SEATTLE'S STEADY PULSE RICH HISTORY, VIBRANT CULTURE, URBAN TREASURES COMBINE FOR A LIVELY BREW.

Byline: Story and photos by Eric Noland Travel Editor

SEATTLE - It's a city fueled entirely by the coffee bean.

Neon images of coffee cups glow from the windows of dozens of espresso shops. Citizens spill out the doors, steam rising from their cardboard cups. The aroma of the fresh brew wafts on the downtown breezes; it's detectable at all hours.

Maybe this consumption is a defense mechanism - easing a predominant chill in the air, or mitigating the effect of a chronic gray dampness. In the extreme corner of the Pacific Northwest, Seattle sits wedged between two substantial bodies of water, Puget Sound and Lake Washington, and sometimes it feels as if their contents have been sucked up into the atmosphere, there to drip on all below.

In any event, the coffee provides the propulsion for a jewel of a city that has been restive since the time of its founding more than 100 years ago.

The instant the first settlers arrived, they marveled at the lushness of the surrounding evergreen forests - and all the board feet of lumber it would represent when hacked to the ground. Impatient fortune seekers followed, using Seattle as a jumping-off point for the pursuit of riches in the Yukon's Klondike gold fields. A boom of another kind was to occur years later when Bill Gates and his nerdy cohorts started fiddling around with binary code and the unthinkable concept of a computer in every American household.

To its credit, Seattle doesn't harbor any shame in its frontier-town past, and in fact celebrates it.

Its inimitable Pike Place Market has been a bustling tradition since 1907. The Underground Tour explores a remnant of 19th-century Seattle that was entombed beneath the city when civic leaders decided to raise the level of the streets one full story; the entertaining tour luridly promises ``dirt, corruption, sewers, scandal!''

More recent history is central to Seattle's identity, too. It hosted a World's Fair in 1962, for which a tower was erected to resemble a spacecraft. This supposed glimpse of the future (not to mention the slow-moving, 11-block monorail that serves it) is a quaint novelty today, and now only the eighth-tallest structure downtown. But the Seattle skyline would be naked without this enduring symbol.

Seattle, though built on a series of hills, is fairly compact and readily walkable. For fortification, wrap your hand around an oversize latte for warmth, hunch beneath the hood of your parka when the drizzle descends (it's not often a question of if), and set out to gain a sense of one of the West's most appealing cities.

A great place to start is Pike Place Market, which perches on a hillside at the west edge of downtown, overlooking Elliott Bay.

It began nearly 100 years ago when the cost of onions suddenly shot up tenfold, and local farmers attributed the inflation to unscrupulous middlemen. The farmers were invited to sell their wares directly to the citizens, and the turnout of customers was staggering.

Just after the World's Fair, city leaders wanted to bulldoze the market, which had become an eyesore, but a grass-roots effort to save it labored for 10 years - and succeeded. The visitor's experience here is richer as a result, since the market provides such an endearing link to Seattle's distant past.

Housed in a multistory warren of shops, this is the place to find produce, flowers, crafts, clothing, souvenirs ... and fish. For a quintessential Seattle experience, join the crowd of looky-loos at the Pike Place Fish stand (corner of Pike Street and Pike Place).

``It gets a lot more interesting, folks, when somebody buys something,'' one of the fishmongers called out to the assembly of spectators and some customers.

The local catch is piled on a bed of crushed ice in front of a tall counter. When somebody places an order - an entire silvery salmon, perhaps - the fishmongers grab the thing, call out to their brethren behind the counter and hurl the thing over the top, where fellows with surer hands than the Seattle Seahawks wide receivers grab the slippery missles and wrap them up for transport.

Don't worry about the thought of this thing stinking up your hotel room (or your carry-on luggage); fish can be shipped in airline-approved 48-hour ice packs (a sign promises ``no leaks, no smells'') and delivered to your home overnight by Federal Express.

If you're looking for more immediate enjoyment of the bounty from the Pacific Northwest's waters, you can't go wrong with dinner at Chez Shea, Cutter's Bayhouse or McCormick's Fish House.

The Pike Place Market teems with activity, particularly on weekends. And that in turn draws legions of street performers. Some of them are annoyingly untalented, but we heartily enjoyed the enthusiastic harmonies of the Apostle Gospel Singers, a quartet that commanded the sidewalk in front of the original Starbucks, just across First Avenue from the market.

``We're like public radio, we're listener-supported,'' the leader called out after one number. A couple of bills were dropped into a plastic bucket. ``Thank you, listener!''

Before leaving the market, be sure to stop into Delaurenti, a wonderful old Italian grocery store at 1435 First Ave. The smells of an extraordinary array of cheeses are heavenly, and it's also fun to poke around shelves holding gourmet olive oil, artisan bread and Italian wines.

From the market, it's a gentle, downhill walk along First Avenue. In the 1980s, it was a sleazy street of adult theaters and flophouse hotels. Some of that element remains, but this region is firmly in the throes of transition. It's not unusual to find a store selling upscale home furnishings across the street from a peep show.

Here and throughout Seattle, it's refreshing to see that old warehouses, rather than being ripped down, have been converted for modern use, with retail outlets on the bottom floor and airy lofts for apartments or studios above.

Keep your eyes open for intriguing little shops - de Medici Ming Fine Paper, for example, which stocks a terrific selection of homemade greeting cards (1222-A First Ave.).

Another must-stop is the Seattle Art Museum (First Avenue at University Street). It rotates in some excellent traveling exhibits, but also has an impressive permanent collection of Northwest Coast Indian artifacts - carved masks, headdresses, European buttons sewn onto ceremonial garments as if they were precious jewels.

