Outings >>

• Best Expansion Franchise (3 Comments)
  Seattle Mist
  No, it's not the Sounders. Those guys are great and all—but they're not the Seattle Mist. Here's how it is: Most meat-eating straight males love football, and that same demographic also loves really hot chicks. Put the two together, and you've got the Mist, Seattle's soon-to-debut (9/11 is... More >>
• Best New Pedestrian Flight Path
  T. Evans Wyckoff Memorial Bridge
  It's a bleak, inhospitable wasteland, a pedestrians' death-trap, rutted by semis, dotted by potholes, avoided by anyone with common sense. And yet East Marginal Way is now a pleasure to traverse, thanks to the T. Evans Wyckoff Memorial Bridge that takes pedestrians from the Museum of Flight's... More >>
• Best In-City Escape: North Seattle
  Ravenna Trails
  In flusher times, the Fairmont Olympic Hotel's five-diamond, 3,000-foot penthouse suite, equipped with a king-size bed, Jacuzzi, grand piano, dining table for 16, and decorative fireplace might have been our pick for best urban escape, but times are hard. Instead, why not try the 4.5-mile oasis... More >>
• Best In-City Escape: South Seattle
  Kubota Garden
  The landscape of Kubota Garden looks at once completely, utterly natural and laden with purpose—perhaps the ultimate achievement of its designer's 50 years of care and planning. Japanese immigrant Fujitaro Kubota bought the garden's original 5-acre parcel in the 1920s, tending it and expanding... More >>
• Best View on the Northbound I-5
  The Bettie Page House
  Wearing nothing but black panties and sheer stockings, pinup girl Bettie Page gazes down seductively at thousands of commuters driving across I-5 every day. Ravenna resident and Page fan Chris Brugos employed a friend to paint the icon's curvy figure on the side of his home four years ago. "I... More >>
• Best Neighborhood to Get Lost In
  South Park
  Look, there's a metal fabrication facility next to a craftsman bungalow! Wait, over there, a wholesale coffee warehouse next to a marina! Check it out: a Mexican grocery and a union hall! And what's that: A scrap yard next to boat storage next to a ramshackle duplex next to a plantation-style... More >>
• Best Neighborhood That Nobody Seems to Think Is a Good Neighborhood
  The U District
  Everybody loves to shit on the U District. Yeah, OK, you're more liable to encounter panhandlers there than in any neighborhood outside of downtown, drugs are readily available (and with respect to weed, often being smoked openly by passersby), and the "Ave rat" phenomenon has never really... More >>
• Best Viewpoint You've Never Heard Of (2 Comments)
  31st Avenue South in Mount Baker
  When you want a stunning view encompassing both the downtown skyline and the Puget Sound, where do you go? Alki Beach, Queen Anne's Highland Drive, and...31st Avenue South in Mount Baker. Not many people know about the latter, the exception being patrons of That's Amore Italian Café, who... More >>
• Best Soccer Dad (Whose Kids Aren't in the League)
  Larry McCann
  Every soccer mom and dad on Beacon Hill knows Larry McCann. He's the tall, lanky fellow who can be found before game season painting field lines in the dark with a camping light strapped to his head, the same guy who sorts out team uniforms, draws up schedules, sends constant e-mails, and shows... More >>
• Best Day Trip for Out-Of-Town Guests (2 Comments)
  Port Townsend
  The trip to Port Townsend is nearly as compelling as your final destination, easily allowing you to chalk up that drive time to your guests as just another part of the Northwest experience. There's the boat from Seattle (take your pick: Kingston, Bainbridge, Bremerton), the drive through Kitsap,... More >>
• Best Shuffle-Off-to-Buffalo
  Cameo Carrabba Dance
  Stomping around after a long day is way more satisfying with metal screwed to the bottoms of your shoes. That might not be why tap shoes were invented, but it should have been. As an adult, it's rare you get to kick-ball-change away your troubles, but Cameo Carrabba Dance doesn't believe life... More >>
• Best Tourist Attraction to Satisfy Your Dad
  Hiram M. Chittenden Locks
  A visit from dear old Dad always brings the inevitable panic over what the hell you're going to do with him. If he's anything like mine, he's only happy when his wallet remains securely in his pocket. That's why the totally free Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Ballard are a sure bet. What is it... More >>
• Best Way to Enjoy the Seattle Skyline
  Alki Kayak Tours
  It's amazing how different the world looks just a few feet below our normal vantage point. Rent a sea kayak from Alki Kayak Tours and see Seattle as a dog does—except from the water. The buildings tower in a way that's a little more intimidating. The street-level hustle fills your ears, and you... More >>
• Best Place to Psych Yourself Up for a Job Interview
  Stone Gardens
  It's been a tough year. Everyone, it seems, is either collecting unemployment or working under the dark cloud of possible layoffs. Job-hunting has become a daunting task, seemingly insurmountable. What you need is a little achievement to put some confidence in your step. And there's no better... More >>
