Is the Seattle Wheel Great?

On Sunday, Satchel, Jessica and I rode the Seattle Great Wheel for the first time. We'd been wanting to ride it since it opened last summer and Jessica's birthday seemed as good a time as any to do it.

For those not familiar with the Seattle Great Wheel, it's a new, 175-foot tall Ferris Wheel on the Seattle Waterfront. It's huge, with 42 gondolas that are completely enclosed, have heat and air conditioning. Each gondola can seat 8 people. It's a pretty impressive sight.

We bought and printed our tickets ahead of time, which was key and my best tip for you. It doesn't cost any more to do it online than at the ticket office and it will save you a lot of time. We bypassed the ticket booth line and had to wait only about 5 minutes to load. If we would have had to buy tickets there, it probably would have taken 30-40 minutes before we got on.

Tickets are $13 plus tax for anyone 12 and older, $8.50 for ages 4-11, $11 for ages 65 and older and kids 3 and under are free, but they still need a ticket to ride. They also have a special VIP Gondola that is $50 per person. That has leather bucket seats, a glass floor, you get a t-shirt and you don't have to wait in line. Still seems pretty pricey to me, but a glass floor would be pretty cool.

The ride itself is very smooth and quiet. The seats aren't super comfortable, but I wouldn't say they're uncomfortable either. The fact that you're totally enclosed and there's very little swing to the gondola means I didn't really notice the height much. None of us are afraid of heights, but if you are, if you can get past how high it looks from the outside, I don't think it would be a problem once you're inside. I mean, you do notice you're high up because you get some great views, but it didn't seem disorienting or intimidating at all. In other words, it's not an exciting ride, but it's cool to see the city from that high up. Satchel, who is afraid of pretty much everything, had no fear at all before or during the ride.

The website says you go three rotations but really, it's four because you get off on the fourth. And it's a pretty slow ride, so we were on there for probably about 10-15 minutes. We all had a fun time. Again, if you're looking for excitement this probably isn't it, but if you're looking for some great photo ops, a relaxed but fun ride and doing something a little different, it's terrific. It's a little more expensive than I think it should be, and I wouldn't do it on a regular basis but it's a fun once-a-year or so thing. I'd love to do it at night, next time.

Lunch: We were going to eat lunch at Red Robin after the wheel ride but the wait was like 45 minutes so we said forget it. We walked back over the Miner's Landing and ate at the Alaskan Sourdough Bakery. This is right next door to the wheel. It's a good place with breakfast and lunch, mostly soups, sandwiches and salads, basically a deli. It's reasonably priced and has a kid's menu. Satchel had a grilled cheese, chips and milk, I had a veggie sandwich, chips and lemonade, Jessica had a veggie panini, chips and a soda.

The grilled cheese is your basic grilled cheese, nothing special on it or anything, just plain and just how Satchel likes it. The veggie sandwich was pretty good, with lettuce, tomato, onions, peppers, pickles, some kind of vinaigrette and dijon mustard. I got it without mayo but it came with olives, which it didn't say it did, and I hate olives. The dijon mustard was almost too spicy and it was a bit overstuffed and hard to eat, but it was still pretty good. Jess really liked her panini, though it was also tough to eat and kind of flimsy. It's a good place though if you're not looking to sit down and have a long meal.

Also: After eating we walked up to the Pike Place Market to check out my favorite store there, Golden Age Collectibles. It's full of comics, retro stuff, lunch boxes, vintage Star Wars toys, bobbleheads, goofy action figures, posters, etc. For our purposes, it has a ton of Beatles stuff and super hero toys. It's also a little expensive but if you're into any of those things, it's an awesome place to browse. Satchel used his allowance to buy some SpongeBob toys. It's located in the southwest corner of the second floor of the market.

Next up: Satch and I are headed to the Woodland Park Zoo today, where we hope to get a glimpse of the new lion cubs.