a chance to try in the crowds the day before. The kids had a blast again! The Sunday Family meal was definitely worth what we paid!
After our one hour game time was up, we walked back to the Hyatt and enjoyed the sunshine and cool breeze. It took us about 20 minutes to walk the half mile distance. There was a little mix up when we got back to the hotel as our room cards no longer allowed us access up to the 2nd floor to access our room. I needed to stop at the front counter to get that fixed so we could regroup up in our room and pack up our final odds and ends.
After checking out, we drove over to our favorite Tutta Bella location on Stone Way for delicious pizza and gelato! We've eaten at the Tutta Bella location at Crossroads Mall in Bellevue which is much closer to where we live but their pizza somehow just isn't as good. Most lunch specials are $9 and you're able to add on a side salad for an additional $4. We ordered a veggie calzone and four 9" lunch pizzas. They took a bit long to arrive but were as delicious as we had expected. For dessert we had vanilla, salted caramel and lemon gelato. Mmmmmm! We were given a gift card over Christmas so used that to pay for our lunch and paid a $13 cash tip.
After lunch and before we headed home, we stopped at Golden Gardens beach to take in the view since the weather was nice and sunny. We were able to find parking right away in the south end parking lot. We strolled along the beach up to the north tip of the area where the beach gave way to rocks. We were lucky and got to see a guy kite surfing out there!
After our Golden Gardens stroll, it was time to head home and get back to real life. We had a great Staycation and enjoyed spending time together as a family playing tourist 30 minutes away from out home!
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| Kite surfer at Golden Gardens. |
Budget Itemization:
- 2 queen room - $162.10
- Occupancy Tax - $25.29
- Seattle Tourism Fee - $2.00
- State Tax - $2.09
- Parking Fee - $22.00
- Parking Tax - $2.75
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Hyatt Place Room Total = $216.23
Monorail - $15.00
Daiso snacks - $5.50
Gameworks - $49.00
Bottled water - $1.50
Kushibar - $97.00
Late Night Cookies - $10.95
Tutta Bella Lunch - Free (gift card)
Tutta Bella Tip - $13.00
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Overnight Trip Total = $408.18
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