Best Redevelopment Along the WaterfrontFinally, after some three years of con­struction and

Best Redevelopment Along the WaterfrontFinally, after some three years of con­struction and trail closures, Myrtle Edwards Park has emerged from the clutches of the dreaded Denny Way/Lake Union Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) project, which was begun in 2001. All that orange fencing and the trail closures/rerouting are coming to end, and the park is again a haven for businesspeople gazing across the tranquil expanse of crystalline blue Elliott Bay on their lunch breaks, yoga loyalists desiring a spot to lose their thoughts in the humming wind, and joggers, walkers and cyclists traveling down the park’s 1.25-mile paths. Better still, the plaza by the “Denny Regulator”—the bunkerlike building in the little cove—has been completely revamped. New landscaping and trees have been added, including 20 Jacquemontii Birch, 26 Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry, and eight Shore Pines. As the world turns on the iconic Seattle P-I sign to the east and the sun sets to the west, it’s nice to again have this oasis of serenity.—Emily Page 3130 Alaskan Way W., 206-684-4075.Best Bastions of Old-School Sin and DebaucherySeattle is down to a precious few remnants of its Skid Road past. It’s easier to name the dead joints than the living, now that even the old Turf and old Rendezvous have been upscaled and Sorry Charlie’s reborn as the Mirabeau (See Food & Drink, “Best Bar Makeover”). That leaves bar divers to improvise: Go to the 200 Block of First Avenue South, the home of the J&M Cafe, Central Saloon, and Larry’s Blues Cafe (formerly Greenfront) when there’s no live music and the regulars are holding forth (OK, so it might be 6 a.m., but you can sober up and go to work by noon). The other option is First and Pike, crossroads of mental health. Nearby are such great longtime joints as Lowell’s, Athenian Inn, Patty Summers, and the Pike Place Bar & Grill (again, go early or very late, when the tourists are gone). They’re all within staggering distance of the Pike Place Market and in range of the two First Avenue nude-dance emporiums (where no alcohol is served), Deja Vu and the Lusty Lady. Alas, before the Fun Police took over Seattle, you could get both nudity and booze in one place. But there’s nothing wrong with stretching your legs between bacchanalias.—Rick AndersonBest Place to Find Distinctive Accessories Without Draining Your Bank Account and Looking Like a Cap Hill CloneIt’s hard to find a boutique where you can buy interesting, locally designed earrings, bracelets, and handmade bags without being forced to sell your soul (or organs) for the means to shop there. Lipstick Traces, the funky Capitol Hill boutique known for its artistic flair, manages to provide an array of unique accessories designed by both area and international artists. Accessories range from beautiful leather wallets and purses that are reasonably priced and stylin’ to imaginative bracelets (think reinvented elementary-school rulers), dangerously dangly earrings, and colorful pins created from random objects and images. Established in 1999, Lipstick Traces seems to have found its niche on the Hill, and with its indomitable style, sensible prices, and friendly service (owner Jennifer Gallucci is usually on hand to answer questions), this vibrant shop has its own niche in my heart as the best place to pick up a little something to spice up your ensemble.—Heather Logue 500 E. Pine St., 206-329-2813.Best City Playground for Kids to Run Free (and Parents to Relax)Of course the CARKEEK PARK playground offers the requisite cool slides, swings, teeter-totters, and climbing equipment, but this 216-acre park has so much more. Volunteers put a lot of time into creating a really distinctive playground area with a huge slide in the shape of a salmon, all kinds of wild little rock outcroppings, and poured concrete caves that are perfect for climbing, imagining, hide-and-seek, and tag. Send your kids off to play by themselves and gaze out at fantastic views of shimmering, boat- covered Puget Sound with a backdrop of the magnificent Olympic Mountains. There’s also a nice adjacent expanse of lawn for games of catch or pickup baseball, football, and soccer (if you’re feeling ambitious). If the kids (or you) grow bored, take the pedestrian footbridge over the railroad tracks—note the teachable moment for a railway-safety lecture—to the wonders of the beach. And be sure to check out the salmon-bearing Pipers Creek that runs through the park and traverse Carkeek’s many trails, all of them perfect introductory hiking grounds for little legs.