Pike Place Market and the Pioneer Square historic district lie at opposite ends of First Avenue; midway between the two is the Seattle Art Museum.

The Pioneer Square area, with its historic buildings, interesting shops, museum, and Seattle Underground Tour, is well worth a morning or afternoon's exploration.

Good Times in Bad Taste

If you love bad jokes and are fascinated by the bizarre (or maybe this describes your children), you won't want to miss the Underground Tour and a visit to Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. Together, these two attractions should reassure you that, espresso, traffic jams, and Microsoft aside, Seattle really does have a sense of humor.

If you have an appreciation for off-color humor and are curious about the seamier side of Seattle history, The Underground Tour, 608 First Ave. (tel. 206/682-4646; www.undergroundtour.com), will likely entertain and enlighten you. The tours lead down below street level in the Pioneer Square area, where you can still find the vestiges of Seattle businesses built before the great fire of 1889. Learn the lowdown dirt on early Seattle, a town where plumbing was problematic and a person could drown in a pothole. Tours are held daily. The cost is $9 for adults, $7 for seniors and students ages 13-17 or with college ID, $5 for children ages 7-12; children 6 and under are discouraged.

Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, 1001 Alaskan Way, Pier 54 (tel. 206/682-5844), is a cross between a souvenir store and Ripley's Believe It or Not! It's weird! It's tacky! It's always packed! The collection of oddities was started in 1899 by Joe Standley, who developed a more-than-passing interest in strange curios. See Siamese-twin calves, a natural mummy, the Lord's Prayer on a grain of rice, a narwhal tusk, shrunken heads, a 67-pound snail, fleas in dresses -- all the stuff that fascinated you as a kid.