LAUPT / SEA King Street Info?

[RandyJay]

Hi all,

Have a nice loop trip coming up - SAS to LAX to SEA to CHI and back home. Wife wants an Alaska cruise out of SEA, so I get to burn a few of those AGR points. Hey she gets her cruise and I get my "cruise"! The west coast portion will be new to me, so had a couple of questions regarding LAUPT and Seattle King Street. Apologies in advance if I have missed these answers in a previous thread . . . .

At LA, are we still allowed to wait for #14 in the bar area (is this part of Traxx)? A french dip at Phillipe's is probably not an option in the a.m. (darn it)! Will have some carry-on with us that may tend to keep us from exploring much outside the station - I doubt there is any option for storing luggage for the short term.

Also, departing SEA we will have some time before #8 leaves - was wondering what the current status of the station renovation is and if there would be any option to store luggage for a few hours there. Any thoughts / suggestions about spending a few hours in SEA before leaving?

Thanks!

 

[AlanB]

At LA, are we still allowed to wait for #14 in the bar area (is this part of Traxx)? A french dip at Phillipe's is probably not an option in the a.m. (darn it)! Will have some carry-on with us that may tend to keep us from exploring much outside the station - I doubt there is any option for storing luggage for the short term.

Actually IIRC, the French dip is always available if they're open. They don't sell the rest of the lunch menu during breakfast hours; but their signature sandwich is always available.

 

[Guest]

In LAX you can day check your luggage @ the regular baggage check room, $3 a piece/per day.

The Traxx "Lounge" usually opens around 9AM, they have coffee/juice, you check in there, the conductor pulls tickets and you can get a redcap with a ride to the trains if you dont want to walk through the tunnel! Phillipes has wonderful breakfasts also, IIRC you can still get a dip for breakfast also!

Seattle King Street Station is still a work in Progress, the waiting room/ticket counter is the last of the projects, rest of the station is lookinng good! Sleeper pax can leave their luggage free there while they explore. Since the EB leaves in the early evening you have time to do any of several things but in the immediate area is the Pioneer Square, you can take the underground Seattle tour, next door is the old Union Station, a beautifuly restored station now used as an oiffice building but worth seeing. The International district is up the street, nice to walk around,check it out! In downtown Seattle the busses are free so you could also ride uptown, see the Pike market, catch the Mono-Rail up the hill to Seattle Center where the Space Needle is (there is a charge for this)etc. etc.

Goggle up Seattle, also there are lots of trip reports and tips on this site about both LAXand SEA! Nice trip, Win!Win! (Dont forget if you have time you could ride the train to Vancouver,BC which is a great day trip!Could even take a cruise out of there instead of Seattle!)

 

[D T Nelson]

... was wondering what the current status of the station renovation is ...

The Seattle Department of Transportation has a Flickr photostream of pictures of the renovation. A summary: They have removed the old out-of-service escalators ("Electric Stairs to Jackson St") and the add-on building that housed them; they have removed the suspended ceiling over the waiting room, exposing the original ceiling, which needs a lot of restoration work; and they have demolished the plaza on the Jackson Street side of the station (it will be rebuilt).

Any thoughts / suggestions about spending a few hours in SEA before leaving?

A sample itinerary: Starting from King Street Station, with a few hours to spend, you might walk west to Alaskan Way, and then head north along the waterfront. There are various tourist-oriented things there, and places to eat. When you get to Pike Street, you could walk up the Pike Street Hillclimb (a big staircase) up to the Pike Place Market, and explore it. At the Market you might pick up some fresh fruit or other foodstuffs to take with you on the train, and there are places to eat lunch there, too. Depending on how much time and/or energy you have, from the Market you could either walk down First Avenue back to King Street and back to the station, or you could catch a free bus on First Avenue and ride to the end of the Ride Free Zone at Jackson Street, and walk over to the station. If you still had time and energy, you could walk east past the station to the International District (aka Chinatown) and explore it -- there are lots of places to eat there (if you didn't already eat on the waterfront or at the Market). One place in the International District I would recommend visiting is Uwajimaya, which is an Asian hypermarket about three blocks from King Street Station; it has a food court offering various types of Asian meals, and a supermarket where you could pick up unusual snacks for the trip home, and which is worth browsing even if you don't buy anything.

 

[RandyJay]

A quick thanks for the replies - just what I needed. Definitely looking forward to a quick tour of Seattle - even if it's raining! And if I don't get a dip at Phillipe's I'll make up for it with pizza at Giordano's in CHI. Trip report to follow.