Seattle - Overview
A trip to Seattle offers more opportunities to experience arts and culture than you can probably fit in, but you'll have fun trying. Seattle's cultural scene continues to flourish with nationally respected opera, ballet, art galleries, museums, festivals, and theater. In fact, according to a 2004 study by Americans for the Arts, the greater Seattle area has more arts-related businesses and organizations per capita than anywhere else in the US.
Music ranges from a lively club scene to a vital jazz community to the internationally-acclaimed Seattle Symphony. Experience Music Project celebrates popular music with one-of-a-kind mix of interactive exhibits, unique artifacts, and live performance, all in a mind-blowing building designed by Frank Gehry. The newly-opened Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, first of its kind in the world, shares space with the same landmark structure.
Whether your interests run to art, aviation, Nordic cultures, native cultures or history, Seattle's many museums offer something for everyone. Seattle's International Film Festival, held annually mid-May to mid-June, is the largest film festival in the country. In Seattle, art is lifestyle. Sculpture, murals and art installations liven up our community in sometimes unexpected places: on manhole covers, embedded in sidewalks, in bus tunnel stations and outdoor plazas.
Seattle's natural beauty inspires even the most committed couch potatoes. Add the inherent heartiness of the natives, and it's obvious why REI and Eddie Bauer found their niche here. After all, this is home to the likes of twin brothers Jim and Lou Whittaker, among the most famous American mountain climbers of the 20th century, who stroll up and down Mount Rainier about as often as most of us go out for a latte. The best in urban recreation is at your toes and at your fingertips around Seattle; spectacularly scenic golf, kayaking and canoeing, fishing and clamming, hiking, urban parks including Discovery Park (Magnolia neighborhood), Seward Park (Lake Washington) and Woodland Park Zoo and Rose Gardens.
Astrologers say that Seattle is a Scorpio town, fluid, enigmatic and defined by water. To the west lies saltwater Puget Sound; to the east, freshwater Lake Washington; in the middle, Lake Union. Everywhere, the focus is water, from our heritage to our future. Odyssey, the Maritime Discovery Center; The Seattle Aquarium on the downtown waterfront--the Center for Wooden Boats--waterfront parks-the waterfall fountains of Harbor Steps linking the waterfront to First Avenue just above.
Seattle's robust maritime heritage began when the Klondike Gold Rush established it as a major Pacific port in the 1890s, and it is still going strong. Fisherman's Terminal is a working commercial fishing port, the Port of Seattle is vital to marine trade, and the urban waterfront is booming with commercial, retail and tourist ventures. Ferries crossing Puget Sound and seaplanes lifting off from Lake Union support an island culture in the San Juans, on Vashon and Bainbridge, and two floating bridges spanning Lake Washington carry travelers east to west. Always listed in "Most Romantic Things to Do in Seattle" is taking a ferry ride... anywhere.
Compiled with the kind assistance of
The Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau.