Originally posted by BearX220:
The actual thing to do is to sit in the Sea-Tac airport parking lot for six minutes listening to KIRO radio, 710 AM, and get a traffic report. See which road is less grim and set out accordingly.
You could start heading out that way since time is short for you. You do have a few minutes from where you get your car until you reach the I-5/I-405 junction.
An alternative suggestion is to come up the night before from SF (since a stop of less than 24 hrs isn't a stopover) and stay at the SEA Doubletree cheap ($11.95 total IF you have a AmEx card), get the car early the next day (Thrifty is
just across the street and a quick drive to I-5), head up to Everett for the 0900 tour and be back by 1100-1130.
Of course you could always stay closer up to Everett but it may not be that cheap.