. . . What You Want to See . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Upcoming Seattle Events:

If You're Traveling Into Seattle...

Some helpful information from the Wikipedia:

Seattle is often regarded as the birthplace of grunge music, and has a reputation for heavy coffee consumption; coffee companies founded in Seattle include Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee, and Tully's. There are also many successful independent artisanal espresso roasters and cafes.

Among Seattle's best-known annual cultural events and fairs are the 24-day Seattle International Film Festival, Northwest Folklife over the Memorial Day weekend, numerous Seafair events throughout July and August and the Bite of Seattle which is an annual food festival that takes place over three days in July at the Seattle Center. Bumbershoot, over the Labor Day weekend, Capitol Hill Block Party, and Endfest provide Seattleites with much-anticipated alternative and independent music concerts. Several dozen Seattle neighborhoods have one or more annual street fairs, and many have an annual parade or foot race. The largest of the street fairs feature hundreds of craft and food booths and multiple stages with live entertainment. The smallest are strictly neighborhood affairs with a few dozen craft and food booths.

The Henry Art Gallery opened in 1927, making it the first museum in Washington. The main Seattle Art Museum opened in 1933 which has finished a major renovation and reopened in 2007. Art collections are also housed at the Frye Art Museum and the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Regional history collections are at the Loghouse Museum in Alki, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, the Museum of History and Industry and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. Industry-specific collections are housed at the Center for Wooden Boats, the Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum, and the Museum of Flight. Regional ethnic collections include the Nordic Heritage Museum and the Wing Luke Asian Museum.

The Woodland Park Zoo, opened as a private zoo in 1889, is the oldest on the West Coast, and has been a leader in innovations in naturalistic zoo exhibits. The Seattle Aquarium has been open on the downtown waterfront since 1977. The Seattle Underground Tour, an exhibit of places that existed before the Great Fire, is also popular. The Pacific Place Mall, located on Sixth Avenue and Pine Street, features a movie theater, and food court. There are also many community centers for recreation, including Rainier Beach, Van Asselt, Rainier, and Jefferson south of the Ship Canal and Green Lake, Laurelhurst, and Loyal Heights north of the Canal.

Seattle's cool mild climate helps a huge proportion of its population engage in outdoor recreation, including walking, bicycling, hiking, and swimming, among others. In town many people walk around Green Lake, through the forests and along the bluffs and beaches of 535-acre Discovery Park in Magnolia, along the shores of Myrtle Edwards Park on the Downtown waterfront, or along Alki Beach in West Seattle. Also popular are hikes and skiing in the nearby Cascade or Olympic Mountains and kayaking and sailing in the waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Strait of Georgia. The San Juan Islands, with their sunny climate and labyrinthine waterways, are especially popular among sailing enthusiasts and passengers aboard the Washington State Ferries on their way to Victoria.

Seattle's professional sports history began at the start of the 20th century with the PCHA's Seattle Metropolitans, which in 1917 became the first American hockey team to win the Stanley Cup. Today Seattle has teams in nearly every major professional sport. The four major professional teams are the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics, the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, the MLB's Seattle Mariners, and the WNBA's Seattle Storm. Seattle also boasts a strong history in collegiate sports, the NCAA Division I school University of Washington and the NCAA Division II schools Seattle Pacific University and Seattle University.

Even though Seattle is old enough that railways and streetcars once dominated its transportation system, the city is now largely dominated by automobiles. Seattle is also serviced by an extensive network of bus routes and two commuter rail routes connecting it to many of its suburbs.

Seattle is serviced by three transit authorities. King County Metro provides frequent stop bus service within the city and surrounding county. Seattle is one of the few cities in North America that use electric trolleybuses. The second transit authority that services Seattle is Sound Transit, which provides express bus service between the suburbs and downtown Seattle and a commuter rail system that connects Seattle to Tacoma and other suburbs to the south and another line to Everett and other suburbs to the north. University Link is an approved extension of the light rail system connecting downtown Seattle to the University of Washington. The third transit authority is operated by Washington State Ferries, which manages the largest network of ferries in the United States, third largest in the world, that connects Seattle to Bainbridge Island and Vashon Island in Puget Sound and Bremerton and Southworth on the Kitsap Peninsula.

A monorail line constructed for the 1962 Exposition still exists today between Seattle Center and downtown and is used by tourists and by commuters from the north, who often find it cheaper to park at Seattle Center and take the 1 mile route to work rather than taking their car downtown

Seattle's commercial airport is Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, locally known as Sea-Tac Airport and located in the city of SeaTac, which is named for the airport. It is operated by the Port of Seattle and provides service to many destinations throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. The airport is a hub for Alaska Airlines and its regional subsidiary Horizon Air. Seattle is also a focus city for Northwest Airlines.