Pioneer Square, Seattle

Pioneer Square is another rejuvenated downtown area that are popping up in other cities as well. The center of Seattle's historic neighborhood, Pioneer Square now boasts tidy boutiques, galleries, coffeehouses, bars and clubs. It's also the center of Seattle's nightlife. Also found here is the Underground Tour, a visit to the sunken storefronts which were above ground before the 1889 Great Fire.

This is a huge, independent book store, and I just love this place! I think it has almost any book you could desire, but you also get the feeling of localness, that you don't get with Barnes & Noble. The inside is brick-walled and everything is on cedar shelves... all three stories of this place are incredible! If I only I had this place in Louisville... there's even a small cafe downstairs.. again brick-walled.

I found a great 'article' while looking for a picture of this place. It talks about independent vs. chain operations. I'm generally a fan of local places over chains (even with starbucks, i like to try an independent place sometimes), even if I am guilty of shopping at chain places. They're hard to escape when they're so convenient! Anyway, check out this location for the article: http://www.elliottbaybook.com/about/chains.jsp

Visit Pioneer Square, a big area of shops, boutiques, and restaurants, in an area with overhanging trees and even a totem pole or two! Anyway, this was a nice place to stroll around, going into a shop or two, maybe get a cup of coffee or something like that. It's called 'Bum-town' by at least one person I know from Seattle... I guess you sometimes see a bum or two in this area, according to him.

Because of its location, many of the city's earliest buildings are now underground, and the tour shows you some of these places while offering an entertaining history lesson. For first-time visitors it's a great introduction to the city's very young history.

THe underground city of Seattle's past.
When the old town was built after the fire of 1889, the new city was built over it. The old streets and some buildings are still there. Tours leave from Pioneer Square. We really wanted to do this, but ran out of time.

Seattle's oldest neighborhood, now a historic district. It comes alive after dark. The historic district becomes entertainment district, with one of the city s liveliest collections of nightspots, from sports bars to hard rock taverns to romantic eaterie

When you take the underground tour they'll explain how the streets wer built up and below were shops and above was the traffic . Here we were shown the glass tile above us in the sidewalk was a source of natural light for people walking below.

The Underground Tour was really interesting and is unique to Seattle. The guys who take the tour are very funny and they definitly make the tour what it is.

The aquarium is also excellent, especially the sea otters and seals.