Planning a trip to Seattle? Here are a few of the weirder things to check out while you're in town.
When you're planning a trip to this fun city, you'll naturally want to check out major attractions like the Space Needle and Pike Place. What about some of the more unusual things to do in Seattle? Our friends at Visit Seattle gave us a list of the more off-beat things to do in their city, and here are our five favorite picks for weird things to do and see in Seattle!
1. Fremont Troll: Visit the troll sitting right underneath the Aurora Bridge. Find the troll at the corner of 36th and Troll Avenue in the Fremont section of the city.
2. Ballard Locks: Lots to do here! Drop by the Carl S English Botanical Gardens and enjoy 7 acres of exotic plants and beautiful landscaping. Visit the Chittenden Locks in Ballard to watch the salmon climb the fish ladder on their way to spawn. Hop into a kayak and marvel at seals, sea lions, osprey, and more as you make your way around the Ballard Locks, and experience all the natural wonders of the area, up close. Check out Ballard Kayaks to see their options for a guided tour.
3. Seattle is famously considered one of the best foodie cities in the Northwest, and the many Michelin-starred eateries is a testament to how serious the city is about eating well executed meals with the finest ingredients. When restaurant NUE opened in 2015, the owners set out to serve "freakishly awesome food" from all over the world. It’s safe to call their menu ‘unusual’ -- you can order a dish featuring Thai water beetles -- and something you should definitely make time for.
4. Locals know all about the many museums dedicated to off-beat subjects, like the Official Bad Art Museum, where you can see all everything from velvet Elvis’s to sculptures made from Peeps. You can also stop at the Giant Shoe Museum at Pike Place. Our favorite weird museum is actually more of a museum-like shop.
The Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, located on the waterfront at Pier 54, was founded in 1899 by J. E. Daddy Standley, a local who liked to collect strange things such as whale bones, Native American artifacts like life-sized hand carved totem poles, shrunken heads from the Amazon, and real human mummies. The Shop has been run by the same family for 4 generations, and it’s been common over the years for museum curators to stop in and acquire artifacts for their collections.
5. On June 6th, 1889, the Great Fire of Seattle reduced 25 city blocks ash. To avoid a future tragedy, local officials passed new building codes that required fire-resistent materials (stone and brick), and mandated that the street level be raised to avoid floods more effectively. The old remains of shops, sidewalks and alleyways down in what used to be ‘street-level’ in Seattle continued to be used for a bit, and eventually also attracted a more shadowy element conducting criminal enterprises. To explore what's below the city, we recommend booking the Bill Spiedel Underground Tour, a 75-minute guided walking tour where you’ll learn about the city’s history and have a few laughs along the way. The tour company’s founder, Bill, was a Seattle original known for his wit and his dedication to preserving the city’s history. He founded the Underground Tour in 1965, and it’s truly one of the best ways to discover what’s hidden beneath the city streets.
Follow us on instagram for more #newsnotesanddeals on travel!
