!44: Seattle For The Sights - The Emerald City Beckons, With Fun Around Every Corner

!±8± Seattle For The Sights - The Emerald City Beckons, With Fun Around Every Corner

The Emerald City, as Seattle is affectionately known, has plenty to see and do, whether you are a fan of panoramic views, history, the arts, or flight.

Built in the early 1960s for the 1962 World's Fair, the Seattle Space Needle (400 Broad St) is an icon that towers 600 feet over the city. It includes an observation deck at 520 feet and a revolving restaurant, the second in the world when it was built. It only takes 43 seconds for an elevator to whisk you to the observation deck, but on a busy day you'll spend much longer waiting in line (insider tip: send one member of your party to buy tickets while you stand in line for the elevators). The view from the observation deck on a clear day is spectacular, with a 360-degree panorama of the city, the beautiful Puget Sound, Mount Rainier, and the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges.

The Space Needle is located in the Seattle Center (305 Harrison St), the site of the 1962 World's Fair and a 74-acre area encompassing a number of performing arts venues, including the Seattle Repertory Theatre (155 Mercer St), the Center House Theater (305 Harrison St), and McCaw Hall (321 Mercer St), home of the Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Key Arena (305 Harrison St), home of the Seattle Supersonics. The Center is home to the Pacific Science Center (200 Second Ave North) with the Boeing and Eames IMAX Theaters and the Seattle Laser Dome, as well as The Children's Museum (305 Harrison St), and a number of souvenir shops and eateries. The Experience Music Project (325 5th Ave N), celebrates the history of music in Seattle, and the Science Fiction Museum (325 Fifth Avenue North), is dedicated to science fiction film and television props and memorabilia, as well as rare science fiction books and film posters. The Seattle Center also has the Monorail station, a fun and scenic way to get to the downtown area of Seattle.

Pioneer Square (Jackson St and First Ave) is the site of the city's original settlement, and includes over 20 city blocks of red-brick buildings and Victorian-Romanesque architecture, more than 30 fine art galleries, over 200 unique and independently-owned shops, as well as a variety of popular nightclubs, sports bars and restaurants. It also features Smith Tower (506 Second Ave), which was the tallest building in the world outside of Manhattan when it opened in 1914; Klondike Gold Rush National Park (319 Second Ave South), which tells the story of Seattle's role in the Gold Rush and even features gold panning demonstrations; and the Triangle Building (551 First Ave South), which was the smallest hotel on the west coast when it was built in 1909 with just eight rooms. Pioneer Square is also the site of the Underground Tour (608 First Ave), a humorous, historic tour that takes you beneath the sidewalks to the site of the original city. After the Great Fire of 1889, the city was rebuilt 10-30 feet above the original city (to solve the problem of sewage runoff from the hills above), and the Underground Tour gives you the opportunity to see the original structures, as well as hear great stories about the city's colorful early residents.

Another of the famous sights is the Pike Place Market (First Street and Pike Place), the public market in Seattle since 1917. The Pike Place Market is the site of the famous fish-flying Pike Place Fish Market, and the home of the very first Starbuck's. There are also lots of shops with seafood, produce, crafts, sweets, and specialty foods plus restaurants and eateries. You can spend hours eating your way through the market, watching the fish-flying show, taking the guided tour, or just browsing in the shops. Insider tip: get there early to avoid the crowds (or just enjoy the people-watching).

The Seattle Aquarium (1483 Alaskan Way - Pier 59) offers visitors a tour of Pacific Ocean, Puget Sound and inland sea life. It includes a Giant Pacific Octopus, a Pacific Coral Reef exhibit, a tank of the strangest of underwater creatures, a tidepool of Washington's outer coast and Seattle's inland sea life, and the perennial favorite, the Marine Mammals exhibit with sea otters, harbor seals and fur seals, which includes an underwater viewing area.

The Seattle Art Museum (100 University St) features a diverse collection of objects from across cultures, exploring the connections between past and present. The Olympic Sculpture Park (2901 Western Ave) offers a stunning array of sculpture on nine acres of free and open space alongside Elliott Bay, with a view of the Olympic Mountains. The Seattle Asian Art Museum (1400 East Prospect Street), in a jewel-like historic building in Volunteer Park, is a lively international hub for Asian art and cultural activities.

Just outside Seattle (about 30 minutes north in Everett) is the popular Boeing Tour. Visitors get to see airplanes in different stages of manufacture and flight testing. The Museum of Flight in Seattle proper (9404 E Marginal Way South) features a collection of air and spacecraft, as well as other flight-related artifacts. Highlights include a retired Concorde, an Air Force F-5 supersonic fighter, the original Air Force One presidential airplane, the official archives of the original Flying Tigers/American Volunteer Group and the American Fighter Aces, a SR-71 Blackbird and F/A-18 Hornet.

To get an overview of Seattle's sights, take the Hop-On/Hop-Off Seattle Double Decker Tour (various locations), enjoy a Royal Argosy Lunch Cruise (1101 Alaskan Way) on the famous Elliott Bay, or indulge in a Savor Seattle Food Tour (8521B Interlake Ave., N). For kids and kids at heart, the Ride the Ducks of Seattle tour (516 Broad St) on an amphibious World War II vehicle is a fun, interactive tour that will show you Seattle from both land and water (including the famous Sleepless in Seattle houseboats).