September 6, 2010

You are here: Home / Lifestyles/Activities

Seattle Voyeurism

August 21, 2010 By seattlesavvy Leave a Comment

I live in Downtown Seattle and sometimes forget to extol it’s virtues. Many think a lot of time is spent under an umbrella or sipping a latte. Seattle’s sky is often gray and wet, that’s why we have such lush greenery everywhere but here’s the most amazing fact:  Despite Seattle’s reputation as being rainy, we DON’T even rank in the TOP 10 rainiest cities. Does that surprise you? Not me, because I rank Seattle as the #1 most beautiful.

As I hang out I see tons of people from around the world enjoying our attractions. Mostly, however I see folks from the city and the suburbs doing what people do… having fun together. At Seattle Savvy we believe the energy of the city and the relaxing surroundings ARE the attractions. Consequently, I’ve made a collection of photos to show you some of the lesser known pleasure spots around town used by locals.

Cute couple at Myrtle Edwards Park

These two were enjoying the sun mid-day at Myrtle Edwards park pointing at the para sailor in the Puget Sound.  In the distance you can see the statue ‘Eagle‘ at the Olympic Sculpture Park and Pier 70 which is home of the elegant Waterfront restaurant and location of MTV’s season 7 of the Real World.  ouch!

Lucky Kids

Why aren’t I getting wet too?

2nd Ave Strip

Believe it or not, there’s more than just amazing hot dogs on 2nd and Bell.   Beginning with Mama’s Mexican Kitchen, there’s a slew of pubs on this one block up until the Crocodile Cafe where legends such as Nirvana and the Beastie Boys have strummed a cord or scratched a record.  On Friday and Saturday nights, you’ll find many of our locals bar hopping along this strip whereas the 1st Avenue strip is where many come from all over to enjoy downtown nightlife.

Seattle Center Skate Park

Several years ago, the Seattle Center skate park was demolished to make way for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which is almost completed!  With intention to do so, Paul Allen later donated necessary funds to build the kids a new skate park on the other side of the center.  Over the last several years, the skateboarding community has been awarded four Seattle skate parks along with many others being designed and reviewed for approval.

Freshly Paved Basketball Court

A new shop in Belltown has been getting downtown residents on bikes as if cars where going out of style!    This kid was poppin’ a wheelie where most locals might remember there being a carnival type ride which sat next to a not-so-popular roller coaster.   Today that area has been cleared for a full-size basketball court, a pea-patch shared with the Seattle Children’s Museum, and some other designated spaces for performances of various types.

Endless Choices for Spirits

Cyclops is great for Ginger Rum, Belltown Pizza across the street serves slices till 2a.m., and on the southern corner of 1st and Wall is a fine dining steak house with a movie theater.  Yes, you can order drinks during the movie.

The City of Seattle website is a great place to get information about what to do and what the city is doing to make the quality of life better.  Find more information about the city’s planning for improving Downtown at Public Spaces & Public Life. The homepage of SeattleSavvy.com has a slide show with even more pics for you to enjoy. It’s constantly changing, so visit us often!

Filed Under: City of Seattle, Featured, Lifestyles/Activities Tagged With: Belltown Pizza, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Crocodile Cafe, Cyclops, El Gaucho, Mama's Mexican Kitchen, Myrtle Edwards Park, Olympic Sculpture Park, Public Spaces and Public Life, Seattle Center, Seattle Skate Parks, Waterfront Restuarant

A little bit of lovely, compliments of the Blue Angels

August 10, 2010 By seattlesavvy Leave a Comment

Yes, we took these pictures.  We didn’t get them stored on a memory device by a couple tourists when getting some work done at the cafe.  It’s almost rather embarrassing because it’s almost too obvious that they were posing just for us.  We hoped they’d turn out more natural…

Blue Angels Posing for Seattle Savvy

Blue Angels Posing for Seattle Savvy

Really though, we stood on the rooftop of the Montreux trying to hide from the rain and only got one which was certainly worthy of being deleted.  With a pretty good 360 degree view from that building, in addition to our school boy-like excitement to post some pics of such a unique and large yearly festival, we were sure we’d get at least one good one.  You hear them coming from the east, then you catch them neener neener neenering at you to the south.  Finally they set-up for the shot we asked them for of them slipping along side the Space Needle, but our camera’s zoom and speed was off.  After reviewing the pic, we knew what we had to do.  We had to send a text message to the pilots begging for one more shot.

