The sports fan’s guide to the city of Seattle

Seattle is a great city for sports. There’s the Seahawks, the Mariners and the Sounders. The city loves hockey and is fighting hard for an NHL team. They’re also fighting hard for an NBA team, but you probably shouldn’t bring up the Thunder or the Kings just yet -- still sort of a sore subject.

But if you happen to be in the Seattle area, here are some things that every discerning sports fan should be aware of:

- The apple! Get yourself a delicious, crunchy apple. I’ve heard it keeps the doctor away, too!
- Beecher’s Mac and Cheese. (Pro tip: you can also pick this up at CenturyLink Field)
- Uli’s Famous Sausages. Sure, Milwaukee and Chicago get all the sausage love, but don’t sleep on Washington state
- Trophy Cupcakes. Guess what, sports fans? You can get yourself a Marshawn Lynch cupcake, with Skittles frosting. You weren’t using those teeth anyway. BEAST MODE!

Want to get a good photo op, or just find out what the locals will make fun of you for doing? Head on down to Pike Place Market and ask some employees to play catch using a fish. Maybe you’ve seen this on The Real World Seattle, or in any movie or TV show ever set in Seattle. But while you’re there, you can pick up come of that Beecher’s Mac and Cheese we told you about and enjoy it in nearby Victor Stenbrueck Park.

Ballard Loft. They’ve got 16 flat screens, shuffleboard, darts, video games, trivia nights, a wide selection of beers and pub foods and believe it or not, a Seahawk bus that offers rides to every home game. Pretty hard to top that.

Every region has a fast food chain they’ll brag about endlessly. In Seattle, it’s Dick’s Drive-in. They’ve got a no-frills menu that’s reminiscent of the vaunted In-N-Out. If you love burgers, you can do a lot worse than a double-patty deluxe hamburger for $2.70.

- West Seattle or Alki (there’s a beach there!)
- The Seattle Underground Tour. The city was quite literally built on top of another city. Watch out for mole people!

If you’re going to Seattle (especially for football), you should know about “The 12th Man.” You may see the number “12” in various sports bars and other locations around the city. The Seahawks pride themselves on having the loudest fans in the league -- so much so that the NFL created a “noise rule” in 1985 to try to get them to tone it down. It didn’t work.

The noise level at CenturyLink Field leads to so many false starts for the opposition (2.36 per game) that the team considers their fans “the 12th man” participating in the game. The noise level has been known to reach upwards of 112 decibels -- 12 decibels louder than a situation that can cause serious hearing damage. Bring earplugs.

- Seattle’s total land area? 53,718 acres of which 6,189 acres are parks and open areas. That’s 11.52%!
- Seattle’s annual rainfall is less than that of Houston, Chicago and New York City. Yeah, that’s right.
- Seattleites buy more sunglasses per capita than any other city in the nation.
- The state is ranked No. 1 in the nation in hops production. More than 23,320 acres of hops are harvested in Washington, while Oregon and Idaho combine for more than 6,000 acres. Maybe that’s part of the reason there are so many great bars here.