—George Howland Jr. 950 N.W. Carkeek Park Rd., 206-684-4075.Best Place to Lust After Your Fantasy CarSince the most fantastic convertible in the world right now is a cat-eyed sex kitten called the Lotus Elise, and the only local dealer where you can see one is Park Place Ltd., that should logically be the place for the test drive of your dreams. Only you can’t drive it! It’s strictly there to tempt you into plunking down a refundable $1,000 deposit for the privilege of getting on the waiting list. Why are people so gaga over a car that’s easier to enter through the roof than through the door? A car that you put on like an aluminum suit? Partly, it’s that lightness—under 2,000 pounds—that enables a Toyota engine to achieve Ferrari performance: 0 to 60 in less than five seconds, for less than $40K. It’s like a rocket sled that will stretch your face into an accelerated grimace of bliss. But if you can’t wait three years to take a spin, there is an alternative. By mid-August, Park Place expects to have one you can rent. For a good time, call, and just ask for Elise.—Tim Appelo 13824 Northup Way (Bellevue), 425-562-7200.Best Tourist Attraction Where You Can Park Your Visiting In-laws for the Day—Without Guilt!How about an adult playground? The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks boast intriguing machinery, wildlife, and gardens that are guaranteed to entertain any out-of-town guest. Completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1917, the locks are a famous engineering wonder; they raise and lower boats between the freshwater of Lake Union and the saltwater of Salmon Bay. Fascinated onlookers can watch for hours as boats of all shapes and sizes tie up and the floodgates open, spilling water into the man-made canal and elevating the boats from their place way below the rows of viewers up to eye level. If that gets tiring, visitors to the free attraction can venture to the fish ladder’s underground viewing facility and watch the chain of spawning salmon making their way back and forth—plus the occasional sea lion looking for an easy meal (although this practice has been greatly discouraged in recent years). Other attractions include a 7-acre ornamental garden and a visitors center, which contains historical information about the locks.—Melissa Overbeck 3015 N.W. 54th Ave. S. Seattle, 206-783-7059.Best Place to Lust After an iPod—and Walk Out With an iMacWell, OK, our household already has an iPod, and we already have an iMac. We’ve even got an iBook. But they’re all more than a year old! It’s important to keep up with what’s new, just in case, and the official Apple Store is the place. I drop by the U Village location so frequently that I know exactly which PowerBook I’ll buy when the iBook dies—oops! I dropped it!—and how it’ll be configured. Apple’s makeover from mere innovator to skilled retailer in recent years has been fun. iPods are literally on a pedestal. Those and everything else on display in here works for your hands-on examination. You can learn exactly how to download and edit photos and video and how to manage your digital music collection by using the actual hardware and software. The store offers regular big-screen demos. It’s spacious. There’s a kindergarten-size table with eMacs configured for kids. Steve Jobs has achieved the unthinkable—a place where men actually like to shop.—Chuck Taylor 2656 N.E. University Village St., 206-524-8100; and 106 Bellevue Square (Bellevue), 425-709-2555.Best Place for Toyota Prius and Honda Insight Owners to Drag raceWanna race? Eat my voltage, sucker! True, the speed bumps and general congestion in the parking lots of Golden Gardens Park don’t make this the ideal venue for full-throttle competition between hot rods. But that’s not why you bought a hybrid vehicle, is it? The real pleasure to this long-standing favorite picnic spot of the “pimp my ride crowd” is just to show off your wheels at low speed, to turn up the tunes and pop the hood for inspection—then head over to the barbecue area or beach. You can wow the other motorists with your low-emission, high-mileage ride, revving the engine madly and producing almost no sound. Compare notes with other green racers on who gets the better mpg and who spends the least on fuel each month. Pretty soon, the envious owners of those low-rider Hondas and high-rider Escalades may come over to start asking questions—which means you’re the winner of the eco-derby.