Now, these guys are not the type of guys who generally let you slide with a mulligan, but fortunately we’re good friends.  We weren’t even expecting the guys to reply considering how focused they must be flying multi-million dollar fighter jets in formation with just an arms reach between them, but Dave’s Droid vibrated within seconds with a text that simply said, “for you guys, one more.”  Because we know these guys so well, we knew they weren’t going to make the second time around easy.  Since Dave screwed up the first pic, and I Justin am better friends with them anyway, this time I armed myself with the camera on, the speed high, and the zoom up to about 75%.  With Dave attentively doing circles looking up into the sky, and me positioned in a horse-stance, we were sure to get this one!

Not long after we really got prepared, we heard the roar from the west…

“Ohhh Dave, this is going to be a good one,” I said with a wink.  Dave gave me his infamous 2-fingered point and nodded in agreement.  Facing west, camera held tightly and steady below my chin, Dave shout’s “THERE THEY ARE! GET EM GET EM GET EM!”

CLICK!

Unfortunately, my Call of Duty Modern Warfare II skills are not complimented by the reflexes of a 14-year old boy.  The shot, a blur.  With our heads hung low, we walked in shame to get a drink of java where we looked at our pathetic picture and attempted to convince each other that maybe the Blue Angels pilots will still consider us friends.  But before we fully agreed we failed, I pointed at a young couple who was uploading they’re pictures of this amazing Seafair performance we all look forward to every year.  They must have overheard us, because they were quick to ask if we had a memory stick for us to say we had succeeded with scoring their pics.  I’d say for such a gray day, we actually did pretty good!

Enjoy this video showing 2010 air show performance!

Filed Under: Events & Festivals, Featured Tagged With: Blue Angels, Seafair

Seattleite Spotlight #002

August 8, 2010 By seattlesavvy Leave a Comment

I’m a great history buff. I love the lessons learned from the actions of the past. I’m also fond of the human side and Chief Seattle is one of the first people that hooked a scrawny 6th grader from Shoreline to a life of museums, milestone markers and statues. He filled my veins when I was young and I’ve never been able to take the cure and go sober.

Chief Seattle

Chief Seattle

I did a report on him at Sunset Elementary school. I’m sure I beefed about having to do the research and whined about the reading, the notes and the organization. It’s a blur to me now but I remember that rush when the adrenaline and imagination kicked in and I was transported back more than a hundred years to Duwamps, a fledgling settlement on the Duwamish River mud flats. I learned that this native was not a chief at all but a man of respect amongst his peers; that his young life was turned upside down as the ships of Captain Vancouver entered his tribes fishing grounds. Later in life he spoke for peace and sharing as more Europeans entered his tribes hunting grounds bringing new laws of land ownership. I discovered that he personally knew people like Maynard, Denny, Boren and Bell and that he had an indelible affect on their lives.

The names flew off the pages as I recognized those streets. The big city down south were loaded with them and they came from people of history! I was thunderstruck! The connection I’d made with the past hit me like my first shot of Jager. I was drunk with the power of knowledge and my life was changed due to this new addiction. The small man with the misunderstood name started an obsession. At the intersection of Denny, Cedar and 5th I go to visit my old friend. When I greet his welcoming statue surrounded by a humble pond and a ring of base-lighted trees my soul says with true love and appreciation, “Thanks”.

I’ll have to send this dialog to my two daughters who had to endure at least one historical excursion on every family vacation. I remember that they beefed and whined but I sense that their kids are going to thank them for the passing of the habit.

