Travel Tips

First, if you are flying in and the weather is good. (It helps to have a window seat, but Gilbert prefers aisle seats.) Make sure to get a good look out to see Mount Rainier. Sometimes you come in further south and see Mt. Hood, or further north and see Mt. Baker or Glacier Peak. Sometimes the weather is so perfect and the flight path ideal to see Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainer and Mt. St. Helens. Plus wonderful views of the Olympic Mountains while landing. (Depending on what side of the plane you are on.) Obviously if it is night, you won't see anything. And if it is typical Seattle weather, you won't see anything other than clouds.

Second, assuming you are renting a car, the interstates in the Seattle metro area have a speed limit of 60mph. The farther away you get from Seattle, the speed tends to go up. (To 70mph about 30 miles east of Seattle on I90.) Local Seattle roads tend to have a speed limit of 20mph unless otherwise posted.

Third, the City of Seattle has been putting up a lot of new traffic light cameras in the last 18 months. There are signs warning motorists of them. Be careful.

Fourth, many of the highways in the King County Metro area have HOV lanes. (High Occupancy, or "Carpool" lanes.) These lanes are most often the far left lane and require two people to be in the car to use them. I believe they are 24 hours, and not just during rush hour. However, the stretch of Hwy 520 westbound just east of the floating bridge requires three or more people to be in the HOV lane. And it is the far right lane. Keep this in mind if you are staying on the "Eastside."

Fifth, there is an express lane through downtown Seattle to about milepost 175 or so on I5. It is reversible, which means it usually heads south in the AM, and north in the PM. Change over time seems to be around noon. The exit to our house is still Exit 173 regardless if you are in the express lanes or in the plebeian lanes.

Sixth, if you are staying on the east side, it is best to take Interstate 405 from the airport. Please note, it may actually say 405 south, but it dips south briefly before going north up the east side.

Seventh, watch this following video to be prepared for a four way stop sign intersection:



And if you are not renting a car, we now have light rail (almost) from the airport to downtown. Travel time to downtown is about a half hour. There are plenty of buses in Seattle, and the most reliable from downtown to our house is the 358.

Drive time from the airport to our house is about 35 minutes. (Assuming favorable traffic conditions.)
Drive time from our house to Golden Gardens is less than 15 minutes.
Drive time across either of the floating bridges is going to be around 20 minutes or more, depending on where you are headed on the Seattle side of Lake Washington.