Just wanted to file a brief trip report - pretty much info only, no attempt to entertain. We went for a long weekend over Labor Day, staying five nights. I did alot of research on this board, Tripadvisor and Yelp - here are some notes about our trip.

We landed about 6:30 - took the lightrail LINK to the Doubletree Arctic Hotel. The lightrail was a bargain and very efficient - the Arctic is half a block from the Pioneer Station. We really liked the Arctic hotel, and not just the cookies! The location was very convenient - easy to walk to Pioneer Square and ferry / watertaxi terminal, also in "ride free zone" for going to Pike Place Market Westlake Center / shopping district. The hotel staff was excellent - very helpful, they provied us with a vase for our flowers from the market, and we liked the ambience of the restored building.

Our daytime activities were: Coffee Walk with Seattle by Foot - that was fairly pleasant but if I had wanted to spend a few dollars more I probably would have liked a gourmet tour better. We took the watertaxi over to West Seattle and rented bikes - that was a great day. We stopped by the Klondike Gold Rush museum one morning - FREE (our tax dollars at work) - that was well worth the hour or so spent there. We did a full day tour - Wineries and Waterfalls - I learned from that I am not the wine tasting tour type. And I had hoped the waterfall would be a nice nature outing - it was packed with people on very limited walking trails! Our last day we took the bus up to Queen Anne Hill, walked around the shops and along Highland Ave. - that was a lovely day.

Resturants:
lunch at Lowell's in the Market - great view; overpriced, mediocre food.
Steelhead Diner - GREAT clam chowder, the rest of the meal did not impress - maybe we did not make good choices.
Bamboo Hut at the beach in West Seattle - decent food with a lovely view
McCormick's and Scmick's? - got a price fixed three course - excellent gazpacho, stuffed shrimp, very nice
Il Terrazzo Carmine - full of well-heeled locals, lovely restaurant, good food but the staff a bit pretentious (or maybe they don't like tourists)
Elliott's - don't usually go for restaurants in the dead center of the tourist zone but it was good. Had some nice salmon and fried fish - the "spicey" clam and corn chowder, isn't.

We really enjoyed our long week-end in Seattle - could easily go again and see some more of the sights - they offer a pass for about $100 that includes many attractions. Also would like to combine Seattle with a trip to Victoria / Vancouver - or maybe a Alaska cruise!