What to do on a weekend in Seattle?

If you’ve never been, you’ll probably enjoy riding the ducks. In addition to being pretty fun, it gives you a good tour of the city.

Romantic spots for viewing the skyline at night include the Alki area in West Seattle (just across the bay) and Kerry Park in Queen Anne.

Seattle has some great public art that is worth checking out, if you’re in to that kind of thing. Link

The underground tour is definitely worth it, although the value is more in the tour guide’s story of Seattle than the visuals. Seattle has a really fascinating history.

Take a ferry. Take the ferry to Bainbridge, for example. If I remember correctly, there’s a winery within walking distance on Bainbridge Island.

Spend some time in one of the parks. Seattle has a bunch and they’re quite nice—especially those along the water.

If you or your wife like books at all, Elliot Bay books in Pioneer Square is a mecca.

I don’t remember the name, but there’s a restaurant in Pike Place market that’s really good. It’s a guy’s name and it’s cater corner from the fish market. You go upstairs to get to it. It overlooks the main square/intersection that has the giant “Public Market” sign. There are two restaurants in that building, one is more formal and the other more casual and hip. It’s the latter and it’s further upstairs.

Eat lots of seafood. It’s excellent. And drink lots of beer for the same reason.

Other ideas… museums—the Seattle Art Museum and others are quite good. If you want to see the mother of all Asian grocery stores, check out Uwajimaya.

Talk to people. Ask them for directions or whatever. People in Seattle are super nice and experiencing that can restore your faith in humanity.

Wow, I was going to contribute something seeing only one response, but kevbo basically nailed it. The only things I might add are…

If you like fried dough, there are some delicious doughnut places around Pike’s Market. One is actually in the market near the fish throwing place, but the other is called Top Pot and is nearby I believe. It’s not off the beaten path at all (touristy for sure), but delicious. I think the restaurant kevbo is talking about in Pike’s Market might be Lowell’s? I can picture it in my head but I’m not sure if that’s it or not.

Underneath Pike’s Market is Post Alley, where there is a little tiny theater that has theatre sports every friday and saturday night. I suggest buying tickets ahead of time and getting there early as people line up outside.

Sometimes the Seattle Art Museum has cool exhibits.

If it’s a nice day outside Greenlake is a beautiful park where you can walk or bike or maybe even paddleboat around. It’s in North Seattle.

If you’re meat eaters, I wouldn’t take a trip to Seattle without swinging by either Burgermaster or Dick’s. They are both chains and have a few locations around town. MMMmmm…..

Another cool thing you can do if it’s nice weather is to take a little canoe ride around Lake Washington. You can rent canoes and paddles at the UW and boat all around that area. You can even pack a little lunch and take it with you.

Enjoy it! Like kevbo said, people are super friendly and awesome.

Yeah, it wasn’t Lowell’s, although that place looks just as good. It might have been Mike’s or Mark’s or Pete’s or something.

@Emily LOL!!! My friend/roommate and his girlfriend hung out a lot when I was living there and one of her/our favorite phrases was “mmmm…. Dick’s.”

Aha! Matt’s in the Market.

I couldn’t sleep the last time I was in Seattle.

If you like taco “stands,” (this is actually a little hole in the wall), check out Malena’s in Queen Anne, on McGraw street. Their food is inexpensive and so good. Take it with you though, there isn’t really any place to sit.

If you want to walk around outside, try going to the Arboretum, but walking North out of it—you’ll find your way into a freeway graveyard—pieces of 520 cloverleaf and interchange that are still up but with no traffic-flow anymore. If you’re daring and willing to ignore the no trespassing signs, you can walk all the way across the freeway via old overpass.

thank you all! Great ideas. I will let you all know what we do!

@stevenb – What did you end up doing?