At the foot of First Avenue, Pioneer Square represents a fascinating chapter of the city's past.

In the mid-1800s, Seattle sprouted at the water's edge and spread up the side of a hill. It was a haphazard settlement of narrow streets and ramshackle wooden buildings. With one serious drainage problem.

No great care had been taken in calculating the mean tide line, which created some real adventures in indoor plumbing. Sewer lines at the time emptied into the bay, and incidents were recorded of the tide coming in and blasting the lids right off the toilets with towering geysers.

In 1889, a fire ravaged the city, and afterward civic leaders resolved to solve this problem - by raising the level of the streets in the Pioneer Square lowlands by one to two stories. One problem, though, according to Penny Truitt, a guide on Bill Speidel's Underground Tour: ``The property owners wouldn't wait for the city. Three days post-fire, there were 100 brick structures under construction here.''

When the city finally got around to regrading the streets, an entire neighborhood was already built, but the project went forward anyway, essentially turning first floors into basements.

The 90-minute Underground Tour offers visitors a peek into this subterranean world of 1890s storefronts, and its guides deliver a rich and often hilarious commentary.

The tour also offers comfort in numbers for a visit to Pioneer Square, home to perhaps the most brazen vagrants in the West. The argument can be made, however, that this has always been their turf.

A sawmill once stood at the edge of the bay, and timber cut on the slopes above Seattle was slid down a muddy track toward it. As a result, according to the ``Compass American Guide'' to the Pacific Northwest, this log run came to be known as Skid Road. It was the dividing line between respectable Seattle to the north and the bawdy red light district to the south. The term was picked up in other cities (somehow transforming to Skid Row), and became synonymous with urban down-and-out culture.

Even if you don't take the tour, you can glimpse underground Seattle at the Elliott Bay Book Co. (101 S. Main St.), where the basement used to be the building's ground floor.

The bookstore is a treasure in its own right, its shelves crammed with new and used books. The basement serves as a kind of cafe/library. Order lunch, grab a volume at random off the shelf, and thumb it while dining. If you like what you find, you can buy it on your way out.

Seattle's past is also celebrated in a trolley line that runs from Pioneer Square along the waterfront. For $1.50, you can ride it to the end of the line, Broad Street Station, where it's only a walk of a few blocks into the Age of Space (the theme of the '62 fair).

Seattle Center is home to the Pacific Science Center, a children's museum, the rock 'n' roll shrine that is the Experience Music Project, and the Space Needle.

The pop music of 1962 plays on the outdoor sound system to propel you back in time, and an elevator carries you 605 feet to the top of the needle.

The observation deck is stationary, and a legend points out important sights - including the dock where Tom Hanks lay awake nights in his houseboat in ``Sleepless in Seattle.''

For a special treat, make your way to the Space Needle's restaurant, SkyCity, for lunch. It rotates gently - one revolution every 47 minutes - to provide a sensational overlook of the city and (on clear days) the mountains that ring it.

For years, this restaurant paired that four-star view with one-star food, but a menu that features Pacific Rim influences is now drastically improved. The fare is pricey, but you're paying for a matchless setting.

If you want to feel right at home in Seattle, linger over a latte. It's $3.75. And the espresso machine here drips continuously.

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: Downtown Seattle is a 15-mile drive via Interstate 5 from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which is directly to the south. During the morning rush, expect a slow trip.

SEATTLE ART MUSEUM: 100 University St. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, until 9 p.m. Thursday. Suggested donation: $7 adults, $5 seniors (age 62 and up) and students; children 12 and under are free when accompanied by an adult. [phone]; www.seattleartmuseum.org.

SPACE NEEDLE: 400 Broad St. The Space Needle's Observation Deck is open 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, until midnight Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (65 and up) and students ages 11 to 17, $5 for children ages 4 to 10. [phone]; www.spaceneedle.com. Reservations for the SkyCity restaurant are recommended: [phone].

UNDERGROUND TOUR: Bill Speidel's Underground Tour, which lasts 90 minutes, is offered several times a day. Cost is $9 for adults, $7 for seniors (62 and up), $7 for students ages 13 to 17, $5 for children ages 7 to 12. [phone]; www.undergroundtour.com.

DINING: Recommended options for dinner, particularly if you're fond of Pacific Northwest fish and seafood: Chez Shea, 94 Pike St., Suite 34, [phone], www.chezshea.com; Cutter's Bayhouse, 2001 Western Ave., [phone], www.cuttersbayhouse.com; McCormick's Fish House, 722 Fourth Ave., [phone]. For an excellent breakfast at a fun little cafe, head north across Lake Union to the Jitterbug Cafe in the Wallingford neighborhood: 2114 N. 45th St., [phone].

INFORMATION: The Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau can provide tourism information at [phone]; www.seeseattle.org.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos, box, map

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Seattle's Space Needle rises behind the daring architecture of the Music Experience Project, above. ``Hammering Man,'' a motion sculpture by Jonathan Borofsky, toils in front of the Seattle Art Museum, top.

(3 -- color) Pike Place Market is a popular gathering spot for locals and tourists alike. The century-old market offers a staggering display of produce, fish, flowers, clothing and souvenirs.

(4) At Seattle's Pike Place Market, the fresh catch lures customers craving great seafood.

(5 -- color) no caption (Neon coffee cup)

Eric Noland/Travel Editor

Box:

IF YOU GO (see text)

Map:

SEATTLE

Jorge Irribarren/Staff Artist