Seattle’s Top 10 : Seattle Pastimes – Top 10 Cafés

1. Coffee Town

   Seattle’s
   signature beverage comes in myriad forms. The rampant availability of
   whole bean, latte, espresso, and basic drip created a coffee craze even
   before Starbucks went global. Though Seattelites love their streetside
   espresso carts and neighborhood cafés, the city is also home to
   Starbucks and its major competitors, Tully’s and Seattle’s Best Coffee.

   
   

   
   
   

   Cold coffee

2. Gardening

   Gardeners
   take advantage of the weather to grow astounding varieties of plants
   and trees that thrive in the mist and drizzle. Despite the short growing
   season, there’s enough sunshine to keep urban pea patches and botanical
   gardens as thick and green as the rainforests are tall.

3. Kites at GasWorks Park

   A favorite gathering spot is a hill overlooking Lake Union at GasWorks Park. The wind patterns at this point attract kite flyers of all ages.

4. Public Art

   Public art seems to grow like weeds, particularly in Fremont.
   Even bus tours cruise by the incongruous collection here — dinosaur
   topiaries, a Volkswagen-crushing troll under a highway, and a statue of
   Lenin, from the former Soviet Union. Other installations include Waiting for the Interurban, depicting bored commuters.

5. Code Warriors

   Microsoft,
   its supporting vendors, and upstart competitors still employ thousands
   of computer programmers and developers. Writing the killer application
   inspires many an entrepreneur. The laptop user at the café table next to
   yours may well be the next software mogul.

6. Greenlake Jogs

   
   Greenlake
   attracts health and nature-conscious visitors from around the city. A
   verdant setting and wide 2.8-mile (4.5-km) path encircling the lake
   attracts walkers, runners, bikers, and babystroller-pushing parents come
   rain or shine.

   
   

   
   
   

   Visitors at Greenlake

   
   
   

   Boaters on Greenlake

7. Readings & Lectures

   Many
   authors make their home here, and historical fiction, music biography,
   and science fiction are just a few popular genres that have taken root.
   Pioneer Square’s Elliott Bay Book Company sponsors one of the region’s most treasured reading and lecture series.

8. Historic Preservation

   Seattle maintains a vital link to its past through architecture, due to the remarkable success of its preservationists. Pike Place Market is one shining example, and several downtown theaters and 19th-century structures in Pioneer Square have achieved landmark status. Seattle neighborhoods reveal several restored Craftsman-style homes.

9. Boating

   An
   aerial view of Seattle reveals that this town practically floats in a
   vast watershed. Natural and man-made canals, rivers, lakes, and
   estuaries abound. Pleasure boats and commercial ships of all kinds ply
   the waterways of one of the busiest and most picturesque maritime
   communities in the United States.

10. Civil Unrest

    When
    the WTO met in Seattle in 1999, thousands of demonstrators turned the
    city upside down. But that was only the most recent chapter in a long
    history of civil disobedience. In the early 20th century, the
    International Workers of the World unionized logging and mining
    industries. Violent riots erupted in 1916 in Everett and in 1919 in
    Centralia, cities to the north and south of Seattle.

Top 10 Cafés