I just booked my first proper vacation, and insured it!

No, I'm not taking a couple of days off to go to a Brewer game like I did last year.

I'm Going to spend a week in Seattle next month, and I'll be there for the Fourth of July!

DUers, what should I go see? I'll have a local to guide me, and The Space Needle and the Pike Place Market are on the list. Where Else should I go?

I'm not kidding. BUT, here are great things to do:

Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. The exhibits are spectacular.

Take a ferry somewhere. I love Port Townsend, which you can get to by the Kingston Ferry just north of the city. It's a gorgeous, quaint town with lots of music and arts festivals. Google Centrum and you'll see what I mean.

Ninety miles north and you're in Canada! Vanocuver is an amazing city to drive to. The Victoria Clipper passenger ferry will get you from Seattle to Victoria, a gorgeous, veddy British city on Vancouver Island (not to be confused with the city of Vancouver, which is on the mainland).

If you're really, really lucky "the mountain will be out". Mt. Ranier. If it's out you'll know what I mean. If not you'll never know it's there.

If tech impresses you, Amazon is in the city and Microsoft is in Redmond, on the Eastside across Lake Washington.

If you like to hike, go to Tiger Mountain on the Eastside (Issaquah is the town). They also hang glide there but not commercially I don't think.

Watch the fireworks from Gasworks Park. Go early and spread a blanket on the hillside by the old gasworks. The day is a show all on its own.

Eat seafood. It's everywhere and it's stellar.

If you like wine go to the Eastside, to Woodinville, and visit Chateau St. Michelle (they have great outdoor concerts there too) and other very good wineries with outstanding tasting rooms. My fave is Janiuk, where yo can taste wine, eat oven-fired pizzas and play bocce ball out back. Try The Barking Frog or The Herbfarm out there for some of the world's best food.

That ought to get you started. Seattle rocks in summer. I hope it gets here soon!