—Brian Miller 8498 Seaview Pl. N.W., 206-684-4075.Best Real-Estate Porn SiteI’m not saying the best houses are found on the Windermere.com Web site, but I do know that it’s unutterably miserable to drive around town looking at For Sale signs until you go blind, and it’s ineffably fun to surf around for homes using Windermere’s new Property Point map feature. You can zoom in from a region stretching between Twisp and Tacoma, then drill down through Western Washington, greater Seattle, Wallingford, then your favorite block therein. Move north, south, east, or west, and punch in all kinds of criteria to limit your search. The only thing you have to be careful about is the transition between the virtual and physical worlds. Like angry kings who married wives sight unseen based on portraits by Renaissance masters (or like online dating today), you may discover that the photos on the Web site make the place look a darn sight nicer than the reality. At some point, you’re going to have to leave that keyboard, grab the car keys, and make a physical visit. That’s why they call it real estate.—Tim AppeloBest Place to Propose in Your Dress-Up ClothingA proposal calls for pampering—in other words, a place that makes you feel, at least for one night, that you’re the only two people on the planet. Canlis doesn’t fall short of this ideal (see also Food & Drink, “Readers’ Picks”). Roland Terry’s landmark 1950 design and rows of tiny, perfectly dimmed ceiling lights create a mellow, romantic ambiance. Impeccable service and exquisitely prepared food also help set the right mood. For those planning to pop the big question, Canlis offers dining for two in the Cache, an intimate room nestled in a corner of the second floor. The Cache holds a single table surrounded on two sides by picture windows with breathtaking views of the city. Music can be piped in from the live pianist downstairs, or you can bring your own suitable CD—the room has its own audio system—for when the Tiffany box gets opened. And what to accompany that blissful, private dance? How ’bout Lionel Richie’s “Lady”? —Melissa Overbeck 2756 Aurora Ave N., 206-283-3313.Best Place to Propose Barefoot in the SandThe light at the end of your solo-traveled tunnel is located in Discovery Park. The West Point Lighthouse is a quaint landmark by day, but come sunset, the point morphs into a little-known romantic hot spot for the Teva and Birkenstock set. Stroll along the bark-strewn sands with ring in hand—or in your REI daypack, more likely, along with some champagne—and grab a front-row boulder for the natural light show that will ensue. With water lapping against the rocks and a collage of pink, orange, and purple melting across the sky, the stage will be set for your big moment of nerve-racking, stammering, sweaty-palmed truth. The place doesn’t draw a huge crowd, which works in your favor either way. If “I do” follows with a gush of tearful joy, you can make out undisturbed. If the fairy-tale ending turns out to have been a foolish fantasy, at least there isn’t a stadium full of witnesses and “Will you marry me?” still up there on the Safeco Field scoreboard.—Emily Page Discovery Park Visitors Center: 1900 W. Nickerson Pl., 206-386-4236.Best Place to Smoke Without ShameThe crowd is decidedly mixed at Canterbury Ale & Eats, a longtime Capitol Hill hangout: everyone from hipsters with PBRs to older neighborhoodies to chronic drunks hanging onto the bar. But they all have one thing in common—a cigarette in their hands or dangling from their mouths. Nobody here gives a damn about the smoke or overflowing ashtrays. This is Tobacco Road. This is a public health official’s worst nightmare. This is Marlboro Country. On weekend evenings, especially, the smoke can be as thick as in any Texas barbecue pit. You can walk in here and take pride in lighting up. Warning: Leave your contacts at home or your eyes will sting all night. (OK, there is a small nonsmoking section, but hardly anyone sits there.)