Sights in Seattle
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Pike Place Market
Take a bunch of small-time businesses and sprinkle them liberally around a spatially challenged waterside strip amid crowds of bohemians, restaurateurs, tree-huggers, bolshie students, artists, vinyl lovers and artisans. The result: Pike Place Market, a cavalcade of noise, smells, personalities, banter and urban theater that's almost London-like in its cosmopolitanism. In operation since 1907, Pike Place Market is famous for many things, not least its eye-poppingly fresh fruit and vegetables, its anarchistic shops and its loquacious fish-throwing fishmongers. Improbably, it also spawned the world's first Starbucks, which is still there (if you can get past the tourists)…
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Ballard Fish Ladder
On the southern side of the Hiram M Chittenden Locks, the fish ladder was built in 1976 to allow salmon to fight their way to spawning grounds in the Cascade headwaters of the Sammamish River, which feeds Lake Washington. Visitors can watch the fish from underwater glass-sided tanks or from above (there are nets to keep salmon from over-leaping and stranding themselves on the pavement). Sea lions munch on the salmon while the fish attempt to negotiate the ladder. Just what to do about the sea lions has stymied environmentalists, anglers and the local Fish & Wildlife Department. The best time to visit is during spawning season, from mid-June to September.
On the northern…
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Experience Music Project
The Experience Music Project (EMP) is worth a look for the architecture alone. The shimmering, abstract building – designed by Frank Gehry – was inspired by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen’s passion for Jimi Hendrix’s music and was initially intended as a tribute to Hendrix alone. It now houses 80,000 music artifacts, including handwritten lyrics by Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and a Fender Stratocaster that Hendrix demolished. There’s also Janis Joplin’s pink feather boa, the world’s first steel guitar and Hendrix’s signed contract to play at Woodstock.
Appropriately, the best exhibits are the Hendrix Gallery, a major tribute to Jimi; the Northwest Passage,…
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Hing Hay Park
If you need a tranquil spot to rest while wandering the ID, Hing Hay Park lends a little green to the otherwise austere district. The traditional Chinese pavilion was a gift from the people of Taipei. On Saturdays in August you can catch a free outdoor movie here beginning at sunset, sponsored by the Seattle Chinatown-International District, which also runs the summer Night Market here; for a full schedule, go to www.cidbia.org.
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Pacific Science Center
This interactive museum of science and industry once housed the science pavilion of the World’s Fair. Today, the center features virtual-reality exhibits, a tropical butterfly house, laser shows, holograms and other wonders of science, many with hands-on demonstrations. Also on the premises is the vaulted-screen Imax Theater, a laserium and a planetarium.
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Seattle Art Museum
Extensively renovated and expanded in 2007, Seattle's world-class art museum now has an extra 118,000 sq ft in area. Some have criticized the newer sections for having a somewhat clinical feel, but it's difficult not to be struck by a sense of excitement once you enter. Above the ticket counter hangs Cai Guo-Qiang's Inopportune: Stage One, a series of white cars exploding with neon. Between the two museum entrances (one in the old building and one in the new) is the 'art ladder,' a free space with installations cascading down a wide stepped hallway. And the galleries themselves are very much improved. The museum's John H Hauberg Collection contains an excellent display of…
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Green Lake Park
One of the most popular spots in the city for recreationalists and sunbathers, scenic Green Lake Park surrounds Green Lake, a small natural lake created by a glacier during the last ice age. In the early 1900s, city planners lowered the lake’s water level by 7ft, increasing the shoreline to preserve parkland around the lake. After the lowering, however, Ravenna Creek, which fed the lake, no longer flowed through. Green Lake became stagnant and filled with stinky green algae. Massive dredging efforts to keep Green Lake a lake (instead of a marshy wetland) continue. The lake is prone to algae blooms, which can cause an unpleasant condition called ‘swimmer’s itch’ to anyone…
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Lakeview Cemetery
One of Seattle’s oldest cemeteries and the final resting place of many early settlers, Lakeview Cemetery borders Volunteer Park to the north. Arthur Denny and his family, Doc and Catherine Maynard, Thomas Mercer and Henry Yesler are all interred here. This is also the gravesite of Princess Angeline, the daughter of Duwamish Chief Sealth, after whom Seattle was named.
