Where To See The Seattle 4th of July Fireworks & What To Do In Seattle For Independence Day

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Spending Independence Day in Seattle? Then you need to know where to see the Seattle 4th of July fireworks show! While there are a ton of places to go for viewing the fireworks, as locals we know the Absolute Best Viewing Area for 4th of July in Seattle!

The 4th of July show can be seen from various spots of Seattle, such as Downtown Seattle, North Seattle, Lake Union Park, Downtown Park, and more! Our personal favorite and what we recommend is Gasworks Park when viewing the Seattle 4th of July fireworks show.

However, you can’t just waste a whole day waiting for this event, so we planned a full day of activities to make sure you make the most of your 4th of July vacation while visiting Seattle landmarks and must-try foodie spots.

Since we are locals, we know the best of the best places to hit up when traveling to our city, so leave the planning to us and worry about having fun and saving enough room for dessert!

Some of the spots that will be recommended are the famous landmark Pike Place Market, The Fremont Troll, visiting the first Starbucks, seeing the Space Needle, and food spots we recommend. We made sure this itinerary was linear regarding travel, so you waste less time hopping around the city and more time having fun as a tourist.

This post is all about the best things to do before and after the 4th of July Fireworks Show for the perfect day and finally where to go for the best spot for seeing the fireworks!

Seattle 4th of July Fireworks

4th of july fireworks in seattle over lake union at night. Purple, red, green, yellow fireworks.
Copyright@ freebilly via Depositphotos.com

Seattle 4th of July Fireworks: Itinerary

  • Morning: Breakfast
  • Early Afternoon: Pike Place Market
  • Mid Afternoon: Seattle Pier
  • Afternoon: Space Needle
  • Early Evening: Fremont Troll
  • Evening: Dinner
  • Night: Fireworks

The Morning of the 4th of July in Seattle

Breakfast Downtown Seattle:

Located: Downtown Seattle -Lower Queen Anne – Uptown

This place is fantastic! After all, They aren’t highly rated on Yelp for no reason; over 4500 reviewers averaged out to 4-star ratings at this joint.

This restaurant specializes in Cajun/Creole-style foods and brings that cooking style alive in their breakfast and brunch menu. Top foods to try out are their fried chicken with creole sausage gravy served with eggs and a buttermilk biscuit.

We also love a good egg benedict such as the florentine version they offer topped with arugula and aroma tomatoes. If you’re feeling more crabby, try their Dungeness crab and asparagus delicately scrambled eggs, seasoned to perfection with herbs, garlic confit, and velvety mornay.

After having your fill of delicious food, order a fresh batch of Toulouse beignets that are dusted with powder sugar and served with a dipping sauce of chicory Anglaise. They are delectable!

  • To Go – Biscuit Bitch Food style: American Breakfast Sandwiches

Located: Downtown Seattle – 2 blocks from Pike Market

This place is a local favorite, and with good reason; they have amassed over 4000 reviews on Yelp and held a solid 4-star rating! They also make bomb breakfast sandwiches with funny names such as the bitchwitch, butter up bitch, hot mess bitch, and more delicious and hilarious sandwiches.

One thing to note is this establishment operates with humor, harmless harassment, and sarcasm; as soon as you walk in, don’t be surprised to be called *bitch* lol they mean it playfully, so please don’t take offense. Also, they are currently only accepting online orders due to covid, which is way better.

Typically, walking up to order can take over an hour with this food joint’s extreme demand and central location. There are also no spots to sit down and enjoy your food, so this is a place to stop and go.

We recommend trying the bitchwitch. It is a buttered biscuit base sandwich, your choice of sausage, bacon, or egg and cheese only, a sandwich that has a special bitchy sauce. We usually always get this sandwich.

However, if you want some excellent ole grits, try the gritty scrambled cheesy bitch! It’s a base of buttered grits topped with cheddar cheese, a buttered biscuit, and eggs.

Pike Place Market with Sign Public Market Center during day time.

Visit Pike Place Market For Some Goodies and Views

How To Get To Pike Place Market:

Parking: Pay to park in outdoor parking areas or garages; we usually park at the Target parking lot on Union Street.

From Toulouse Petit: This spot is farther from Pikes Market and would take about 35 minutes to walk from the uptown area to the Pike Market area as it’s a 1.5-mile walk. We recommend taking a rideshare or taxi if you would rather not waste time.

You could also drive, but parking is expensive in Seattle, and you’ll most likely have to park in a garage. We like to park in the Target parking lot on Union Street and then buy the required spending amount to get 2-hour validated parking.

From Biscuit Bitch: This is super close to Pikes Market; we kid you not, you can see the intersection where Pikes Market is from this joint. All you have to do is head to your right with your back to biscuit bitch; it’s about two blocks to Pike St. Look to your right side, and you can’t miss it!