• Best Sketched-Out Place for a Little Morning Glory
  Freeway Park
  You can live in Seattle for years without ever discovering that a park spanning the tops of buildings and across the freeway even exists. Then one day you're on foot, trying to get from downtown to Capitol Hill in time for happy hour, when you stumble into this surprisingly expansive urban... More >>
• Best Place to Firm Up Your Core and Your Wallet
  Young Pilates
  Regardless of the economic climate, new pilates studios seem to spring up around this city every month. While almost anyone who's been to a few classes will tell you it's a wildly effective and enjoyable way to get svelte, limber, and strong, it's also prohibitively expensive for... More >>
• Best Beach Volleyball
  Alki Beach Sand Courts
  There's fun, mess-around beach volleyball, and then there's hardcore, no-nonsense beach volleyball. You can easily find both kinds on the Alki Beach sand courts. Middle-schoolers hitting the ball at one another randomly, teenagers playing volleyball-related drinking games, and grandmas getting... More >>
• Best Spot to Run Into the Random People You Thought You'd Never See Again After High School
  Madison Beach
  Let the awkward times ensue at Madison Beach. The beach is literally divided into elementary-school, middle-school, high-school, and college zones, from south to north. So wherever you are in standardized education, you're bound to run into people you know. Crazy ex-girlfriends, a creepy lab... More >>
• Best Place to be a Rabid Soccer Fan in an Authentic Atmosphere
  Azzurri Vino Bar
  To Seattle's map of well-loved Euro-outposts, like the George and Dragon and Cafe Presse, can now be added Azzurri Vino Bar, which recently opened in Fremont. The spot is small, but boasts three flat screens perpetually tuned to Italian soccer (or the Sounders, if they're playing), an affordable... More >>
• Best Activity for Determining if Your Date's a Tool
  Feeding the Seagulls
  To most, the obese seagulls hanging around Ivar's Seafood Bar on the waterfront are a nuisance. Their incessant begging for fried food is considered charming only by children and Japanese tourists. But their behavior can actually be used to your advantage—that is, if you're single. Feeding the... More >>
• Best Site for a New Olympic Games
  Cal Anderson Park
  The Olympics are great and all, but some of the sports are just so...archaic. After all, outside of sleeper cells and prep schools, who does archery or fencing? What the International Olympic Committee lacks is a window into the sports of the people, the salt of the earth, from places like... More >>
• Best Place to Hold a Combination Wedding/Personal Workout Session
  The Rose Garden at Elliott Bay Park
  It's the day you've been waiting for. Your closest family and friends are gathered, sun-drenched in their finest, inhaling the sweet fragrance of the twin rows of rose bushes. The flower girl, her bow tied just so, swings her petal-filled basket. In the distance, the majestic Olympics hold vigil... More >>
• Best Place for a (Bicycling) Date
  Port of Seattle Terminal 107 Park
  The air is good, the view is better, and this out-of-the-way West Seattle park will more than meet your need for romantic seclusion. Pack a picnic of finger foods and a nice bottle of wine, and head west on South Spokane Street (under the West Seattle Bridge), then south on West Marginal Way.... More >>
• Best Spot to Pretend to Fly
  The Unused Overpass Off Highway 520
  Let's face it, everyone at some point in their youth donned a bed sheet, swimming goggles, and aerodynamic socks and ran full-throttle off the back porch in an attempt to fly. Oh, you didn't? Well, there's still time. It may or may not be legal, but you can't beat the adrenaline rush of jumping... More >>
• Best Tour of Elliott Bay
  The Ferry to Bremerton
  There are plenty of reasons not to visit Bremerton. Too many, in fact, to present here. But there is at least one compelling reason to do so: the Ferry to Bremerton. It's not just a better ride than the one most tourists take to Bainbridge, it's one-fifth the price of the tour Argosy makes to... More >>
• Best Place for a Scenic and Virtuous Workout
  Lake Union Crew
  It's easy to say no to a sweaty, dingy gym early in the morning. However, once you watch the sun rise over the Cascades as you skim across the glassy waters of the Montlake Cut in a sleek rowing shell, you'll never go back. Located on the east shore of Lake Union near the Eastlake Grill, Lake... More >>
• Best Place to Pee on the Burke-Gilman trail
  Tracy Owen Station (aka Log Boom Park)
  Seattle-area parks generally offer abundant places to relieve oneself—old brick Tudor-style restrooms built during the Olmstead era or the WPA '30s; pressed-concrete monstrosities that generally date to the cheapskate '70s and '80s. For users of the Burke-Gilman Trail, however, micturition... More >>