Cheap Bastard's® Guide to Seattle. Secrets of Living the Good Life—for Less!

299 Pages·2013·17.93 MB·English

by  David Volk

Secrets of Living the Good Life—For Less!
THE
Seattle is full of free and ridiculously inexpensive stuff—you just need to know
where to look. Leave it to “The Cheap Bastard” to uncover all the ins and outs and
exclusive bargains to be had, and to tell you the real deal with wit and humor.
The Cheap Bastard’s Guide to Seattle will show you:
• Entrance to plays, flms, concerts, comedy clubs, and museums, as well
as the zoo, pools, and other great places for family fun
• Classes of all sorts, including dancing, yoga, language, cooking,
and coffee-brewing
• Food, including pizza, oysters, and sushi
• Haircuts, manicures, and massages
David Volk is the author of The Tribe Has Spoken: Life Lesons from Reality TV Seattle
and has written for national and regional publications, including Seattle Maga-
zine, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and Koi World and Water Gardens. He lives in
Seattle. Visit him at davidvolk.com.
Cover design by Bret Kerr
Cover images licensed by Shutterstock.com
®
®
®
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Volk 2nd
Seattle Edition
David Volk
Live Large for Less!
Live Large for Less!
Think you have to earn big bucks to live big in Seattle?
Think again.
®
CheaP BaSTard’S
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The
Help Us Keep THis GUide Up To daTe
We would love to hear from you concerning your experiences with this
guide and how you feel it could be improved and kept up to date. Please
send your comments and sugestions to: Seattle
CheaP BasTarD’s® series
®
CheaP BaSTard’S
Seattle
secrets of living the Good life—For less!
Second Edition
David Volk
®
Guilford, Connecticut
an imprint of Globe Pequot Press
® globe pequot press
Guilford, Connecticut
www.GlobePequot.com
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The
All the information in this guidebook is subject to change. We recommend that you call ahead
to obtain current information before traveling.
Copyright © 2014 by Morris Book Publishing, LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing
from the publisher. Requests for permission should be made in writing to Globe Pequot Press,
Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, PO Box 480, Guilford, Connecticut 06437.
Cheap Bastard’s Guide is a registered trademark of Rob Grader.
Project Editor: Lauren Szalkiewicz
Text design: Sheryl P. Kober
ISSN: 2158-5903
ISBN: 978-0-7627-9230-6
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To Jerry Katz (1930–2013), a great father and the nicest
father-i n-l aw a guy could have asked for.
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CONTENTS
Introduction xiv
SECTION 1: Entertainment in Seattle 1
Theater: Free speech 2
The Rise of the House Usher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Always Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Drama Deals: Discount Tickets & More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Film: Cheap shots 29
Free Year-R ound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Cheap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Summer Screenings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Music: of Free i sing 42
Jazz/Blues/World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Eclectic/Rock/Folk/Country/Bluegrass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Classical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Summer Concerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Comedy: Free-f or-a ll 69
dance: Free expression 75
Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Participatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
SECTION 2: living in Seattle 81
Food: on the House 82
Happy Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Free Samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Not Free, but Pretty Doggone Cheap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Wine, Beer & distillery Tastings: Cheap drunk 113
Woodinville Wineries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Hair & spa services: Freestyle 127
Hair Salons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Beauty & Aesthetics Schools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
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Personal Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Massage Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Children’s events & activities: Free to Be You and Me 1 3 5
Destination Playgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Story Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Cheap, but Not Free. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Arts, Crafts & Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Fun with Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
The Games People Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Family Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Odds & Ends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Kids Eat Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
literature, libraries & other life lessons: Free association 159
Readings & Other Literary Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Ridiculously Cheap Spoken Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Free Classes with Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Health & Medicine: live Free or die 17 9
Testing, Testing . . . Is This Thing Working?—Clinical Studies . . 180
Free Condoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Alternative Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Fitness & Fun: Free Kicks 1 8 5
Park It Here: Nearby Getaways That Will Keep You Busy All Day . 186
Recreation Centers & Pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Free Chi: Free Yoga & Other Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Sporting Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Group Bike Rides & Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Thrift stores: one Man’s Trash is another Man’s Furniture 1 98
Building Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Furniture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Sporting Goods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
viii Contents
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SECTION 3: Exploring Seattle 2 0 9
Walking Tours: a Cents of place 21 0
City Tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Government Buildings & Other Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Factory Tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Building Tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Nature Tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Gallery Walks: Free-F orm Fetes 21 8
Gallery Walks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Getting around seattle: Free Rides & Freeways 223
Getting Out of Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Gardens & Gardening: Free Range 2 2 9
Gardens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Gardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Museums: Free to see in Your Free Time 23 7
Always Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Occasionally Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
appendix a: additional Resources 248
appendix B: library Branch locations 2 5 2
appendix C: pools & Recreation Centers 25 5
appendix d: pWYC performances 2 5 9
appendix e: additional seattle Music Festivals 262
Index 27 0
Contents ix
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