A view-altering observatory at the University of Texas.

This soda factory is one of the last in America to use real cane sugar despite the protestations of Dr Pepper.

A starship has landed in Texas, a welcome break for weary travelers from a drab stretch of I-35.

A school-themed restaurant where gastronomy is the core curriculum.

Offering an enjoyable alternative to the standard hellacious post office trip.

A commemorative mural in this tiny Ballard park honors the neighborhood's rich Scandinavian ties, particularly with Seattle's Norwegian sister city Bergen.

Seattle’s Whimsical Mural Master.

Always a new use for this old building.

Keeping Ballard's heritage alive with delicious, lightly battered Alaskan wild cod.

Craft liquors concocted in an old Seattle warehouse.

One of the oldest continually operating drinking establishments west of the Mississippi.

Seasonal, Pacific Northwest cuisine served in a 101 year old firehouse.

One of the only cooperatively owned bars in the nation wears its eclectic history on its walls.

Old submarine parts have been converted into faux whale fins.

This popular bar has been blurring the line between normal and edgy for more than 75 years.

An ice cream parlor chain that caters to vegans and pinball fans equally.

Essence of hound's tongue and tincture of bloodroot are just the tip of the herbalist iceberg at this beautiful, impressively-stocked apothecary.

A nondescript Seattle restaurant inherited a piece of European history.

Activists are fighting to preserve these unfinished highway ramps as a tribute to the citizen revolt that halted their construction decades ago.

A "sinister, whimsical, tacky, and really orange" public art installation hidden under a Seattle bridge.

A (slightly) grownup take on the classic retro arcade.

Spanning an elevation of 160 feet and containing 388 steps, this is Seattle's longest staircase.

Residents of Fremont in Seattle have considered it the center of the universe since the 1970s.

The first park built over a freeway is a brutalist masterwork.