Find more than 50 classic and modern pinball machines at this hands-on museum, an “interactive display of kinetic art” built from the collections of Seattle-area aficionados. While the selection rotates frequently, some recent highlights have included a 1978 Close Encounters of the Third Kind game and the 1993 Twilight Zone machine that some consider among the best pinball games ever made. After paying the price of admission, you can play as long as you want.

Housed in the 1928 Seattle Fire Department Headquarters at Pioneer Square, the free Last Resort Fire Department Museum is a trove of antique firefighting gear. Five historic Seattle Fire Department trucks are on display—the oldest is a hand-pumped version that dates back to 1834. Displays of firefighting artifacts include uniforms, helmets, and nozzles that firefighters carried into blazes past, and the museum’s slideshow of historic Seattle fire stations provides another window to a bygone era.

Step into the era of switchboard operators and antique telephones at the Connections Museum Seattle. Its exhibits include functioning examples of 20th-century “switching systems” used to connect callers on landlines. Tour guides help decode the complex technology and history, from telegraphs and switchboards to transmitters, cables, and racks full of amateur radio equipment. The museum also has a replica of the first telephone ever used, by Alexander Graham Bell, in 1876.

Tucked into the back of Archie McPhee—a novelty store dedicated to gag gifts, party supplies, and weird trinkets—the small Rubber Chicken Museum is a plastic poultry immersion. The free museum claims to have the world’s largest and smallest rubber chickens, on display alongside rubber Santa chickens, rubber-chicken stained glass artwork, and props used by television clown J.P Patches.

Local heritage is the draw at this museum, which traces city history spanning Indigenous cultures and technological innovation. A permanent installation, "True Northwest: The Seattle Journey," complements rotating themed exhibits on topics such as baseball history, Pacific Northwest artists, and Indigenous ways of knowing. Sparking nostalgia for longtime Seattleites are artifacts such as the old-school Rainier Beer “R” sign and a marquee from The Lusty Lady peep show building in downtown.

Bad art is in the eye of the beholder: Visitors to Capitol Hill’s small Official Bad Art Museum of Art (OBAMA) love its black velvet paintings, creepy clown portraits, and paint-by-number finds. The free museum offers a taste of Seattle’s quirky roots while doubling as a local hangout, since it’s set inside the happening Cafe Racer, beloved for its frequent live music shows, poetry slams, and open-mic nights featuring a full band.