—Philip Dawdy 534 15th Ave. E., 206-322-3130.Best Free PC Tech SupportHow about somebody who fixes your crashed computer by phone, for free? Paul Songer and the other troubleshooters at Protosoft will do it by e-mail, too—if you can get a message out. The idea is that they’ll help you out of one jam so that you’ll remember them when you need a serious repair job. (Protosoft also serves businesses in addition to its home troubleshooting.) The Seattle tech company may also offer one of the few computer-repair-service Web sites that features news headlines, traffic cameras, and downloadable programs for computer security and repair. All free, of course.—Rick Anderson 206-628-0791, www.protosoft.com.Best New Ballard BoutiqueWhenever local designer Tes de Luna thought about opening a boutique, she had a damn good success story to inspire her: Her boyfriend, Jason Hughes, is co-owner of Sonic Boom Records, a favored local mini-chain of indie-rock shops. When space opened up next door to Hughes’ headquarters in Ballard earlier this summer, Velouria—named after the Pixies song, naturally—was born. With an emphasis on handmade, unique, and one-of-a-kind designs, de Luna’s store is stocked with graphic tops by local artist Sam Trout, kicky skirts by a modern-minded Austin duo, and all manner of reworked vintage gear and inspired inventions. In the jewelry case are delicate necklaces fixed with stones and beads that spell out Morse code translations of indelicate words and phrases. From the local label Figure 23, these necklaces seem representative of what Velouria is all about: understated, alluring sass.—Laura Cassidy 2205 N.W. Market St., 206-788-0330.Best Source of Downtown Amusement, Consternation, and TerrorThe alien invaders began their secret takeover of our city streets this spring. Their cryptic markings were at first ignored and overlooked. Invisibly they spread—until panic erupted. Where did the parking meters go??? Gone, replaced, supplanted in stages by the podlike Payment Stations now sprouting all over downtown, usually one per block. The old-school-meter people understood: Stuff in some change and turn the crank. These silent sentinels of parking compliance are a different matter; here we see befuddled users spending as much time studying the things are their cars spend in the actual spaces. The stations take coins, credit cards, and debit cards. Then they spit out a sticky-backed receipt that motorists are supposed to affix to the inside of their vehicle windows. It sounds so simple, so reasonable, so innocent—just like all schemes of world domination! In two years’ time, some 9,000 of these stern, solar-topped automatons will rule the city streets! Submit to their will or suffer the consequences! People of Seattle, bow down before your new robot leaders!—Brian MillerBest Scandinavian Incursion Into DowntownCall it the beginnings of Little Ballard if you like—and certainly a better name than West Edge. Tuuli offers brightly colored home furnishings, clothing, and accessories imported from Finland. Owned and operated by a Finish-American mother-and-daughter team, this compact boutique also features spirited fashion and jewelry from around the Northwest, but it’s the striking, bold Scandinavian graphic prints that draw you in. Along with confidently striped T-shirts and vivid shoulder bags, Tuuli features cotton, linen, and oilcloth textiles from the Finnish company Marimekko. The fabrics, daring and almost narrative in their graphic designs, can be purchased by the yard. Because Tuuli only keeps a handful of bolts of fabric on hand, full catalogs are available and special orders can be made. Got empty wall space? Tuuli and Marimekko recommend stretching a large square of the stuff across a wood frame and calling it art.