I love art and I love the Seattle Art Museum! I love most of its permanent exhibits---especially…read moreits African arts collection, PNW tribal art and the Porcelain Room. But I enjoy the temporary exhibitions they install. I've been going to the SAM for more than 20 years. I can't afford to be a member or pay the regular admission, so I'm excited to go on Free First Thursdays. It's such a wonderful opportunity and program to those who can't afford to view art, but appreciate it.

First Thursday means free entrance to this lovely Seattle Art Museum…read more Amazing display of art, Pacific Northwest art and culture. Lots to see. Love seeing this place. Today we witnessed a traveling art by Calder and Tara Donovan.

While not a large museum, it's thoughtfully curated and a calm, accessible space, perfect for a…read moreshort afternoon art break. The Frye is a coalescing of sculpture, painting and a smattering of other media from the 19th century to contemporary. Since it's opening in 1952, the pieces on display have evolved from the original 232 pieces of mostly allegorical depictions of nature, scenes of daily life and portraiture, to include abstract and modern art as well. The museum brings together works collected by Charles and Emma Frye, local owners of a successful meat-packing plant who collected artwork from European and American artists of their time (second half of 19th century and early 20th century). Their original collection was displayed in a "salon style," with paintings hung floor to ceiling so visitors could engage in discourse about the various subjects, interpretations and comparisons while enjoying music and company of other cultural and intellectual counterparts. Bequeathed to the public upon their passing, their collection was first offered to the Seattle Art Museum though due to a number of stipulations set forth by the Fryes' will, was declined. Aside from one of the reasons being that the collection was to be shown free of charge, interestingly this also included a clause that the pieces not be shown together with abstract works. To the benefit of the community though, in 2007, the museum's mission shifted to become a space that also highlights contemporary artists, while still maintaining the spirit of the salon via a large portion of the original works shown this way in a large rectangular gallery. My experience here was pleasant, it took about 45 minutes to go thru, though you could spend less if preferred. There's small lounge seating area to take a break if you need, designed using the museum's art as inspiration, and next to that a cafe and bathrooms (which were in decent shape). A small gift shop is located at the front of the museum next to the front desk. Street parking can be a little hard to find depending on the day considering it's downtown Seattle, and I was lucky to find parking on the same block. For more info: https://fryemuseum.org/about

The Frye Art Museum, located in downtown Seattle, was found on Yelp. I did notice that people said…read morenot to have a car so we walked here from the hotel which is about a 20-minute walk. Some uphill walks but it was a nice walk actually. The museum is free which is nice you walk through and it is pretty much filled with many unique rooms, each with different pieces of art. It was pretty quiet but I do enjoy the placement of every piece. It's not a big museum so this probably won't take up so much time.

the Chihuly Garden and Glass experience came with the Space Needle package, so we came through…read moreafter the Space Needle. it's literally a glass paradise in here, everything like Glass Dimension you are in a different zone, and the beauty of these pieces of art are impressive. even after you indoor experience, there is more glass outdoors too, in the garden i'm glass now

Beautiful, but waaaaaay overpriced. I'm Not sure why they…read moresay There's an imax movie included, it was not IMAX. More Like on a semi- large flat screen TV.

Never did I expect that a place that would overstimulate me would be a place I enjoyed so much. Of…read morecourse, it does have to do with pop culture, and pop culture is always a top area of interest to me. The museum building itself is as interesting as the exhibits inside. The curvy building is even more interesting if you take the Monorail into the area. The trains slipping between the buildings just adds to the museum itself. The monorail being a part of pop culture as much as the exhibits inside. There is no wrong way to discovery this museum. Take it in any way that you desire. Make your way through the maze of stairs, floors and exhibits. Again, no wrong way to explore. Level 2 seems to be the best start in my book here. You can branch off in any direction and make your way to what pulls you in. I had no set plan when I came here and started with the Central Galleries. This consisted of three exhibits: Massive: The Power of Pop Culture, Styled by the Streets: Black Women in Hip-Hop Fashion, and Indie Game Revolution. Of the three, I was enthralled by the Indie Game exhibit. If you want to waste some time here diving into games and sitting in front of screen, you can loose track of time. From there, I went towards the South Galleries. Exhibits here: Infinite Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic, and Scared to Death: The Thrill of Horror Film. Each one of these exhibits can absorb a good chunk of time. Science Fiction delving into the worlds of space, robots, and mutations. Fantasy covering the realms of dragons, witches, and wizards. But for me, the horror section. Going down into the minds of vampires, serial killers, and zombies. The pieces they have in this section puts it over the top, and just in time for spooky season. Be sure to take in the scream booth, utilize the stairs here to make your way back to the main section where you will see the faces of the people that used this booth. I then went up to Level 3: Never Turn Back: Echoes of African American Music, Rebels + Icons: The Photography of Janette Beckman, and Sound Lab. Rebels + Icons is a multi level exhibit, the coolest part about this is the staircase to the exhibit. Making you feel like you are being teleported. Then you get to see all the amazing photographs by Janette Beckman. Perfectly paired selections, definitely take in the upper floor that deals with voting and it gives you a bird's eye view of the exhibit below. Sound lab is a time killer as well. Teaching you how to play the instruments to some familiar tunes, even on turntables. Never Turn Back, takes you from the start of African American music all the way to today. Touching on gospel to rap. Level 1: more like the cash out section. Containing Culture Kitchen, Sound + Vision Theater, and Vinyl Listening Bar. This is also where you head towards the exits. Be sure to check out the Museum Store, grab your souvenirs and head out. Plus here, you can reenter by keeping your ticket for the day. So if you needed to break away from here to do something else, you can always come back to finish up before they close for the day.

