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A waterfront office building that was designed to leverage the look of Fremont’s erstwhile industrial structures houses this software company.

The institute offers programs in graphics, fashion, and culinary and media arts.

The ferry ride to Winslow on Bainbridge Island should be mandatory for tourists who want an inspiring view of the Seattle skyline. A stroll from the terminal to Winslow’s quaint waterfront shops and cafés has its own rewards.

From the roaring 1890s through the Great Depression, the four block stretch of brick-paved Ballard Avenue defines the raison d’etre of a mill town that also had a thriving boat-building and fishing industry. The 19th-century architecture is gorgeous, and it’s easy to imagine a street filled with timber millworkers, salty fishermen, fishmongers, and the banks, saloons, and bordellos that served them. In 1976, Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf read the proclamation that identified Ballard Avenue as a National Historic District.

Whether you travel by foot, bicycle, car, bus, boat, or plane, the towering, flashing, red neon advertisement for Bardahl automotive oil treatment makes for an unusual icon for any neighborhood. From distant hilltops, the sign’s manic ascending flashes harken back to the industrial roots of Ballard, and to company founder Ole Bardahl, Ballard resident and Norwegian immigrant. The sign is one of Seattle’s favorite, if most garish, urban landmarks.

Pedestrians are welcomed with an explosion of shops, clubs, cafés, high-rise luxury condos, and fine restaurants. This upscale neighborhood was named in the 1970s after a pioneer, William M. Bell. In those days, Belltown attracted sailors on shore leave, artists seeking inexpensive loft spaces, and ragtag urban dwellers. But it was the dot.com boom of the 1990s that changed everything by engendering a commercial revival for the neighborhood. Remnants of old Belltown include a few well-preserved façades.

A mix of professional-quality billiard tables with sumptuous Italian fare, DJs, and live music creates a hopping late-night scene.