For our second and final day with the rental car, we ventured south of Seattle to visit a few spots near Georgetown and West Seattle, specifically Alki Beach. We were glad to have rented a car because making multiple stops could have gotten tricky and expensive with Uber XLs! Fortunately, my sister did most of the driving and didn’t mind it. Keep reading for three awesome places to visit in these neighborhoods.
Museum of Flight in Georgetown
Our first stop was the Museum of Flight, just south of the Georgetown neighborhood and home to acres of Boeing property. It is the largest independent, non-profit air and space museum in the world with over 175 aircraft and spacecraft, tens of thousands of artifacts, and dozens of exhibits and experiences. We were blown away by the size of this museum and all it had to offer. My favorite exhibit was the covered outdoor Aviation Pavilion featuring about 20 rare and unique commercial and military aircraft from the 1930s to present day. You can climb up stairs to go inside the very first Boeing 747, a Boeing 787 and the West Coast’s only Concorde! There was also a look into the world of air deliveries in the FedEx Air Cargo exhibit, in case the movie Castaway didn’t give you enough of a picture.
After spending about 3 hours in the museum and feeling very hungry due to a late start in the morning (my bad), we left to grab lunch in Alki Beach. However, for someone who likes to read/look at everything in museums and/or has a true passion for the air and space industry should allow much more time. There is enough to look at and be occupied by all day!
Marination Ma Kai on Alki Beach
After spending hours on our feet, we stopped for lunch in Alki Beach at this casual waterfront spot with bright orange umbrellas, wooden picnic tables and a view of the Seattle skyline. The food was a Korean/Hawaiian fusion and simply delicious – no fuss, plenty of flavor. I loved their gluten-free tacos and lychee margarita with a Li hing mui salted rim (must try!), and my family enjoyed the kimchi quesadillas and sliders.
Fran’s Chocolates
After fulfilling our starvation at Marination Ma Kai, we traveled a little out of the way to visit the Fran’s Chocolates retail showroom and production factory. My parents gourmet store has been carrying Fran’s Chocolates for over 20 years and have met Fran herself numerous times at the Fancy Food Show. Needless to say, we are obsessed with her salted caramels!
Although Fran was not there at the time, we met some of her team who were the most lovely and generous people. We sampled different types of truffles, branching beyond our beloved salted caramels, learned about how they went from a 2,000 sq ft facility to now 30,000 sq ft (wow!) and tried Fran’s Chocolates frozen “hot chocolate” for the first time (to die for) at their coffee/tea bar. They did such a beautiful job with the space, and we were glad we made the trip back to Georgetown to visit!
We enjoyed venturing out of Seattle for part of the day, which I would recommend to anyone who is spending at least 5 days in the city.
Check out more from our Seattle trip here!