Filed Under: Lifestyles/Activities, Seattleite Spotlight Tagged With: Chief Seattle

Seattleite Spotlight #001:Josh Quest

August 3, 2010 By seattlesavvy Leave a Comment

Last week I couldn’t help but to feel inspired by an article we stumbled on in the Seattle Times regarding a local photographer who is creating a portfolio of his favorite people in Seattle.  Quoted in an interview, the artist stated that his project is by no means “the,” but rather “a” top 100.  I’ve since emailed him to get a moment to interact with that type of person, and admit that there was a little jealousy that he came up with such a great idea first.   His response after sharing that I wish I could do the same was:

we are already working on building that functionality for a “real” seattle 100 site that will launch with the book.   i’ll hope you’ll be one of the first to participate when that comes to life!

Josh Quest Seattleite Spotlight

Josh Quest

Well alright!  But, in order to do this properly, we’re thinking it should be one of those things you don’t have to try and do, you just do because somebody stood out.   Today, local DJ Josh Quest and his status update on Facebook kicked it off pretty good.  Josh is one of those Facebook friends you just end up collecting if you live downtown, and we’re now starting off by collecting him as our first person to recognize for being one of our local favorites.   Today he posted a mix of a house music mix along with a status update saying, “This is what sunshine sounds like to me…”  If you’re coming to Seattle, there’s no doubt that either yourself, or friends have poked fun at our weather.  For most, we think they’ve been pleasantly surprised that it doesn’t actually rain here as much as they might say.

The 10 rainiest cities in the U.S. by amount of annual rainfall include:

  1. Mobile, Ala.: 67 inches average annual rainfall; 59 average annual rainy days
  2. Pensacola, Fla.: 65 inches average annual rainfall; 56 average annual rainy days
  3. New Orleans, La.: 64 inches average annual rainfall; 59 average annual rainy days
  4. West Palm Beach, Fla.: 63 inches average annual rainfall; 58 average annual rainy days
  5. Lafayette, La.: 62 inches average annual rainfall; 55 average annual rainy days
  6. Baton Rouge, La.: 62 inches average annual rainfall; 56 average annual rainy days
  7. Miami, Fla.: 62 inches average annual rainfall; 57 average annual rainy days
  8. Port Arthur, Texas: 61 inches average annual rainfall; 51 average annual rainy days
  9. Tallahassee, Fla.: 61 inches average annual rainfall; 56 average annual rainy days
  10. Lake Charles, La.: 58 inches average annual rainfall; 50 average annual rainy days

Fact is, nobody can even really argue that Seattle is absolutely gorgeous during the summer time in addition to incredibly eventful with events like the Bite of Seattle, Bumbershoot, Seafair and many more.  It’s not uncommon for people to just be walking around taking pictures of the cityscape, the mountains, Puget Sound, Lake Washington, the ferries, more Space Needle, the statue of the Chief of Seattle, the market…  We can’t hide that we’re guilty of being local tourists ourselves.

At any rate, Josh is no rookie to our nightlife here, and people love him for not only for his positive, sexy, upbeat music, but also because he’s just an all around fun guy.  He’s also a busy guy, and you can catch him every Wednesday at the new Tiki Joe’s in Belltown Kirkland, or follow him on Facebook for other upcoming events.

Gotta admit, we’re excited to see who stands out next!  Enjoy the music.

PLAY ME!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Filed Under: Lifestyles/Activities, Seattleite Spotlight Tagged With: Josh Quest, Seattle Top 100

Target department-store chain comes to downtown

August 1, 2010 By seattlesavvy Leave a Comment

The Newmark, a condo building on 2nd & Pike, will be getting a new Target department-store.  A spokeswoman for Target stated that it will be at least a year before it opens as they now start the permitting process and build out the 3-story, 103,000 square-foot commercial space.  Previously leased to Washington Mutual, Target paid $15.5 million for the empty location, and the purchase also included 250 parking stalls.  It wasn’t clear whether or not they will allow any of that parking for patrons, but the article in the Seattle Times did mention:

One Target store in Brooklyn, N.Y., has no dedicated parking. Earlier this month, the chain opened a store in New York’s East Harlem, its first in Manhattan. Target operates stores in downtown Minneapolis and the Chicago Loop, and it also is exploring sites for its first store in San Francisco.