What To Do At Pike Market

Pike Market is known for having a ton of street vendors and old food establishments that are classic for the locals. The best part is the amount of diversity is incredible! Some notable places to grab snacks would be

  • Mr. D’s Greek Delicacies- Good range of greek food like gyros and Greek fries.
  • Mee Sum Pastry – Chinese Pasteries and savory dim sum are a must-have if you love hombows, potstickers, bbq port sticks, shrimp dumplings, red bean with salted egg yolk tarts, and other delicious goods.
  • The confectional: this place offers fantastic miny cheesecakes in flavors like white chocolate raspberry, double chocolate, New York cheesecake, caramel, lemon, etc. They are super good, and we always make it a point to stop and get one when we are in the area.
  • Grab Some Fresh Fruit and Veggies: Pike Place Market has some of the best fresh fruit and vegetables. You’ll see them placed readily on the streets, and the vendors will offer fruit samples for you to try. There are also stands offering fresh, dried pasta and small-batch olive oil mixes and honey! The stall selling honey makes a killer spicy honey!
  • Small business owners also make custom art and jewelry or already have premade items to buy there. Check out their stuff. It’s pretty neat.
Seattle Gum Wall

Snap a Selfie At The Gum Wall

Everyone loves snapping a photo with the nasty but cool-looking gum wall underneath Pike place; people from all over the world come just to place their gum on the wall, although it says explicitly not to do it?

No one listens to the sign, obviously, and some even do gum art on the wall. So careful you don’t touch the wall, though; it’s pretty disgusting, in our opinion. Also, it can sometimes smell like pee, because dogs and sometimes people pee on it.

Take a photo of the Pike Place Sign

So it’s a primary tourist photo, but everyone always does it for the one time ? Also, the cute idea is to do a boomerang with the sign. Try to take this photo in the Early Morning, ideally before breakfast or at night, after the firework show. We say this because the sun is behind you when taking the photo, making it harder for photos.

Another reason is that it’s super busy from 10 am-5 pm as most tourists are visiting during those times. So you’ll have a bunch of people in your photos. If that doesn’t bother you, then you should be fine.

Buy Macarons and French Pastries From Le Panier

Who else loves french desserts? I feel like french food and desserts specifically are incredibly detailed and complex recipes. Take macarons, for example; if you overbeat the mixture, they will be bubbly, and if you don’t smack the tray right, they will have air pockets; the main point is that so many things can go wrong in french baking.

So when we come across a place that makes good french desserts, we are generally very impressed. For example, Le Panier is excellent for macarons, buttery, flaky croissants with just enough bite to them, eclairs, rustic loaves, etc.

Beecher’s Cheese: Grab Some Amazing Cheese

Beecher’s cheese tastes terrific, and you can only see this cheese-making experience while visiting the Seattle Beecher’s location or the New York City Beechers location. It’s a pretty exciting process, and we usually find ourselves watching for a while before we move on to try some of their cheese ?

One notable mention is the Seattle location is the original Beecher’s location and was opened in 2003 by Kurt Beecher himself. So it’s pretty cool when you think about that. Beecher’s cheese has also won best cheese in North America in 2012, a prestigious award for cheese making! As for what we like getting when visiting?

  • Flagship Sandwich features Just jack cheese, basil, and cut-up tomatoes with Beecher’s spread. Taste phenomenal.
  • Smoked Salmon Mac: This item is only offered at the Seattle location, so grab it! It’s their world-famous mac and cheese with smoked salmon added, herbs, and green onion to make a delicious top-notch macaroni.
  • They also offer unique sandwiches and it changes depending on the season.

Original Starbucks- Get Coffee and Snap a Tourist Photo

So this doesn’t need much explanation, but this Starbucks location is the OG Starbucks; this is where it all started back in 1912. Be prepared because of the status of this location. There will be an extensive line no matter when you come.

When you walk in (finally), you’ll notice this location is minimal compared to most other Starbucks. However, it’s full of unique and timeless pieces, such as the bronze pig, that we still have no idea why it’s there.

Regardless make sure you get an up of coffee and snap a photo of the room because you don’t want to wait in that line again.

Take A Stroll Around The Seattle Pier

After walking around Pike Market, take the steps (there are a lot) to go down to the waterfront and walk around the pier. The pier offers cool things like a retro arcade, Seattle aquarium, ice cream, giant Ferris wheel, crab boil restaurant, etc.

  • Ride the Seattle Ferris Great Wheel: Tickets cost roughly $16 for adults and $11 for youth 3-11, child 0-3 is free, and seniors are $14. Keep in mind prices are subject to change at any moment.
  • You can also take a boat tour that lasts around an hour and offers a full bar with snacks and meals. Tickets are roughly $30 for adults; seniors are $27; Youth 3-11 $20, and children 0-3 are free. Prices are subject to change without notice.

Before We Get To the Fireworks!

Keep in mind fireworks shows can be very loud and if images or bright colors give you issues, please refrain from going to the fireworks show. Also, keep in mind that hours of operation are subject to change on holidays and to always double-check before heading out to places. Also, keep in mind prices are subject to change without notice.

Visit the Space Needle on the 4th of July in Seattle

Seattle Space needle with fireworks behind it and night view of city.
Copyright@ neelsky via Depositphotos.com

How to get to the Space Needle from the pier:

If you walk, it will take roughly 35 minutes and is a 1.4-mile walk. If you take rideshare, it’s a 10-minute drive; we recommend rideshare or taxi if you’re running low on time.