Most people, however, stop by to see the graves of martial arts film legends Bruce and Brandon Lee. Flowers from fans are usually scattered around Brandon’s red and Bruce’s black tombstones, which stand side by side in a tiny part of the cemetery. The graves are not easy to find: enter the cemetery at 15th…
reviewed
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Waiting for the Interurban
Seattle’s most popular piece of public art, this lively sculpture in recycled aluminum depicts people waiting for a train that never comes. The train that once passed through Fremont stopped running in the 1930s, and the people of Seattle have been waiting for a new train – the Interurban – ever since. Finally, in 2001, Sound Transit trains started once again to connect Seattle with Everett, much like the original train did. The sculpture is prone to regular ‘art attacks,’ where locals lovingly decorate the people in outfits corresponding to a special event, the weather, someone’s birthday, a Mariners win – whatever. Rarely do you see the sculpture ‘undressed.’ Take a…
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Space Needle
Standing apart from the rest of Seattle's skyscrapers, the needle is the city's undisputed modern symbol. Built for the World's Fair in 1962, it was the highest structure in Seattle at the time, topping 605ft, though it has since been easily usurped. Visitors make for the 520ft-high observation station with a revolving restaurant.
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Denny Blaine Park
South of Madison Park toward the tail of Lake Washington Blvd is Denny Blaine Park, found at the end of a looping tree-lined lane. This predominantly lesbian beach is surrounded by an old stone wall, which marked the shoreline before the lake level was dropped 9ft during construction of the ship canal. Just a little further south on your right-hand side, you’ll find the two-tiered Viretta Park, from which you can see the mansion once owned by Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love – it’s the house on the north (or left) side of the benches if you’re facing the water. Cobain took his life with a shotgun in the mansion’s greenhouse in April 1994. The greenhouse is long…
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Museum of Flight
Aviation buffs wholeheartedly enjoy the Museum of Flight, while others traipse through suppressing yawns, so be choosy about who you bring.
The museum presents the entire history of flight, from da Vinci to the Wright Brothers to the NASA space program. More than 50 historical aircraft are displayed, including a recently acquired British Airways Concorde. The restored 1909 Red Barn, where Boeing had its beginnings, contains exhibits and displays. The six-story glass Great Gallery has 20 airplanes suspended from its ceiling. Vintage fliers reside on the grounds outside the buildings. There’s also a hands-on area where visitors get to work the controls and sit in the…
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Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
A shockingly good museum with exhibits, photos and news clippings from the years of the 1897 Klondike gold rush, when a Seattle-on-steroids acted as a fueling depot for prospectors bound for the Yukon in Canada. It would cost $10 anywhere else; in Seattle it's free!
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Center For Wooden Boats
If you have an interest in the history and craft of wooden boats, then you’ll definitely want to visit the Center for Wooden Boats. This museum and enthusiast’s center features vintage and replica boats, and offers sailing lessons, including an excellent beginner course that gives you as many lessons as it offers in a four-month period (usually eight to 12 lessons). Seasoned sailors who are a little rusty can take a one-on-one lesson for around $50 per hour, and there are also classes on sail repair and boat building. You can rent sailboats and rowboats, but one person in your party has to know how to sail and must do a checkout ($10 fee) before you’ll be permitted to…
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Economy Market Building
Once a stable for merchants’ horses, the Economy Market Building on the south side of the market entrance has a wonderful Italian grocery store, DeLaurenti’s – a great place for any aficionado of Italian foods to browse and sample. There’s also Tenzing Momo, one of the oldest apothecaries on the West Coast, where you can pick up herbal remedies, incense, oils and books. Tarot readings are available here on occasion. Look down at the Economy Market floor and you’ll see some of the 46,000 tiles that line the floor. The tiles were sold to the public in the 1980s for $35 apiece. If you bought a tile, you’d get your name on it and be proud that you helped save the…
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Main & North Arcades
Rachel the Market Pig marks the main entrance to the Main and North Arcades, thin shed-like structures that run along the edge of the hill; these are the busiest of the market buildings. With banks of fresh produce carefully arranged in artful displays, and fresh fish, crab and other shellfish piled high on ice, this is the real heart of the market. Here you’ll see fishmongers tossing salmon back and forth like basketballs (many of these vendors will pack fish for overnight delivery). You’ll also find cheese shops, butchers, tiny grocery stalls and almost everything else you need to put together a meal. The end of the North Arcade is dedicated to local artisans and…
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Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center
