I am driving to Seattle...

You drive a tank

Seattle is west of Lake Washington. The easiest way to get there is a bridge on state route 520. This is the best route to pier 91.

This 520 bridge is electronically tolled, with no toll booths and no option to pay cash. They do not take EZ-Pass. It is all too easy to follow the GPS right into this toll without warning. Cameras will ID your plate and send you a bill.

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Tolling/520/

The alternative crossing is I-90, further south, which has heavy traffic due to the toll on 520. Avoiding both of these and coming from further north or south is a traffic nightmare.

Seattle is a beautiful place to visit. Be sure and get out on the water. Take a ferry but avoid the Ducks.

If driving from the East to Seattle in the winter, be prepared to chain up for the mountain passes - it is required by law.

dobs108

I really appreciate it.

http://www.wsdot.com/traffic/passes/snoqualmie/default.aspx

Snoqualmie pass closed - December 24th, 2015:

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/weather/headed-over...

There are also mountain passes in Idaho and Montana.

dobs108

Seattle has some of the worst traffic in the nation and most of it flows N-S as the E-W is extremely limited. The Evergreen Point (520) bridge connects Bellevue and points north on the east side of the lake while the Mercer Island (I-90) bridge connects everything else. Both are bad any time of the day, but peak hours should be avoided.

Traffic within Seattle is again primarily N-S as there are limited through streets running E-W so you need to plan accordingly. One thing you will notice about King County and the surrounding area is it is easy to figure out where a particular address is in relation to you. Everything is on a quadrant system with N-S streets having the quadrant after the name/number and E-W having the quadrant before the name/number.

Day of the week- Weekdays mornings and about 4pm to 6pm expect lots of traffic in/out of the city. If possible I find mid day (around noon to 2pm) is good time to get around. You may not have that luxury.

Sporting events- worthwhile to check if something is going on and try to time around it. (sports, concerts) Safeco field Mariners or century link field

If you are from Ohio assume you're coming via I-90 which brings you right into the city and it isn't tolled.

Must be taking a cruise?

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/things-near-pier-91-seattle-w...

try to spend the night there, there are a lot of places to walk to and sights to see . if you are going on a cruse spend the night in seattle when you get back great places to see on foot the aquarium pike st market space needle eateries' all kinds of places.
P>S> the traffic to and from seattle is a nightmare around 2 am is the only time to drive there !!!

I agree, if you can spend a night or 2 in Seattle it's well worth the time. Lots of attractions, as mentioned above, and I'd add the Underground Tour downtown to that list. Also as mentioned earlier take a ferry ride to one of the islands as that's were you get the best views of the city and if your lucky enough to catch a sunny day, Mt Rainier.

We always say that Seattle has more history that nobody knows about than any other city in the US.

Seattle is a beautiful city with lots to do. Seattle and Vancouver BC are two of my favorite cities that I have visited.

Go drive around NYC, DC, and Los Angeles... then driving around Seattle will be boring.

Seattle is like a neighborhood in NYC and LA.

Take passenger-only ferry ride for a day trip over to Victoria Canada.
We did Butchart Gardens and Butterfly Conservatory and walked through a beautiful old hotel and along the dock. It was a very nice slow paced trip. The night views coming back to Seattle were beautify from the ferry.

...Even though I could see the Jefferson Memorial, it took me two hours to find out how to get there. (This was before I had a GPS.) However, I got quite familiar with the Watergate, as I passed it two or three times trying to figure out how to get to the Jefferson Memorial. Quite interesting.

The same thing happen to me back in the early 60. I was station in DC and was going to take some relatives that were visiting me to see the Jefferson Memorial. I could see it but could not seem to get on the correct street to get there. After about 3-4 tried finally arrived at the Memorial.

The same thing happen to me back in the early 60. I was station in DC and was going to take some relatives that were visiting me to see the Jefferson Memorial. I could see it but could not seem to get on the correct street to get there. After about 3-4 tried finally arrived at the Memorial.