Highly recommended!…read more I had such a great time at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle! There is so much to see, and I loved walking through all the different exhibits filled with incredible memorabilia, artwork, costumes, and pieces of pop culture history... they had horror, fantasy, music, and movies... Star Wars, Wicked, Harry Potter, Zombies, Jason, Kurt Cobain guitar, music studio to try out instruments, video games... there are just too many cool things to mention! One of the highlights for me was the Michael Jackson exhibit. It was really cool getting to see memorabilia connected to such an iconic artist, along with all the other music, film, and pop culture displays throughout the museum. The ambiance of the museum is amazing, too. Even the building itself feels creative and unique, and every area has its own atmosphere that makes you want to keep exploring. There are so many interesting details and pieces of art that you could easily spend hours here. The workers were also incredibly friendly, welcoming, and helpful, which made the experience even better. Definitely a must-see when visiting Seattle, especially if you love music, movies, art, and pop culture. There's something interesting around every corner. I would absolutely visit again!

Soooo it only took me 10 months to write this review. I went to the Original Selfie Museum with my…read more94-year-old Grandmother, who is amazing and healthy and active and adventurous, last April. Earlier today, my screen saver randomly showed me a few of the photos of my Grandmother and I at this museum, so that reminded me that I hadn't written a review of this place yet. My Grandmother was visiting me from Portland, OR, and they don't have an Original Selfie Museum there. I wanted to take her to a few places around here that she would not be able to go to where she lives. This place definitely fit the bill. I remember doing a bit of research online last year, and I think at that time that there were only 3 or 4 Original Selfie Museums in the United States, and that this Original Selfie Museum is the only one on the West Coast. My Grandmother and I share a love of photos, so I thought that she might like this place. She was such a ham, and she loved it here. We took well over 30 photos at the Original Selfie Museum last April. I have posted 5 of our favorites. You need to schedule a time frame in advance that you will be arriving and staying at this museum. I believe we had one hour there. I was able to schedule our time slot only 1 - 2 hours prior to our arrival, which worked really well for me. I'm not sure if this is always possible to do, but I was very glad that I was able to do it for our visit, since my health is unpredictable and some days I am not able to get out of the house. The receptionist, on the day that we went, was really nice to us, and she asked us if we would like for her to hold our bag (GF crackers and bottled waters were in the bag, I think) while we explored the museum. I said sure. It did make it easier to strike poses without needing to worry about where to put our bag every time. I would not have asked her to hold the bag for us, and it was nice of her to offer to do that. The hour flew by for us. There are 2 separate floors in this Museum, and lots of backdrops. I saw a few backdrops that I hadn't seen before in any of the photos of this place, and I saw several backdrops that I had already seen in photos. I think they may rotate some of the backdrops but keep others there. For the photo of my Grandma in the bath tub, she climbed over the very short barrier keeping the plastic balls in on the floor for this backdrop, charged through those plastic balls, and got in the tub before I even knew what was happening, then she struck a pose like she was in Vogue. My Grandma is amazing!! I love all of the pictures of her that we took that day, but I think this one might be my favorite. She also chose to take a photo next to the fake guitar, since she played guitar in a band for many years when she was in her 60s and 70s. I'm so glad that my Grandma had a good time here. We are close, and I really wanted to do things that she would enjoy during her visit. She chose to take the concrete stairs from the first floor of the Museum up to the second floor. I had asked her in advance if she was okay with stairs, and she said that she was. She doesn't have Instagram to share these photos there, but she does have Facebook! She was delighted with the photos, and we made some great memories here. I'm very happy with our experience. I specifically went here for and with her, since we both love photos so much. So, I'm not sure if I would return, but I probably wouldn't be opposed to going again if someone else really wanted to go here with me. This is not somewhere that I personally would return to frequently, even if some of the photo backdrops do change periodically, but I thought it was well worth going for this one time.

Me and my husband did this for Valentine's Day and I thought it was a really sweet fun way to spend…read moretime together. Be prepared to take lots of photos. Have fun with it to selfies be silly. Be serious be sexy be whatever you want. Lucky for us it wasn't too busy. There's a few couples here and there there's a first floor and a second floor so you don't feel like you're encroaching on each other. One complaint is some of the camera holders were broken or loose, but because it wasn't too busy you were able to pull from other stations. Props were lots of fun. Some backgrounds made more sense than others but either way it's a great idea. Have fun with it!