This unique museum in Waterfront Park is part of the Bell Street Pier, a huge complex that also houses convention space, restaurants and a marina. A haven for boat enthusiasts, the Discovery Center is also a wonderful place for families. The four galleries and more than 40 hands-on exhibits include a simulated kayak trip around Puget Sound, a chance to navigate a virtual ship through Elliott Bay and a visual re-creation of the cruise up the Inside Passage to southeast Alaska. You can find out about boat construction and high-tech contributions to boating, learn about oceanography and environmental issues and hear audio simulations of ocean animals. One section of the…
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Gas Works Park
Urban reclamation has no greater monument in Seattle than Gas Works Park. The former power station here produced gas for heating and lighting from 1906 to 1956. The gas works was thereafter understandably considered an eyesore and an environmental menace. But the beautiful location of the park – with stellar views of downtown over Lake Union, and sailboats and yachts sliding to and from the shipping canal – induced the city government to convert the former industrial site into a public park in 1975. Rather than tear down the factory, landscape architects preserved much of the old plant. Painted black and now highlighted with rather joyful graffiti, it looks like some odd…
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Pioneer Square Park
The original Pioneer Square is a cobblestone triangular plaza where Henry Yesler’s sawmill cut the giant trees that marked Seattle’s first industry. Known officially as Pioneer Square Park, the plaza features a bust of Chief Seattle (Sealth, in the original language), an ornate pergola and a totem pole. Some wayward early Seattleites, so the story goes, stole the totem from the Tlingit natives in southeastern Alaska in 1890. An arsonist lit the pole aflame in 1938, burning it to the ground. When asked if they could carve a replacement pole, the Tlingit took the money offered, thanking the city for payment of the first totem, and said it would cost $5000 to carve…
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Occidental Park
Notable in this cobblestone plaza are the totem poles carved by Duane Pasco, a nationally respected Chinookan carver and artist from Poulsbo on the Kitsap Peninsula. The totems depict the welcoming spirit of Kwakiutl, a totem bear, the tall Sun and Raven, and a man riding on the tail of a whale.
Also eye-catching is the Firefighters’ Memorial, featuring life-size bronze sculptures of firefighters in action. Engraved on the granite slabs surrounding the sculpture are the names of Seattle firefighters who have been killed in the line of duty since the department’s inception after the Great Fire. The artist is Hai Ying Wu, a University of Washington graduate.
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Science Fiction Museum
Attached to the EMP, this is a nerd paradise of costumes, props and models from sci-fi movies and TV shows. Admission is included with your EMP ticket.
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Seattle Public Library
There’s not much chance you’ll miss glimpsing the Seattle Public Library, but it’s worth going inside for a closer look. Designed by Rem Koolhaas and LMN Architects, the $165.5 million sculpture of glass and steel was designed to serve as a community gathering space, a tech center, a reading room and, of course, a whole bunch of book storage. The main room, on Level 3, has especially high ceilings, a teen center, small gift shop and coffee stand. There’s an underground level for parking. Near the top is the Seattle Room, a 12,000-sq-ft reading room with 40ft glass ceilings. It has amazing light, nice views of downtown and seating for up to 400 people.
But the…
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Kerry Park
This is where to go if you want to get postcard-perfect photos of the Seattle skyline, Mt Rainier and the Space Needle. Kerry Park, along the stroll-friendly and prestigious Highland Dr, has one of the three best views in town (the others are from Gas Works Park near Wallingford and Duwamish Head in West Seattle). It’s a magical vista, especially at night or sunset. Going a little further along W Highland Dr will take you to the lesser-known Betty Bowen Park, an excellent spot for views across Puget Sound to the Olympic Mountains. Across the way, check out Parsons Garden, a public garden that’s especially popular for summer weddings.
reviewed
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Fremont Rocket
Fremont has adopted this phallic and zany-looking rocket as its community totem. Constructed in the 1950s for use in the Cold War, the rocket was plagued with difficulties and never actually went anywhere, leaving the engineering team with the unfortunate problem of ‘not being able to get it up.’ Before coming to Fremont, the rocket was affixed to an army surplus store in Belltown. When the store went out of business, the Fremont Business Association snapped it up. Beneath the rocket you’ll find a coin box affixed to the building. Drop in 50 cents and the rocket will ‘launch’ by blowing a bunch of steam, but true to its under-performing nature, it won’t go…
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Smith Tower
You can’t miss Seattle’s first skyscraper. For half a century after its construction in 1914, the 42-story Smith Tower was well known as the tallest building west of Chicago. The distinctive tower was erected by LC Smith, a man who built his fortune on typewriters (Smith-Corona) and guns (Smith & Wesson). Smith died during the building’s construction, so he never got to see the beauty that still bears his name. Walk into the onyx- and marble-paneled lobby, step aboard one of the brass-and-copper manually operated elevators and let it whisk you up to the 35th-floor observation deck for a great view of Seattle’s Waterfront. The ride up is as exciting as the view.
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