What to Do >>

• Best Intergenerational Workout Facility (1 Comment)
  The air-conditioning may be intermittent, but the Downtown YMCA is still the welcoming oasis touted by the Village People 30 years ago. Here's where you'll find high-schoolers holding down the bench station while septuagenarians do tai chi–infused laps around the track and weekend warriors... More >>
• Best Reason to Hit a Commercial Loading Dock
  It's easy to miss Port of Seattle's Jack Block Park, tucked as it is between piles of shipping containers and piles of industrial detritus. But next time you're heading to Alki to strut your tanned stems or catch a little beach volleyball, watch for the exit a mile south on Harbor Avenue. The... More >>
• Best Cheap Visit to the "Aquarium"
  Responding to a question about what she could possibly do for fun on the cheap with her attention-span-deficient preschooler, a friend didn't hesitate: Uwajimaya. She expanded: "He loves looking at the fish." Wait...what? Apparently four-year-olds don't much care how rare or common an orange... More >>
• Best Flattering Place to Pee (1 Comment)
  A pit stop is the only reason to brave the olfactory assault of the front-line trench known as the perfume counter of a department store. And it's especially worth it in the downtown Macy's ladies' room. Make it past the eau de somethings, and be sure to grab some devastatingly red lipstick and... More >>
• Best Non-Narcotic Pioneer Square Mood-Elevator
  Kyoto hides almost 100 little temples, tucked in among the shops and businesses, acting as tiny metropolitan breathing spaces. These mini-sanctuaries insulate visitors from the rigmarole of daily life. No such structure compares in our culture, but the Waterfall Garden Park in Pioneer Square... More >>
• Best Place to Find an Empty Tennis Court
  Dearborn Park is one of those pocket parks around the city that you wouldn't know of unless you lived in the neighborhood. It's tucked into a little side street on Beacon Hill, and is a place of unexpected grace and serenity, shaded by broad-leafed trees. You might find a couple of kids playing... More >>
• Best Thing About Sound Transit (1 Comment)
  Sure, the once seemingly never-ending construction along Martin Luther King Way disrupted countless businesses, sent traffic through an obstacle course, and sank billions of dollars into a project that might not improve upon the existing bus service. But oh, how nice MLK looks now! The city's... More >>
• Best Campground You'll Ever Find in the Suburbs
  It doesn't seem possible that one of the loveliest campgrounds in the state is in Federal Way, that unprepossessing home to strip malls and planned developments. But drive beyond all that and head towards the water, and you'll find Dash Point State Park. The heavily wooded, 400-acre park makes... More >>
• Best Place to See Integration
  North-Enders think you can't find integration in this city. I say: head over to the South End. There's integration aplenty—has been for years—with a mix of whites, African-Americans, and every kind of immigrant you can think of. True, in terms of where they live, whites have tended... More >>
• Best Reason to Buy an Air Mattress
  Every year we invite someone new for our float down the Snoqualmie River. We tell them to get an air mattress and every year they show up with a damn inner tube. Halfway down the river they're bringing up the rear because they can't paddle as fast as we can and are whining about how bruised... More >>
• Best Spot to Find Four-Leaf Clovers
  It is debatable what exactly causes the four-leaf clover, but they always seem to grow in patches. And at Gas Works Park you're bound to find one within about five minutes. I found a very satisfying big one that I tucked between the pages of my hardcover copy of Sybil, which somehow seemed... More >>
• Best Waterfront Bocce
  There are a lot of pleasant little secrets along Lake Union's eastern shore—pocket parks, houseboat communities—but none quite as exciting as the Eastlake Bouledrome on Fairview Avenue East. Yes, it's waterfront bocce! Well, technically pétanque. (Same principle: Winner... More >>
• Best Counterpart to Aurora
  When it comes to sleaze and kitsch, there's simply no matching Aurora Avenue. All the usual suspects appear at some point along the road: hookers, hustlers, watering holes, grow houses, strip malls, bang-tail motor inns, big-box stores, fast food, arcane repair shops, emporiums of... More >>
• Best Public Spot to Be a Bookworm
  In a recent online review, a woman wrote that the Beacon Hill Library simply made her happy. It's easy to understand why. There's something about the cavernous, airy space and walls of windows that is pleasing but not overwhelming, inviting but contemplative. The fanciful boat sculpture that... More >>
