Review A Seattle Vacation

Located along the Puget Sound in the shadow of Mount Rainier, Seattle is known as both the "Emerald City" and the "Star of the Pacific Northwest."  The fashionable locale offers a hip, urban environment influenced by outdoor style and activities.  Once a thriving port town that served the timber industry, Seattle is famous these days for coffee and microchips.  When you visit, make sure not to miss the Space Needle or the Ferry.  It's even likely that rainy days won't dampen your fun when you sightsee, shop, and sample exceptional foods in this vibrant city.  Seattle, after all, is young at heart and still defining itself as the young are wont to do.

Talk about a caffeine fix!  Seattle has become world-renowned for its coffee culture since the first Starbucks opened at Pike Place Market in 1971.  Coffeehouses with an eclectic mix of offerings abound in a city that sells more specialty coffees than any other in the world.  So don't just ask for a cup of joe - how about a macchiato or a caffe caramel?

Here comes the rain again... Seattle may have a reputation for rainy days, but it's not completely deserved.  Locked between mountains, warm offshore currents, and cold fronts from the north, Seattle averages 37 inches of rain a year.  Believe it or not, New York and Miami are wetter.  Nevertheless, the best months to visit tend to be July and August.

The Space Needle, Seattle's premier landmark, rotates 360 degrees to provide breath-taking views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains from its restaurant and observation deck.  The 605-foot tower was designed for the 1962 World's Fair. It and the surrounding park draw 9 million visitors a year.

Detroit may have Motown and Nashville the Opry, but Seattle also has a place in the heart of modern music.  The city's club scene gave birth to grunge bands Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. Revolutionary 1960s rocker Jimi Hendrix was also from Seattle.

Seattle is home to corporate giants Boeing and Microsoft, but only the aircraft manufacturer is available for tours.  The public can wander through an airplane assembly plant that's so large, it makes even 747s look small.  Bill Gates' Microsoft, on the other hand, is off-limits.  You're free to drive through the Microsoft campus, but its museum is open only to employees, their families, and friends.

Swimming upstream is an annual Seattle pastime for more than a half-million salmon and trout.  You can catch a glimpse of the fish at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks' fish ladder as they head to their spawning grounds in Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains. While you're there, watch out, too, for sea lions, who find the area a prime place to catch dinner.

Take along some extra clothing and help support public art.  Seattle's Fremont neighborhood is home to a sculpture of commuters called "Waiting for the Interurban." The lifelike statues are often adorned by locals with hats, scarves and other clothing that's been cast aside.