Visit the top of the Space Needle: if you want fantastic city views of Seattle, then make sure to top here, it’s also one of the very few landmarks Seattle has to offer, so best not to skip it. Tickets for going to the top of the Space Needle are typically rated at adults for $35, seniors for $30, and Youth for 5-12 at $26.

Suppose you have time to stop and look at the Chihuly Garden and Glass, a glass sculpture garden that resembles nature. It’s super pretty, and we recommend visiting if time allows. You can also bundle your tickets with space needle tickets to save $10 per person.

Take a Photo With the Fremont Bridge Troll

Snap a selfie! This 18-foot-tall Cement and steel troll has one shiny eyeball and is seen crushing a punch buggy. It was erected in 1989 to help combat the mass drug use inhabiting the area beneath the aurora bridge, as stated by the Fremont Seattle site.


We remember our mom bringing us up to visit the troll as kids and looking at the statue in amazement because we had never seen a “real” Troll before! So if you have kids, this will be a good memory maker for them.

The Fremont Troll is located underneath the Aurora Bridge next to Trolls knolls park. It’s relatively close to Gas Works Park, so you’ll have no issue walking there afterward if you want to skip dinner.

Grab dinner Before Watching The Lake Union Fireworks Show

Restaurant choices close to the gasworks park:

*Try to get dinner earlier in the evening because restaurants close early, usually on independence day. Check hours before planning a trip*

  • Food:
    • Art of the Table: $$$$ 5-course tasting menu(frequently changing menu), wine pairings, Seafood, Upper scale food menu, cocktails
    • Yoroshiku: $$ Japanese style food, such as Ramen, Sushi, Appetizers
    • Kokkaku: $$$ Japanese Steak House, pasta, salad
    • Pam’s Kitchen: $$ Trinidadian food, Currys, desserts
    • Dicks Drive Inn: $ American Burgers
    • Chutneys Bistro: $$ Indian food, such as curries, naan bread, stuffed naan, vegetarian dishes, etc.
    • Touttebella Nepolitan Pizzeria: $$ Italian Pizza and Pasta
  • Dessert:
    • Tres Lecheria: $ Tres leches cakes in unique flavors!
    • Molly Moon’s: $$ Homemade Ice cream and frozen yogurt
    • Fainting Goat Gelato: $$ Gelato cakes, sorbet, affogato, espresso and gelato
    • Trophy Cupcakes: $$ Cupcakes in various flavors
  • Drinks:
    • Pablo y Pablo: $$ Cocktail bar, beers, ciders, wine
    • Westward: $$$ Cocktails, beers, wines
    • Kate’s Pub: $$ Beer, Cocktails
    • Octopus Bar: $$ Cocktails and beer
    • Chocolate Tea Cafe: $ Tea and Coffee
    • DIY Tea Lab: $ Milk Tea Cafe

Go To The Gasworks Park

Walk to Gasworks around 8: From 45th Ave, where almost all of the food, drink, and dessert places are located; this is roughly a 20-25 minute walk depending on where on 45th you choose to eat, drink or get dessert at.

Enjoy the Seattle Fireworks Show at Lake Union

Seattle 4th of July Fireworks, at night greenish/orange colors fireworks and speaker near side.
  • Find a place to stand or sit at the Gas Works Park
  • You can also watch shows from Lake Union Park
  • Keep in mind the reserved gated area portion of the park for reserved seating only.
  • Grab snacks from the street vendors and food trucks at the Gasworks Park
  • Check out Seafair.org for more information on Gasworks 4th of July Celebration.

Seattle 4th of July Fireworks

Well, that wraps up what we think would make the perfect itinerary for visiting Seattle on the 4th of July! We hope you enjoyed the yummy food that Emerald city offers!

If you liked this post, then make sure to subscribe to our email, where we send out notifications for our latest post, travel tips, and more! Also, leave a comment below about what you thought of the bitchwitch sandwich.

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9 thoughts on “Where To See The Seattle 4th of July Fireworks & What To Do In Seattle For Independence Day”

  1. I love Seattle! Unfortunately, I was there for an 8 hour layover but I didn’t want to waste it so I booked a city tour and saw all of the major tourist attractions. I would LOVE to go back for the 4th of July, but I bet it’s crazy busy.

    Reply
  2. I bet that is a gorgeous place to watch the fireworks! With both the sound and Mt. Rainier in the background?! Absolutely gorgeous place to be.

    Reply
  3. I’ve been to Seattle many many times, but never on the 4th of July. It looks amazing and might be worth a trip in the future timed for exactly then. 🙂 Thanks for your guide – very helpful!

    Reply
  4. Wow this article is a gem. I have never beed to Seattle but thanks to you, now I know what to do when I’ll be there. Thanks

    Reply
  5. Finding your post was so timely! We will be in Seattle for 4th of July this year. I can’t wait to follow your guide. Thanks for doing all my planning.

    Reply
  6. Wow, the celebrations for the 4th of July look insane! I would like to discover Seattle especially during a nice celebration day!

    Reply

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