From Wikitravel

Ballard is a neighborhood in northwest Seattle. While mostly residential, the locks are a major tourist attraction.

Ballard has traditionally been the home of Seattle's Scandinavian immigrants, and as a result there's hardly a Seattleite who hasn't heard of lutefisk (Scandinavian preserved whitefish).

See

• The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks [1] (a.k.a. Ballard Locks): boats, a salmon ladder, and beautiful gardens, just west of the built-up center of the Ballard neighborhood.
• Golden Gardens Park [2] is a wonderful salt-water beach park in Ballard, past the locks and Shilshole Marina. Water around here is too cold to swim except for crazy and determined kids during the hottest months, but you can wade a little, walk the beach, make sand castles, claim a fire pit, watch wind surfers and ships go by. If it's clear there is a magnificent view of the Olympics on the other side of Puget Sound. Kids of all ages have endless muddy fun trying to dam up or re-route the fresh water stream flowing across one end of the beach.
• Nordic Heritage Museum[3], 3014 NW 67th St., (206) 789-5707. Documents the history of Scandinavian immigration to Seattle; the only museum of its kind in the U.S.
• The Ballard Sunday Farmers Market [4] is one of the only year-round outdoor markets in Seattle, and takes place on historic Ballard Avenue on sundays. Buy seasonal produce and local crafts, this is the sister to the Fremont Sunday Market [5] in nearby Fremont.

Eat

• The Totem House, 3058 NW 54th St, (206) 784-2300. Buy greasy but delicious fish and chips, then walk across the street and railroad tracks into the locks, and feed your extra fries to the gulls.
• Ray's Boathouse and Ray's Cafe[6], on Shilshole Bay. Great views and, in the downstairs Boathouse restaurant some of the best seafood cooking in the city, priced accordingly. Upstairs, the Cafe is more casual, the food is good but not comparable to downstairs, and you can keep it to $20 a person.

Buy

• Archie McPhee [7], 2428 NW Market Street, (206) 297-0240. Probably the best novelty store in the entire U.S., this is the place for fake mustaches, giant tiki figures, Magic 8-balls, rubber insects, and other essentials of post-modern life.
• Blackbird [8], 5410 22nd Ave NW (206) 547-2524. This is a mid-priced menswear store featuring brands like: Trovata, A.P.C., Acne Jeans, Filippa K. Earnest Sewn, Corpus, Crate Denim, Orthodox, Uppercut a.p., Oliver Spencer, Modern Amusement, Brown Sound, (Malin+Goetz), Sharps, Brave Soldier and Baxter of California. Awards: Top 100 Men's Stores, GQ 2006, Best Men's Store, Seattle Magazine 2006, Best New Men's Store, Seattle Magazine 2005.
• ArmCandy
• Brazillis
• Clover
• Lucca
• Olivine
• Sonic Boom Records

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