This being my third or fourth time here, the architecture and interior design of this library still…read morenever fail to impress me. It's one of Seattle's landmark buildings, and a place that's on the must-see list for visitors if you're a fan of unique design. This relatively new building was constructed in 2004, funded in part by a $196.4 million bond approved by Seattle constituents in November 1998, and in part with a $20 million donation from the Gates Foundation. The location replaces the two consecutive libraries that stood in the same location, the Carnegie Library which stood for about 50 years, and the Bindon and Wright Library which stood for 41 years. The design was conceived by the Dutch firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture in conjunction with Seattle firm LMN Architects (Loschky, Marquardt and Nesholm), and involved creating space to house 1.5 million books, which was 600K more than its predecessor, while simultaneously aiming to dispel the stereotype of libraries being stuffy and closed off. I think they succeeded! The exterior almost appears to covered in a web of steel mesh, with over ten thousand custom-sized glass windows; the inside floors look like floating open layers inside the building, Entering the building from Fourth Avenue into the main lobby, this is the 3rd floor of the building with a gift shop, small cafe, books on hold, an auditorium, and spacious reading rooms. Up a floor to the "red floor," the 4th floor uses thirteen shades of red paint and includes meeting rooms, computer labs and more public meeting spaces. The Books Spiral is a seminal format for shelving of books according to the Dewey Decimal system without breaking up the order over different levels; it progresses at a two degree sloped incline spread over the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th stories. Other facilities include music practice rooms, genealogy collection, map rom, and a couple small gallery rooms for temporary exhibits. The 10th floor is highest level and also offers views of the surrounding blocks and over the reading/meeting rooms below. The biggest gripe most people have is probably the parking, which is exorbitantly expensive even coming from NYC. There's a structure under the library, though at $7-8 an hour it's not cheap.

Fun and interesting architecture for a public library. They have a paid parking lot, which is crazy…read morefor a public library. The first 20 mins are free and after that it's $4 per 20 minutes. Lots of areas to read and relax. Very spacious, has a coffee shop inside. Larger than most other public libraries. Free WiFi and public bathrooms available. The ambiance is nice. It's a rip off to have to pay for parking.

excellent tour! so glad we decided to go. our tour guide was Lisa. she was knowledgeable, fun, and…read moresuper funny. i would recommend it to anyone interested in history. the uniqueness of seattle really shines thru fyi - there are a lot of stairs, and tight spaces. challenging for those of us with compromised mobility

First the good- The tour guide was nice and the underground areas are AMAZING!…read moreThe bad- In a group of (appx) 30+ people you are herded here and there to different parts of the underground. Everyone is herded into a small space, a story is told, and then it's onto the next area. Want time to enjoy the experience? To look around and take pictures? Nope- onto the next. Want to learn more about the original buildings that you are standing in front of? Barely covered. Or the amazing debris that scatters the areas? Nope. Take Pictures as you walk, because that is all the time you will get. Oh, and if you are hard of hearing? You won't be able to hear the tour guide well. There are just too many people. -Wish I could have asked for a refund- *IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO MOLD or DUST WEAR A MASK!!!*

Space Needle, who? This is about 300 feet higher than the…read moreSpace Needle and about half the price. You get some amazing views up on the 73rd floor. They don't give you a time limit you can spend as little or as much time up top as you'd like. The ride up the elevator gets you to the top real quick. Be ready for your ears to pop lol.

From everything I could read online, the consensus seemed to be that the Space Needle is a…read morehigh-priced, low-value tourist trap, so I'm pretty happy to have bypassed it for Sky View Observatory. The view is outstanding in all directions -- a natural result of taking Seattle's tallest building and emptying out the top floor. It towers over the Needle (you can see it in the near-distance) and it also costs less -- $30 instead of $55. That still seems expensive (hence no fifth star), but at least it's competitive in relative terms. Just a nice place to comfortably chill with a view for a half-hour or so.

Walked into Ye Olde Curiosity shop because the name of the shop peaked our curiosity! The shop is…read morepart store and part museum and you will never experience a place like this! Very unique. We really liked seeing the museum portion of the store. You can see things like a two headed Bull calf, four legged chicken and shrunken heads. You need to look up or you may miss something. Definitely worth a stop at least once.

This shop is located on Pier 54, very popular spot among the visitors. There are all sorts of…read moregoods in this store including apparels, mugs, hats, lighters, magnets, stickers, postcards, small toys, voodoo dolls, figurines, special stones and artifacts. They had my favorite state magnets as well including the map. Prices of the items were comparable to other stores in the area. From the store we bought multiple items. My daughter got a small toy and I bought couple of magnets. The staff members were very friendly. The checkout was quick and easy.

So much fun. We really enjoyed our time there. Spent about 1:45 minutes. You could spend more or…read moreless time but we felt this was perfect.

Highly recommended!! We had such a fun time. Be prepared to…read moretake a lot of photos. Staff are around to assist with ideas too. Perfect date night or night out with your friends. You're definitely gonna spend over an hour if you're like us. If you knew in town or a local like us, it's a good way to get out and try - see something new :-)