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This upscale inn features large, well-appointed rooms in the heart of the city. The pool, gym, and sauna are the icing on the cake.

Seattle’s many venues and activities designed for children include excellent bookstores with envious inventories. Stock your library with books from All for Kids and Secret Garden.

Once a small rural town across Lake Washington, Kirkland has grown into a sprawling suburb with resident Microsoft executives and managers giving it a reputation for expensive real estate. It’s also known for a charming waterfront that offers great shopping and dining and fantastic beaches that provide views of Seattle and the Olympic Mountains.

Completed in 2004, the new downtown library is a work of art. Nearly 8,000 patrons per day benefit from more than 1.45 million books and reference materials, Internet access, spacious areas for children, and over 400 public computers. The art collection alone is worth $1 million.

This 1887-era cemetery, on a hilltop just past the northern end of Volunteer Park, is the final resting place for prominent Seattleites, and attracts thousands of visitors each year. Tombstones here identify the pioneers whose names now grace present-day streets or area towns – Denny, Maynard, Boren, Mercer, Yesler, and Renton. Lake View also draws the faithful followers of cinema star and martial arts master, Bruce Lee, and his son Brandon, whose sculpted tombstones lie side by side.

Both athletic teams and individuals hoist their racing shells into the flow from here. The club’s non-profit activities also include training lessons for beginners.

Slovakian sculptor Emil Venkov found little interest in his 7-ton (6,350-kg), 25-ft (8-m) likeness of Russian revolutionary V.I. Lenin after the collapse of the Soviet Union. A visiting American, Lewis Carpenter, paid $13,000 for the work and had it shipped through the Panama Canal to his hometown near Seattle. After Carpenter died in 1994, Fremont artist and foundry owner Peter Bevis managed to have the bronze Lenin statue installed in the neighborhood. The incongruity of a Communist icon amidst flourishing shops and capitalist businesses is not lost on anyone. The statue remains a striking symbol that strives to put art before politics.

This elegant footbridge leads from Western Avenue to the Elliott Bay piers, providing stellar views of West Seattle and the Olympic Mountains.