Where to Go When You're New to Seattle and Want to Impress Your Friends Back Home

Let’s start with the obvious. The quintessential Seattle landmark since its construction in 1962, the Space Needle is probably the only thing folks back home will think of when you tell them about your new digs. You can pay $16 to go to the top, or you can walk around Seattle Center for free and snap pictures of this googie gem. Just don’t try to capture one of you holding it up or you’ll just look like a tourist.

Buses: 3, 4, 5, 8, 16, 26, 28, 30, 82, 358; also, the monorail.

It’s an iconic Seattle landmark- a giant, smiling, lighted, rotating, pink elephant. Even if no one recognizes it from the many Seattle-based movies it’s supposedly been in, who cares? It’s a giant, smiling, lighted, rotating, pink elephant.

Buses: 5, 8, 26, 28, 39, 42, 54, 55, 358 and many more

People may not know Pike Place Market by name, but if you describe it as “the place where they throw the fish” folks will understand.

Buses: 10, 12, 15, 18, 21, 22, 56, 57, 81, 99, 113, 121, 122 and many more

Seattle may have a ba-jillion little independant coffee shops that serve great coffee, but your friends back home will be impressed that you’ve been to (and photographed) the first Starbucks. Extra points to taking a picture of the barista making the same exact drink that you can get in any one of Starbucks’ million locations.

Buses: 10, 12, 15, 18, 21, 22, 56, 57, 81, 99, 113, 121, 122 and many more

I love going to the Fremont Sunday Market. Antique junks, used clothes, furniture, crafts, arts and vintage stuffs.