scubish.com: Scuba diving Bellevue - Washington - USA

Bellevue is a city in the Puget Sound region of Washington state, and often considered a suburb of Seattle.

Get in

By car

State route 520 connects Bellevue to Seattle, via the Evergreen Point floating bridge on Lake Washington. Prone to traffic jams.

The more modern and capacious Interstate 90 provides another route from Seattle across Lake Washington, traversing Mercer Island. It continues on to Spokane, and ultimately, Boston.

Interstate 405 runs North-South right through the middle of Bellevue, leading north to Kirkland (and eventually rejoining I-5 on the way to Bellingham and Vancouver, B.C. In the southern direction, I-405 leads to Renton, the Southcenter shopping district, and I-5 south (to Portland, OR, and onwards to the Mexican border), ending at SeaTac airport about 2 miles past I-5.

By bus
SoundTransit Express line 550 runs super-frequently between Downtown Seattle and Downtown Bellevue

SoundTransit Express line 560 runs every half hour between SeaTac Airport and Downtown Bellevue

Many other buses, operated by King County Metro, serve Bellevue

Schedules: http://www.soundtransit.org/ http://transit.metrokc.gov/

Get around

The Puget Sound (which includes Bellevue) has a decent bus transportation network if you're staying in the city. Visit http://www.soundtransit.org for additional information. For trips outside of the core city, you'll probably want a car.

See

There are a few museums in Bellevue:

Bellevue Arts Museum small art museum with fine craft and design exhibitions

Doll Museum a large collection of dolls

Others:

Bellevue Botanical Gardens is a must see especially the Garden d'Lights in the winter

Eat

Top Gun This old favorite restaurant closed in Seattle, but is now open in the Factoria area of Bellevue, almost at the intersection of I-405 and I-90, across Lake Washington.

Udupi Palace, 15600 NE 8th St # 9, Crossroads Mall (425) 649-0355. Udupi serves authentic thali plates, dosas, and pani puri, not available in Seattle. Their daily lunch buffet is a soul food hit with many South Indian Microsoft employees.

Maggianos, downtown Bellevue for great pinot noir and Italian fare.

Drink

Tap House Bar and Grill, . 160 beers on tap.

Rock Bottom Brewery, . Brews their own beers.

Joey's, . A decent restaurant and bar.

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