Everett: This working town just wants to have fun

On one hand, Everett is all business with its gray naval station, paper mills and Boeing metropolis. On the other hand, the city is over-the-top playful.

Bracketed by gorgeous views of mountains and water, the city has 19 distinct neighborhoods. One of them, the downtown Port Gardner district, seems devoted to amusement. Within an easy stroll down wide boulevards, you can find a high-decibel children's museum; a contemporary art gallery housed in a historic building; and a string of restaurants with wacky names — The Flying Pig, Smashed Tomatoes, The Dirty Martini, Alligator Soul.

Because I had never actually visited Everett, an oversight that exposes my Seattle-bred parochialism, I asked for guidance from a friend who lives there and has reared a passel of kids there. Thus, he advised beginning at the Imagine Children's Museum on Wall Street.

Imagine Children's Museum . Closed Mondays. Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays; 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; noon-4 p.m. Sundays. Children must be accompanied by an adult, 16 years or older. Children 1 year and younger free; general admission (kids and adults) $6 (or half-price 3:30-5:30 p.m. Thursdays). 1502 Wall St.; 425-258-1006 or www.imaginecm.org.

Arts Council of Snohomish County. Closed Sundays. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays. 1507 Wall St.; 425-257-8380 or www.artscouncilofsnoco.org.

The Flying Pig restaurant.

11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays; 11 a.m.-midnight Fridays and Saturdays. 2929 Colby Ave.; 425-339-1393.

The Historic Everett Theatre. "Seussical the Musical" plays June 2-4. "Voices From the Wall," a play about Vietnam War victims by Everett authors John La Plante and Arden Flom, runs weekends June 9-25. 2911 Colby Ave., 425-258-6766 or www.everetttheatre.org.

Alligator Soul restaurant. Lunch 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Dinner 4-9 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 4-9:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays (reservations recommended); 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday brunch. 2013 ½ Hewitt Ave.; 425-259-6311 or www.alligatorsoulrestaurant.com.

More information

For more on Everett and its neighborhoods, see www.everettwa.org, click on "Live," then click on "neighborhood associations."

I got lucky. They let me in even though I showed up without a child. But in this place of controlled mayhem, adults are welcome and have as much fun with the interactive exhibits as the kids do.

"Parents can come and really play with their children," said Nancy Johnson, the museum's executive director, who, unlike many museum honchos, often dons fanciful costumes during special events. "There's so much passive entertainment for children these days, but here they really use their imaginations. We believe in the power of play as a way to learn."

The museum floor divides into various "stations" where learning is cleverly disguised as fun. There's a store, a farm, an airplane, a horizontal-climbing wall, a mini TV station. I watched as kids moved around the floor, some of them laughing, others with that serious look they get when utterly absorbed in play.

Squealing children in aprons had a blast in a room of water games. They dammed-up channels, fired water guns, filled water wheels to make them turn.

Recognizing the value of daydreaming, parents and kids can lie down on a couple of "cloud-watching" beds and do nothing more productive than look up. The more goal-oriented will read a display that explains the types of clouds one might observe passing overhead.

"It's a fantastic place"

Needing a break from the din of children learning, I crossed the street to the beautiful old Monte Cristo Hotel, home to the Arts Council of Snohomish County. The main floor and mezzanine provide light-filled gallery space. Its current exhibit, "The Art of Recycling" (through June 15), shows what artists can do with our discards.

Down the street and to the north on Colby Avenue, The Flying Pig restaurant packed them in. Serving pub food and a variety of local microbrews, it's owned by "Mr. Everett," Joel Starr, a city booster who stages the annual fireworks display "Thunder on the Bay."

Starr admits his town has had a "self-esteem problem," languishing in the shadow of Seattle all these years, but that's changing. "Where did the president of China go when he visited? Everett!" Starr said. "There's a reason I moved my family here. It's a fantastic place with a vision. It's an honor to be right in the middle of it."

He points to the new Everett Events Center, which holds a community ice rink and hosts big-name entertainment as well as the city's Silvertips hockey games. Capitalizing on the town's interest in athletics, Starr will soon open a sports bar, Tailgater Joe's, that features an ultra-sleek steel bar with a black concrete top. Beneath the counter, a refrigerated channel chills patron drinks. "We're going for the 'wow' factor," Starr said.

A flair for food, future

History also reigns in this neighborhood, anchored by the Historic Everett Theatre. Beginning as an opera house in 1901, it once welcomed big names — Al Jolson, Fatty Arbuckle, Lon Chaney and Helen Hayes. Even Helen Keller appeared there once. After several restorations, the theater now brings plays, performances and silent movies to the community.

Turning the corner to Hewitt Avenue, I discovered the Alligator Soul restaurant, showcasing Cajun cooking. Chef Ryan Sturm still hadn't retrieved belongings stuck in a New Orleans storage locker but hoped to return soon for his stuff. Meanwhile, the 25-year-old serves up an impressive menu, a legacy of working at impressive places like Emeril's Delmonico New Orleans restaurant. There, Sturm learned to go light on the hot sauce. "Cajun cooking is not about pain," he said. "It's about flavor."

Alligator Soul proved to be a cozy place for me to settle in as the skies opened and proceeded to pour. Nothing to do but order a plate of red beans and rice and wait it out. Across the street, a huge video screen flashed ads for what was coming to the Events Center — Champions on Ice, the Black Eyed Peas, the Everett Hawks.

How about that? Navy town though it is, a Boeing bedrock, Everett's got it going on. Under that sober pinstripe lies a tomato-red Santa suit.

Freelance writer Connie McDougall was born in British Columbia and has spent most of her life in Seattle, learning to fly out of Boeing Field, to dive in Puget Sound and write about almost anything except math. She has contributed to magazines including Islands and AAA's Journey. Contact her at conniemcdougall@yahoo.com.