Visiting - What to see (besides the obvious) (Seattle, Granite Falls: travel, home)

[johnbobsquarepants]

Just as the title reads, the wife and I are spending a week in Seattle/Washington- what to see?
Things on our list so far:
Seattle
Pike Place
Space Needle
Roam around and stop at as many coffee shops as possible
Seattle Underground
Ferry Ride

Washington
Olympic Nat'l Park
Coast
Mt. Rainier

Any little hole in the wall places we should see? Also, we'd like to catch some music (we like mainly alt/indie rock, not like Metal or most anything they play on the radio).
Any ideas?

Thanks!!!!

[seattlerain]

How much time do you want to spend on the road?

The Olympic National Park, the coast and Rainier will easily each take an entire day. If you are ok with that I would highly recommend each of them.

A few to consider:

Mount St Helens
Seattle Aquarium
Woodlawn Park Zoo
International District
Seattle Art Museum
Seattle Aquarium
Deception Pass

Maybe these links will be of some use:

Go Seattle Card

Seattle 101 - A Guide for Travelers and Tourists

A good guide to the local music scene is: The Stranger

[sean98125]

The Mountain Loop Highway out of Granite Falls is a beautiful drive. You can picnic at Big Four in a meadow that looks out at a beautiful peak that rises about 4000 feet above you. That's a good turn around point. Mountain Loop Highway a National Forest Scenic Byway on northwestplaces.com

Olympic National Park is beautiful, but it takes a lot of driving to get there and the most beautiful parts take some hiking to get to. You're better off going to Mount Rainier if you need to go to a National Park. You could also head up SR 20 up the Skagit Valley into North Cascades National Park. It isn't as developed at Mount Rainier, but it is a beautiful drive. You could make an over night trip and come down the Columbia River and back over Stevens or Snoqualmie pass to Seattle. (Stevens Pass is a more beautiful but slower drive than Snoqualmie.) You'd get a chance to see the dry side of the mountains, too. And the Methow Valley is one of our hidden gems.

[johnbobsquarepants]

Thanks for the recommendations. We were planning on doing quite a bit of driving so we'll have to plan a day for each the coast/olympic/ and one for rainier. Still gives us 4 days for Seattle.
Thanks also for the link to the Stranger, we'll check it out closer to the visit date.