"Seattle" a Seattle Travel Page by kcrismier

Well, the M's blew another chance at the playoffs this year, but I guess there's always next year.

Anyway, if you are in Seattle during baseball season, starting in April, you need to check out a game at Safeco Field (named after Safeco Insurance Co.) otherwise called "The Safe". In my opinion, this is the best place in the world to catch a baseball game. The stadium may not yet have the history of Fenway Park and the Green Monster (Boston, MA) but the ambience and layout is unbeatable. The best thing about Safeco is that the cheap seats are some of the best seats in the house. My personal favorites are the seats on the 3rd deck, behind 1st base. They are only about $12, and the views are amazing! You can see everything in the stadium, as well as the city outside the stadium, including downtown, the Space Needle and some of the waterfront. It's beautiful when sunny, or when it's threatening to rain, you can watch them close the retractable roof as well, which is pretty neat.

Arrive a bit early to get tickets from the box office (south side of the stadium) and look around the place before sitting down. Your best bet is to take any bus from the Metro tunnel in downtown Seattle (3rd and Pine) to the International District stop (ask for the last stop in the tunnel), and cross the street to the stadium. Much cheaper than trying to find parking around the stadium ($10-20 a car). Much cheaper because... in the tunnel, it's free to ride! Yes! Buses ($1.25 per person) head back to downtown after a game on the west side of the stadium (1st Ave).

The UW is the largest of several college campuses in Seattle. It is located in the University District of Seattle, north of downtown. With about 40,000 students, it's quite a big place. And quite nice to explore as well.

1. The Quad, especially March - April, is abloom (is that a word?) with cherry trees. From an aerial view, the trees spell out a "W", as in Washington. Some of the trees are getting old and dying, so they're being slowly replaced.
2. Red Square is the middle of campus. It's called Red Square because of the red bricks, but when I first came to UW, I thought the place looked like the grounds where Lenin would have given a speech, hence "Red" square. Ha. It has a unique piece of art work, and also three huge brick columns sticking out of the ground. Originally, there were three smokestacks for ventilating the underground parking area, but they were deemed ugly, and were surrounded with bricks to beautify them. You be the judge. Also, while school is in session, you can witness demonstrations of all kinds.
3. Walk south out of Red Square, and you will begin walking down a grassy avenue called Rainier Vista. This corridor is protected by law from any development because, on clear days, the lovely Mt. Rainier (or as my family calls it, "Papa Ghost" -- see my extended explanation under my Washington State travel guide) stands tall at the end.
4. If clouds (or smog, these days) are in the way of the mountain, look a bit more to the left for Husky Stadium. It doesn't look all this big, but it seats 100,000 people on football days. Yikes. This stadium has an interesting history. One of the wings was built first, and the day after it was completed, poof, it collapsed. Shoddy engineering, apparently. The the whole thing had to start anew, and apparently, it's sturdier now, although it still makes me a bit nervous.
5. If you walk north out of Red Square, you will walk past the flagpole roundabout and down a paved avenue lined with towering London planetrees. Each tree was a gift to the UW following WWII, and each one represents a student that died in the war.
6. Once you reach the end of the avenue (45th and 17th), on your left will be the Burke Museum, which carries exhibits of Native American artifacts. If you continue straight, you will cross into the land of frat houses. Many are quite nice to look at, but don't let their facades fool you!