After living downtown for several years now, it is a breath of fresh air to hear a new department store is coming to downtown!  It will certainly broaden downtown residents shopping options rather than having to either drive outside the city, or chip away at your pocket book by paying the premium price you do for shopping at the urban deli/mini-marts where anti-perspiration is $8, a smaller jug of laundry soap is close to $10 or a pack of four AAA batteries is over $6.  Those three items alone rang up at over $20 for me personally just yesterday!

More than anything, it’s just great to see something occupy a significant portion of retail/commercial space.

Filed Under: Commercial, Featured, Lifestyles/Activities, Newmark Tower, West Edge Tagged With: Target

Seattle Four Seasons Featuring 7 Days of ART

July 25, 2010 By seattlesavvy Leave a Comment

ART Restaurant & Lounge…on a plate.

In addition to sneaking into that ridiculously uber cool infinity pool, the Four Seasons has lured me in for many other reasons such as chocolate, to die for happy hour sushi and to simply be vacuumed in through the air conditioned lobby entrance.

Starting today, the renowned Chef Kerry Sear is taunting us with another treat of luxury with 7 days of his culinary genius (*wipes nose) with dining specials that even a king would jump for joy about.

Check out this list of 7 days of ART, at ART Restaurant.  With exciting specials such as 50% off bottles of wine, TV trays of crab and a steak sampler, we wouldn’t want you to hesitate in contacting us if you’re looking for a date!

Sunday:
Family Dinners, $100 for four people
Join the Four Seasons family each Sunday with classic, home-style recipes with a modern twist. Dine family-style with whole roast chicken, bread stuffing, “Grandma’s recipe” chicken pan gravy, roast summer vegetables, crushed potatoes, bottomless sides and blue ribbon apple pie and ice cream.

Monday:
Wine all you Want Mondays
Put an end to Monday blues with Wine all you Want. Enjoy 50% off all bottles of wine ordered with dinner. With over 160 choices, ask Jerald Armstrong or Giorgio Saturnino to recommend a bottle.

Tuesday:
Big Chill Tuesdays, from $6 – $20
From the flavor of the week and classic chocolate fudge brownie sundaes to shave ice and “The Works,” an ultimate ice cream tasting for the whole table, be a big kid in an ice cream store with specialty ice cream and sorbet flavors from the pastry kitchen.

Wednesday:
Organic Wednesdays, $30
Our chefs bring Pike Place Market’s “Organic Wednesdays” to you. A market to table menu is created that day from the freshest organic produce.

Thursday:
Crab Duel TV Tray, $32
Dungeness or King? No need to decide as we pit the two in our popular TV Trays. Sample four crab dishes served at once. King crab leg cocktail; Dungeness crab legs, with artichoke and grapefruit; warm Dungeness crab meat with herb pasta blanket and chive crème fraiche; and grilled King crab with sweet peas and slow roasted garlic.

Friday:
Friday Night Flight Night, from $15 – $35
Sample a flight of three wines each Friday night. Compare Regions in the “Pinot Noir Challenge,” Makers in “Not Your Mother’s Chardonnay” or Brands in “The Bubble Lounge.”

Saturday:
Steak Saturday, $44
Expand your knowledge of beef with a TV tray sampling of four different cuts of steak and seasonal condiments. A four-course TV tray menu may include organic beef tenderloin; fire grilled dry aged New York steak; dry aged beef rib eye steak and American Kobe flank steak.

For reservations, call 206.749.7070

Map powered by MapPress
Filed Under: Featured, Four Seasons, Lifestyles/Activities Tagged With: ART Restaurant, Chef Kerry Spear
stack Learn More
stack Learn More