Things you might only know about Seattle if you are a true Seattleite

Here’s a list to add to the stack of all the other lists that exist about this city but I heard someone (a Seattleite even!) say Pike’s Place market again recently and I couldn’t just write a post about that without sounding too angry Seattle so I thought I better write this post instead.

So yes, please say it with me “Pike Place, Pike Place, Pike Place.” If you come to Seattle, the famous market here is Pike Place Market, not Pike’s Place and yes it matters, but mostly because it doesn’t belong to Pike (that’s a street by the way), it belongs to all of us and it is one of the oldest and continuously running public markets in the USA-it started in 1907! And Pike Place Market is not just a shopping place, it gives back to the community too. You can check out Pike Place Market Foundation for more information. (I love the Market Foundation. When my kids were in Kindergarten through 2nd grade I volunteered here until our lives got too busy again.)

There is also a not so secret garden in Pike Place Market that you’ll want to visit too. If you need more information you can probably find it easily by searching “Pike Place Secret Garden” on TikTok. You’ll also probably learn about it if you take a tour of the market here as well.

The gum wall in Seattle isn’t the only gum wall in the world. Have you been to Gum Alley in San Luis Obispo?

Yes, Seattle has the First Starbucks but every Seattleite will tell you it’s not the ACTUAL first Starbucks

And the First Starbucks is cool but have you been to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery here? It’s still my favorite coffee shop in Seattle after all these years because you can see beans roasting and flying through tubes in the air and the store is huge and magical. (Also if you are in New York, you can book a morning Starbucks at the Empire State Building and I want to save up and splurge on this one day.)

I only recently found out though that the First Starbucks does have its own blend of coffee so sometimes when it’s really early and there is no line, I go to that Starbucks in the market too. (Also, Seattleites will remind you that this isn’t actually the original building or the actual first Starbucks, and there are a zillion posts out there about this so please google them and read the blogs, but this is the most original Starbucks you can still actually find, so that’s good enough for me.)

We all book trips on Expedia from all over the world but they are Seattle based and here they have a beach park with free parking in Seattle and it’s pretty picture perfect. (Our family calls this Scout’s park because it’s his favorite Seattle park too!)

There is a locker room with an NBA plaque at Climate Pledge Arena even though we don’t currently have a NBA team and you can see this and more if you take a tour of Climate Pledge Arena.

We have a piece of the Berlin Wall in Seattle and it’s a few blocks away from the troll that lives permanently under the Fremont Bridge.

There are a handful of trolls that are visiting the Seattle area for the next three years by a famous troll creator named Thomas Dambo from Copenhagen (another place we absolute love!). If you wait a month or so they probably won’t be as crowded as they are now. But if you want to be one of the first to see the one in Ballard that will be unveiled maybe in about a week or so you might sign up for a Nordic Museum membership as they are having an event. (I’m not sure if it’s sold out yet, but the Nordic Museum membership is fabulous anyways so now might be a good time to check it out if you’ve been thinking about one too.)

And yes, there are so many other things I probably should add to the list, but this is it, my Pike Place Market rant hidden in with a few city gems from a not-so-angry Seattleite who really loves this city.

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)