Seattle

Sorry, Seattle. You might be fighting for the top of the attractive list here in the States (or at least a strong runner-up to San Francisco) but you've got no chance when Vancouver is in the running.

So after the better part of a week in Vancouver, we headed to Seattle. Seattle might not quite match up to Vancouver for scenery - the mountains and the beaches are both further away - but it's still one of my favorite cities in the country.

It doesn't hurt that every time I've been in Seattle the weather has been at its best (not really a true test of the city, of course). And Priceline gave us a deal on a high-rise downtown hotel, putting us right in the center of the tourist stops.

Of course, the first day you have to hit the Pike Place Market. Then a ferry ride over to West Seattle, where we walked along the ocean-front road, checking out a few shops and enjoying the sun shining over the water. Time nearly ran out on us before we got back across the water for a half-price baseball game in one of the best stadiums I've been to (more on that in another post).

Another day took us to the very oddly designed Experience Music Project at the foot of the Space Needle. The EMP is something of a museum for music (although mostly guitar-heavy rock music, with an emphasis on Jimi Hendrix). The EMP has a especially cool feature on the top floor: a series of booths equipped with guitars, drums, keyboards and the like along with interactive demonstrations of how to play. The guitar station felt a little like a much more realistic version of "Guitar Hero" (this one actually has strings). Kirsten threw down the rhythm guitar part of "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

Guitars played into our evening outing as well - in Seattle, you've got to hit a show, right? At least that's what I learned a decade ago from watching "Singles." The locals said there was one show with local bands that stood above the rest, so we pulled out a bus map and headed North to the Ballard neighborhood and the Tractor Tavern.

Ballard is an area I wouldn't have otherwise ventured out to, but it was a good destination - a strip with coffeeshops, restaurants and clubs, along with the required quota of hipsters. The show was good, the beer was good - what more could you ask for?

Unfortunately, our West Coast swing ended with red-eye flights the next evening, which for me lead directly into a day of work on minimal sleep and then a big July 4 weekend. Jumping back into the East Coast humidity mostly makes me long to head back West.