—Laura Cassidy 1407 First Ave., 206-223-1112.Best Beach to Barbecue Beef Without Enduring the Scorn of Your Vegan FriendsThe key to happiness in barbecuing by the beach may be not getting too close to the beach. Because the most picturesque spot to do so is way up the steep, treeless bluff from the shore at the Richmond Beach Saltwater Park Upper Picnic Shelter in Shoreline, where vegans won’t know what you’re up to because the town is zoned for meat eaters. It’s right past the park entrance, next to the old asphalt strip where teenagers used to park, slurp beer, and hope that the Wagnerian view of the sunset haloing the Olympics might put a date in a snuggly frame of mind. Now Shoreline city fathers have replaced the parking strip with vegetation—perhaps to cut down on the number of teenage city fathers—and installed a picnic facility beneath it. (There’s an adjacent playground also blessed with Kodak-moment views.) It only costs $60 weekdays and $70 weekends to reserve the shelter all day for up to 100 people—or even more, at 50 cents an additional head. There’s another picnic shelter down on the beach, plus plenty of free picnic tables (first come, first served). The beachside campfire ring is cool, too, even if you’re more inclined to roast tofu on a stick.—Tim Appelo 2021 N.W. 190th St., 206-418-3383.Best Place to Decorate Your New Belltown CondoYou’ve moved in. You’ve got a fabulous view. You’re living out of cardboard boxes with a futon on the floor. It’s time to grow up and graduate beyond the level of interior decor by IKEA and curbside donation. How convenient, then, that Chartreuse moved last fall from Capitol Hill to its new First Avenue digs, almost quadrupling its floor space, now filled with really cool stuff. Inside, you’ll find vintage Aalto chairs, new Blu-Dot shelving units, the occasional Eames original, newer knockoffs (e.g., the Corbusier lounge chair), and all kinds of bright plastic creations by Kartell. In addition to the blond-wood Scandinavian seating, retro plastic is a particular specialty here, with items by William Castle, Ron Arad, and Eero Saarinen that make you feel as if you’ve stumbled onto the set of Sleeper. Not all these retro furnishings will max out the plastic in your pocket, however; Chartreuse also has lots of affordable consignment items you’d never find at a yard sale. Basic housewares like plastic mugs by Massimo Vignelli start at $5. And owning a Frank Gehry–designed teapot from Alessi is, on a daily basis, a cheaper and more rewarding experience than going to EMP. Plus, that way you’ll never have to worry about someone turning your home into a science-fiction museum—Brian Miller 2609 First Ave., 206-328-4844, www.modchartreuse.com.Best Place to Pose for a Wedding PhotoWhen it comes to planning a wedding, happy couples often get swept up in flora fever. Rose petals must be prepared for the bride’s journey down the aisle. Elaborate flower arrangements are ordered to garnish every reception table. Much thought goes into a single bouquet that will be launched into the air when the festivities are through. So where better to preserve such weddings photographically than in the Washington Park Arboretum? The queen mother of all flower arrangements, so to speak, the Arb features collections of rhododendron, azalea, magnolia, Japanese maple, and dozens of other species. With such botanical diversity, newlyweds are guaranteed thriving plants in every season, ready to bloom their way into the next family photo album.—Emily Page Graham Visitors Center: 2300 Arboretum Dr. E., 206-543-8800.Best Fantasy Ride to Pretend You’re Lance ArmstrongYou’re dancing on the pedals! All of France is cheering as you power up the 21 switchbacks of the fabled L’Alpe d’Huez—the hardest climb in the Alps! You’ve broken the competition! You’re 10 minutes ahead of your nearest rivals! You’ve shattered the peloton! You’ve climbed 3,350 feet to near the summit finish on . . . well, you’re actually on the Lake Washington Boulevard/ I-90/Mercer Island Loop, which is pretty much flat—but a cyclist can dream, right? For a rider of any caliber, the loop is one of Seattle’s nicest and most scenic routes. Start anywhere along Lake Washington Boulevard, then follow the signs up to the I-90 portal beneath Mount Baker (this is actually the hardest, steepest incline). Then enjoy the awesome views from the protected bike lane over to M.I. After that, the twisty, shaded circuit around the island is a treat with some gentle rises and downhill recoveries. The two-lane road is narrow, with scant shoulders, but motorists are generally polite and deferential—giving plenty of room when passing. The crank home across the bridge can be hot (best to start early), but if you leave the car on the other shore, you can celebrate your ride with a splash in the lake. Then don the yellow jersey and exult in your victory!—Brian Miller