Gorgeous cave system with a really great lighting setup. It's a bit hard to access if you aren't a native Chinese speaker, so you might want to find a tour that offers English-speaking guides. Also, just a word of warning, you DON'T want to go in the summer months - the heat inside the caves can get downright unbearable.
When I first saw the statue of Lenin, I wondered why the hell they'd have something like that in the middle of Seattle. Turns out, it's a really interesting story - the thing is actually from Czechoslovakia. After the fall of communism, it was removed from Lenin's Square and taken to a scrapyard. An American English teacher in Poprad found it, bought it for 13K, and shipped it home to Seattle where it's been since. Pretty neat.
It's not uncommon to see Lenin dressed up for different holidays, but seeing him decked out in feather boas for Pride is the absolute best.
A very nice aquarium, and one of the best I've ever been to personally. It should be, considering the area. Just recently, it got a pretty hefty upgrade which added loads of new exhibits.
Best time to visit might seem counterintuitive, but fall and winter are great because the place empties out and there's way less tourists or class field trips going on.
Just in case anyone gets confused, the Official Bad Art Museum of Art is located inside Cafe Racer. The museum is free for all, but don't be a dick, at least buy a cup of coffee if you're going to check it out.
You don't NEED to take the ferry if you're just visiting, but you should. For just $8 round trip, you get a nice tour ride to the islands and back. There's even a cafeteria on the ferry if you want to grab a cup of coffee and a snack while you catch the breeze.
Seattle is a strange place, and the "Haunted Soda Machine" is a good example as to why. It's been there for years, but no one knows who stocks it, or when, and with all the mystery buttons, you never know what you're going to get. Heck, a lot of people are surprised to find cans that they didn't even know where in production any more.
A worthy diversion for any weird trip, even if just to see one of the stranger objects in the city.
Pretty cool statue, but the view is the best part about this location. What's really fun is to take a picture with the statue positioned just right, and it'll totally look like you're in New York.
AWESOME tour. I didn't even realize that present-day Seattle was built over top of old-Seattle. Very neat to get a chance to go down into the tunnels and explore the parts of the city that everyone else forgot.
Definitely worth the admission, and you get a free keepsake at the end!
This is the comic book shop that got me back into comics after the Spider-clone saga killed them for me. The owner is a great guy who genuinely loves comic books, and like any good dealer, he gave me the first hit free (a free issue of Scalped #1) and told me he promised me I would love it. I did, and I was going back every week for more.
Forget the big box guys downtown, go here for your fix.
One of the most inspiring sights in the city of Seattle. The tiny house that Edith Macefield refused to sell to developers, causing them to actually build a shopping mall AROUND it, has become a symbol for the wonderfully weird Ballard neighborhood, and it's great to see.
Right now, it's all boarded up and fenced off, but there are plans in motion to actually turn it into a little garden where people can appreciate the statement Edith made. Until then, it's a great place to reflect on your own thoughts about "selling out to the man". Or, you know, just take a cool picture of a neat place and move on.