Three of Seattle’s Undiscovered Gems

Seattle, Washington is truly a Metropolitan city. It has it all from its bustling seaport, business, entertainment, shopping and many recreational opportunities to its outstanding scenery.

When I mention gems some of you may be thinking diamonds, emeralds and rubies! What I’m actually referring to are the undiscovered places you may not hear about unless you live in Seattle.

First off if you are going to be staying a one night or a few you must check out a gem of place called the Cedarbrook Center just outside of Seattle near the airport in an area called SeaTac. Cedarbrook is the former Washington Mutual Leadership Center which is now open to the public http://www.cedarbrookcenter.com/ . It was built as a premium training facility. It has a main lobby with a theatre style conference room at one end on the main floor. On the lower level is a beautiful floor to ceiling stone fireplace with a bar and billiards table to one side. There is an excellent restaurant on this floor that also serves a complimentary full buffet style breakfast with omelet chefs and wait staff.

The guestrooms are large and well done. The guestroom buildings each have a common area with a kitchenette, sitting area with big screen TV. The refrigerator is stocked each evening with free soft drinks, juices, yogurts, fruits and sandwiches.

The Cedarbrook Center offers complimentary shuttle service to and from the airport as well as downtown Seattle.

The service and staff are excellent and make your stay memorable. They want you to enjoy yourself and come back. We left a tip for our waitress at breakfast and as we were walking back to our room the dining room host discreetly informed us that Cedarbrook was a non-tipping facility and quietly handed our money back! The rates for this amazing facility were very reasonable!

If you enjoy incredible spices and curries that are fresh and even hard to find then you need to checkout a gem called World Spice just off of Pike Street. http://www.worldspice.com/home/home.shtml

They carry a large selection of pure spice, mixed spices and curries, leaf teas and some incredible peppers! They are located directly across the street from the Pikes Place Public Market, which by the way is a fantastic place to shop. http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/frameset.asp?flash=true

Across the street from World Spice and along side of the Pikes Place Public Market is a little Mexican Restaurant called El Puerco Lloron. This little gem of place is true authentic Mexican cooking! They only have about ten items to choose from but they are all nice portions under $7.25. http://www.elpuercolloron.com/

For all of you coffee lovers remember the original Starbucks is right in this area too.

Enjoy Seattle!