• Most All-Inclusive Pumpkin Patch
  Here are all the things your 6-year-old can do at Carleton Farm's pumpkin patch, an admission-free attraction open every weekend in October: Ride in a wheelbarrow to pick out his own pumpkin (classic orange, sugar, white, cinderella, red, and ginormous varieties are all growing in the fields);... More >>
• Best Way for Penny-Pinchers to Get on the Water
  On a hot, sunny Saturday afternoon, a girl's thoughts turn to water. The cool splash off the sound, the wind across Lake Washington, the rocking feeling that carries you to sleep after a day spent adrift. But with the housing market crashing, gas stations handing out loan applications to get a... More >>
• Best Place for Grown-ups to Play Vintage Arcade Games
  Those with coulrophobia (an extreme fear of clowns) shouldn't even come within spitting distance of Shorty's, but if you can get past the freaky carnival theme and the clown dolls staring you down from every nook and cranny, it's the best place in town for kids of drinking age like myself to... More >>
• Best Place to Have a Beer in One Hand and a Paddle in the Other
  I consider table tennis a sport of grace and stamina, and firmly stand behind its Olympic status. It's even better when played with a frosty draft in your other hand. That's why Teddy's Tavern in the Roosevelt neighborhood is so great. Its spacious patio out back offers a ping-pong table that's... More >>
• Best Downtown Lunchtime Haven
  Find yourself famished in the downtown business district, and you're in a dilemma: Do you drop the money for a meal and a seat in a full-blown restaurant, or do you forgo the full respite of chewing in place and get something on the move? What if you could have your stationary lunch al fresco... More >>
• Best Reason to Ride Your Bike Past the Museum of Flight
  Or: Holy crap, it's the Concorde! Tucked in the valley between West Seattle and Beacon Hill, East Marginal Way isn't the kind of road you would normally pick for a Sunday-afternoon bike ride. But it's the only way to experience the awesome power of suddenly coming across the Concorde, the... More >>
• Best Vacation For Hoo-Hoo Liberals
  Many of us hoo-hoo liberals—who sit at our desks at lunchtime eating organic yogurt and pears—like to get righteous with the whole "you are what you eat" argument. But how many are familiar with the bigger question surrounding that argument: "Do you know what you eat?" Some... More >>
• Best Place to Heckle the Ducks
  I demand a recount! Last year, Seattle Weekly told you the best place to heckle those obnoxious, amphibious tourist-mobiles, the Ducks, was the Pacific Inn Pub. But why abuse them on land when absolute devastation is achievable while kayaking alongside the vulnerable tourist traps on Lake Union?... More >>
• Best Unlikely Date Place
  While the classic dinner-and-a-movie date night is a tried-and-true method, it's become stale as the crustiest crouton in the box. It's time to get more creative—and what better place to take your sweetheart than the Woodland Park Zoo? Chances are it's been years since either of you has... More >>
• Best Place to Race Downhill Like a Bicycling Fool
  There are a lot of great hills in Seattle, and many of them would be amazing to ride down on your bicycle willy-nilly without so much as touching the brakes. But as tends to be the case with wonderful riding routes, these hills are often treacherously packed with traffic and other pedestrians.... More >>
• Best Place for Possibly-Social Climbing Along Multiple Routes
  For true rock climbers, the best climbing gym is, of course, outside. (Duh!) But for the rest of us 9-to-5-ers, Vertical World is a solid replacement for the natural world. They have routes for everyone and a fantastic boulder room, but one aspect truly sets these guys above the rest: They... More >>
• Best 'Hood to Avoid the Hipsters
  Damn! Seattle's hip. Seattle's so hip that when a spot gets hip, it's already not hip. I, a very unhip person, can't hope to keep up. In fact, I'm opposed to it. When I see a hipster, I don't see originality, novelty, or irony, I just see testicles. So to hell with it, I'm going someplace where... More >>
• Best Place to Talk Surf
  Yes, we have surf in Washington, good surf. But if you think I'm going to tell you where it is, good luck, son, I'll just point you towards Westport. Same goes for Jeff Abandonato, the owner of Cheka Looka Surf Shop and resident Seattle shredder. Abandonato has one skill mandatory for all true... More >>