Pioneer Square

Pioneer Square: Welcome to Seattle

The oldest part of any city is the most interesting, and Seattle's Pioneer Square is no different. The area is a swirling mash-up of original Romanesque Victorian architecture, saloons that served gold rushers, businessmen and women walking fast to buy their lunches, bums and crack heads, souvenir stores still hawking "Sleepless in Seattle" shirts, lost tourists walking and driving, the most happenin' clubs and bars, hotdog carts, and espresso shops. Day and night in Pioneer Square is as different as day and night; once darkness falls the area begins to sizzle with club hoppers, slightly inebriated bar patrons, homeless wanderers, and plenty of cops to keep an eye on them all. The tourists with fanny packs are gone as are the daytime workers, and the slightly dirty and crazy Pioneer Square becomes a playground for the slightly dirty and crazy Seattleites. I know people who have been mugged in Pioneer Square and still others who are afraid of the area once the sun sets, however I am not one to pass up an experience because of someone's else's bad account. The bums are fairly harmless, the clubs put on great artists and give us a place to dance, and the cream cheese hotdogs are out of this world. If you have not bummed around the birthplace of Seattle, day or night, then you need to. Stare up at the original buildings and feel the history of our city, go have a beer with the ghosts of the pioneers, say "hi" to a bum, have a Starbucks and then dance the evening away in the city's nightlife epicenter. Welcome to Seattle.